2 Snowy Days on the River - Tent Camping & Winter Steelhead Fishing!

God only allows you so many days here on Earth but he doesn't count the on you spend [Music] fishing oh my God guys this fish is Big this fish is very big this is a [Music] salab [Music] I'll never forget reading Life Begins where fear ends with heavy winds from the north a long awaited winter storm followed to me this was the perfect recipe to chase Trophy winner steelhead that I wait all year for join me as I drift into this journey alone not knowing this would end up being one of the craziest trips of my life enjoy [Music] the outcome of this game heavily dictates how this trip is about to [Applause] go oh my God it's on baby [Music] well here goes nothing guys this is going to be a wild one 3 to four days on the river solo no Steve this time exploring new winter steel head water in our beautiful XXL hooligan raft getting this thing loaded up right now and we are on the very front of a large snowstorm coming in literally as we speak so it is time to Boogie [Music] and this is where it all begins seems like even without Steve we have twice as much gear I don't know how that's possible [Music] [Applause] it's go time and that storm is just kicking [Applause] in this is how she's looking just a prime example of why having these rafts are so nice I mean it's not even 2 in deep 3 in deep I look at how shallow that is we're just gliding right over all right I can't pass up another Hogs we are passing some extraordinary water right now we're going to start off with a good old spawn bag got some juicy King eggs not really my proudest spawn but uh it should work it's thought and it's caught me a couple fish already this year so just doing a nice little Snell Knot on 10 lb test size eight hook there we have it the old bag arinos going go with the white bag drag your that deep little slot come on baby that's a fish that's a fish that's a fish oh it's a nice one guys oh God oh my goodness gracious ow oh yeah this one's a kicker guys this one's a nice one this one's got some got some tail on it oh that is such a satisfying feeling steel head are just a different breed oh yeah it's a [Music] jet gone wow wow wow wow wow wow Hook's still good fish is just gone crickets longer you fight these fish the higher the chance you're going to lose them that's just how she goes I just got whooped that thing had a bright pink cheek chromed out body that was a nice fish that's just the way she goes man I can't be mad this is the first spot we've stopped in fish I mean just got to keep pressing on [Music] dang that was the time man now is the time that you're going to freaking lay the smackdown to a big big steel H head winard over big buck that's what I'd like I want a big freaking giant Buck I want to make up for that last 5-day float if you guys didn't if you didn't see my last video where I did this my my 5day float video at the end if you remember I lost a tank man I think about that fish still that fish will haunt me and has continued to haunt me for the last 2 months I can't I can't get over it I really can't if I could redeem myself on a fish of that caliber oh now we're talking start off the new year right after National Championship Victory from Michigan I mean the stars come in line for a more perfect moment I mean an 18 to 22 lb steel head It just fits the picture it's perfect I mean I could Happ bobber just went down what was a snag what a happen any minute but see what happens oh police really upside down drifting we're doing that first cast [Applause] Jesus there we go that looks a little better uh maybe not teer tottering again what the heck come on baby go freaking down come on come on baby oh that's a fish there it is oh yeah oh yeah oh it's a big one oh my goodness oh this might be huge oh no it's in Wood oh it's big it's big big come on baby please get out oh it's rubbing so hard on something I don't know what it is oh I can feel it through my rod oh my god oh it feels bad come on come on it is Big okay I think we got him home oh my God I'm shaking this might be massive this might be very big guys this might be a very large steel head it's a big buck this thing has a paddle on its tail I am shaking to my boots right now we got him to the float he's going to have to do a big 180 right into this net right I really don't mean to be over dramatic this is a top five steel head for me for sure please God get this fish in the net this is unbelievable this is a freak just nice even pressure got it oh my God big big big we just we just scored oh my God guys this fish is Big this fish is very big oh my God I haven't even seen its whole body yet head is in the water I might have just pbd I don't know what I'm looking at right now I'm drifting to the bank this might be the closest to 20 lb I have ever touched on a steel head fish has stayed wet the whole time his head's underwater we've got the official bump right here this goes to 40 in this bump board is 40 in official measurements here goes something nose on the tip this fish is 3 5 1/2 in 35 1/2 352 by by 20 35 1/2 by 20in steel head this might be the only look we get of this fish this is a slob of a steel head I mean this fish has got to be minimum 16 17 lbs this is as good as they come here in northern Michigan and we just got it done on day one he is breathing this fish is good one last look and then we're going to say goodbye to this absolute perfect [Applause] fish that is truly a giant oh my goodness stud stud stud my boots are soaked my bibs are completely soaking [Music] wet there are so many emotions flowing I eternally Greatful that's that's all I can say definitely one of the biggest fish I've ever landed an absolute freak I'm buzzing so hard right now off of that 3:00 Michael uh might go get a campsite but my day is made the whole Trip's made I anything at this point is purely just a bonus I am so thankful I I cannot believe I got all of that on camera I will remember that for the rest of my life Wow we ranan out of gas oops your boy might have had the uh the gas switch shut off yeah brilliant brilliant can't believe it ran as long as it did though well evidently came to my realization that the next two hours of this trip were recorded in super slow motion which has no audio but if I were to be talking right now I would be emphasizing on the fact that I was