Our trip so far has been a lot of fun. The 7 NJTU members and I have collectively fished the Pere Marquette, Manistee, Pine, and Au Sable rivers over the past several days. Fishing has been spotty as you might expect for mid August, but we each have had a least one memorable day. Mine was a float trip on the "Trohy Waters" of the Au Sable where it seemed as though most fish in that river were wanting to eat my grasshopper or my Tricos. Actually, some of the best fish I landed that day came to my version of the Musky Shrimp dropper off my Joe's hopper.

We are now beginning our TU meetings and I have had the honor of meeting and talking to one of my heros, Art Neumann, one of the TU founders and only living founder as well as TU's first director. Art is well into his 90s and still sharp as a tack. It is apparent that he is blown away by the growth he's seen in TU over the past 50 years and his passion for coldwater conservation still shines through. I very much look forward to his speaking to our organization later this week.

Another thrill for me was catching a trout on a Griffith's Gnat, a fly originated by George Griffiths, another TU founder. We also had lunch yesterday at George Mason's former property where his cabin on the South Branch Au Sable used to be located. Mason was the CEO of General Motors and was the originator of the concept of starting TU and who died just before TU was officially formed.

Here are some photos of our trip. It has rained off an on so I did not take as many photos as I otherwise would have, but here are some of the shots...

(From upper left to right row) # 1 is a cabin we got on the Pere Marquette
# 2 is the Pere Marquette with lots of sand
# 3 is the Trophy Waters stretch of the Au Sable River
# 4 is George Mason's cabin site on the South Branch Au Sable
# 5 is South Branch Au Sable
(From left to right on lower row)
#1 is Art Neumann with "Rusty Spinner"
# 2 is the traditional Au Sable River Boat, first used in logging on the river and later used as a fishing vehicle, now still in use. This one is the late George Griffiths personal boat and is for sale by his good friend who is himself getting too old to use it any longer.
# 3 is the TU 50th drftboat raffle prize - a sweet Clacka completely loaded
# 4 is Jordan who is a local TU volunteer who took a day off work and guided me for the day in his Ro driftboat, a sweet boat for rivers without much whitewater. A very stable fishing platform! Jordan pulled out some great food and even cooked turkey Reubens on the water with a small camp stove. Delicious!

Now back to work...

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Take care of the fish and the fishing will take care of itself. - TU's Founding Fathers