soaking wet from all this snow melting and the storm had really just started to kick in we were getting gust up to 35 mph out of the Northwest and the snow had really just started coming down so my main priority was to just get camp set up get all my gear dry before the real cold temperatures really start to set in and I think right about here is where I get my audio back so oh my goodness I need to get dry as soon as possible it is soaking them we got to get this stuff dry ASAP not good creeping into the tonight all my food is in my boat well that lasted long spontaneously on my way out the door actually I had forgotten something I went back to my house to get it and spontaneously made the decision to grab some more stuff so we're going to do a little Little Buddy Heater s'more session here oh [Music] no I just burned a hole in my time I'm asking for it really like I know what I'm risking by doing this right now as far as my uh as far as my decision making goes but this is my only option to stay warm right now that's awesome never tried that Buddy Heater s'mores they do work wow with that I think we're going to call it a night guys and I'm going to try to get some I cuz we are going to be getting up plenty early tomorrow not bad not bad I'll see you guys in the morning I've slept way worse that's for sure but I don't know if you can hear it right now but that wind is been kicking hard it's it's been 35 mph gusts out of the north northwest in that snow yeah I think it finally showed up cuz we definitely got some some snow action built up around the tent right now I've been knocking it all morning but I almost think that it created some sort of insulation around my tent kept us a little bit warmer last night so we're about two hours out from sunrise and probably going to hit it a little bit earlier this morning try to cover some ground that we couldn't make yesterday so day two we have a freaking problem right now not good my boat floated away from me last night and I had my anchor out my motor was down this might be my boat right here please for the love of God if yeah there it is that's my boat right there and there's no way I'm getting that that is in the middle of the river I just came down to go throw some stuff into my boat and it is right here there has to be somebody that fishes today or else I'm screwed feel like an idiot man like really I do I checked at 5:30 this morning my boat was still there and we just got a couple rounds of sweeping gusts and we're in the middle of this hole our only options are shimmy out on this right to my boat or we try to poke it free with a giant log which I'm going to try to do and hope that it just blows towards us but my anchor is dragging four or 5T right now at least I brought my anchor way on shore but clearly not enough I'm just going to try to drag this tree into the water and use leverage to try to pry it [Applause] out it's move moving it wants to go I think it's going to push me in the right direction come on it's spinning at me this is not a situation you want to be in by yourself getting in that water is not an option right now it's about 6 ft deep right there so that's just not going to happen oh come on dude yeah we're getting this we're in we're in that that wind could have been pointing any other direction and we would have been screwed humbling experience we're putting about 20 ft anchor rope out tonight I can tell you that trust me I know how dumb this looks guys I do not do what I just did we got lucky that's what happened we just got lucky and there's nothing else about [Music] it nothing short of a crazy adventure that is for sure day two I can't believe today has started this way all right let's get out of here man fished a couple holes haven't had any any love we're just now kind of creeping in 10:00 usually in the winter 10 to 2 it's like my favorite window I feel kind of cold right now not going to lie I feel feel pretty cold got to embrace the beauty it's absolutely beautiful out everything is snow covered looks like a movie out here I love it I got a steel light on I was just fixing my anchor and I freaking hook the steel at haven't really gotten a good look at it yet but it's a great fish oh yeah that's a be that is a be the snow's coming down got the icy guides got a big Chrome steel head on baby and this Rod is corked get in there baby there sweet all right not a bad start to the day at all very cloudy [Music] fish looks like we're getting this into some pretty fishy water really want to get one boond dog one I feel like I can do it boond there's one was that a brown it's a skiper oh you know what I know you guys are thinking what I might be thinking if he's stocked I'll do it if he's not I'm not doing it if he's not a stocked yeah he's he's a wild fish I'm not killing him he does look pretty tasty not going to lie it is a boy too I you know what like to be honest with you guys like I'd be eating this fish for content and that just feels weird if you guys didn't know this is their marking for a uh a wild fish that little fin right there it's an adapost would have been a good eater but so long buddy I feel like I've had to address lately is everyone was giving me crap for not keeping my steel head to eat they're like why did you bring fish and not kill the fish cuz I don't need it I thought about it I'm not going to lie I thought about keeping that one but we got food tonight though we're going to have glizzies I don't know I I I hate that though people people give me crap on my videos like why don't you keep those fish what are you doing why are you fishing and not eating them it's like I don't know I know I know a lot of you guys understand but it's like to to the broader audience like it's such a it's such a common thing I come across it's so weird that's a fish yep that's a fish oh yeah oh it's a nice one too oh that was beautiful that was so satisfying big buck that was a big one not calling numbers but that was a big one as soon as he came to the surface that's when we lost them so I thought I was on it really second that thing dropped I hammered it came up big head shakes and just got off simple as that but that's just the way she goes for the sake of new viewers I'll show you guys what's up running a 5in king fisher John Milner reel here it's a center pin reel had questions is this a fly reel no next we've got the 8 to 15 mags custom rod it's a moderate fast 12T rod and right now I'm actually running a bobber leader so up top on my main line I have a swivel that's coming down to 14 lb test FC sniper and we've got that coming to a Brian Lee Smith custom float silver wolf custom 10 G float and I believe we have five size seven water gemin s shot got that paired up to a nice 16 18 in liter of 10 lb test Snell knotted to a size six Raven wide gape hook hey papa hey what's do there buddy uh just out steel out fishing you know you caught a monster oh my gosh I just caught yesterday I caught one that was 35 1/2 in and it was had a 20in girth on it big red mail wow yep great you making movies here yeah I am yeah St loed me in the movie I was like that oh yeah yeah that's fun if you have something to say now would be the time to say it if I have something to say yes if you have something to say for the movie you could say it right now I suppose oh I would say well um God only allows you so many days here on Earth but he doesn't count the one you sp fishing that's some pretty good was them right there yeah it is I've been doing that all my life it's work so far okay thanks for picking up you always pick up that's good love you bye-bye byebye cannot pass the hole like this up that would be stupid hopefully it's worth it that's a fish yep yep yep yep oh yeah figure out where the heck I'm going to sleep tonight it's a tough angle to try and M this thing up there he is I got a killer pump in my forearm right now all right you guys know the drill chuck [Applause] them actually a little bigger than I thought he's not giant but got to love them when I get their colors like this right in the schnaz binos last bag of the day out very Quality Steel at all right let's go get a campsite I could happily end the the day on that for sure all right we got to find a campsite ASAP time to [Applause] go just in the make of time at zero point in this entire day have I eaten anything so I'm going to try to build a fire before the sun goes down and we're about to Feast so for Christmas one of the gifts that my grandma got me were handmade fire starters made out of laundry lint and a toilet paper roll come on see if it can get a fire started it's going to be probably kind of tough to get this fire going try hasn't gone out on me yet good stuff Grandma going to let this burn down a little bit and then we're going to have some burgers and [Music] BRS don't have a spatula course ow that is hot um the Randy B Bandy quick hitter special right off the river nice now my my iPhone's freaking tweaking out right now let's get our bed set up guys we might be in a pickle right now I'm going keep it real with you for some reason my iPhone will not take a charge to save my life it is dead dead I've plugged into my jackery I've plugged it into three different external batteries all of which are charging my camera gear completely fine I have over 10 miles left in this float and I planned it completely off I was thinking I'd be able to do the float that I'm doing right now in 3 days but there's no way I'm doing this in 3 days and so that leaves me with two options initially what I kind of planned on doing in the back of my head was I'll wake up I'll fish tomorrow and I'll readjust my spotter but now I can't even contact my Spotter and there's no way I'm getting this next chunk of float done in a day it's I sit here all night in the dark no point of contact to move my vehicle and I just wake up in the morning and I try to hitchhike my way back to my vehicle or I just get it over with and do it right now and honestly I don't know why but I feel the urge to do that I don't know what kind of human beings will be hanging around the bat onch right now considering it's dark regardless I don't want to leave my boat on the side of the river unattended it's just overall uh annoying situation really something that I don't want to be doing at all period but I mean the plan was to Just Fish tomorrow call my Spotter and be like hey would you mind to slide me up a little bit which would have been no problem could have got done but I can't it's not even an option anymore so we might be uh we might be buggying overnight I have thought about it we're going The Psychotic route I am packing this entire campsite up right now throwing it all into my boat row our way in the dark Dock at the Crossroad Downstream from here I'm going to try to walk to a gas station to see if somebody there will let me plug in my iPhone to see if it's my cord or not and depending on what happens right there we're either going to walk back to our boat and we're going to reset up camp somewhere along the crossroad or I am going to hitchhike my way back to my truck I can't believe I'm doing this right now but it's the only thing that makes logical sense I'm going to have to wake up and do it anyways my biggest fear is just leaving my boat of course but packing it all up we're getting out of [Applause] here all right guys praying my stuff stays safe do you know how unsmart this feels please just be a freaking charger phone charger by any chance I don't know I have one in my car oh so I got to figure out what the heck's going on with my phone the truth right here any luck we'll see it I think my iPhone got fried something something happened to my iPhone is there like a cab service around here or anything oh it might it might be turning on right now o oh my God [Applause] please what a of events this video is done I'm not doing another night of camping I had the intuitive feeling to just pack up all my gear and send it Downstream because my iPhone was tweaking out and there's really no apparent reason I don't know why I did it not very like me to just make some crazy decision like that out of the blue and I'm glad I did I I essentially floated for about 30 minutes Downstream until we hit the crossroad and I anchored my boat up absolutely terrified me I left all my gear inside of my boat and I I booked it on foot and I went all the way into town here and I just I went to go buy a charger I walked into a Dollar General and sure enough it it was my actual charging cable thankfully not my phone plug it in still doing the onoff weird thing and then the Apple logo shows up it boots up everything went to normal and my phone just blew blew up I had text from my mom my dad within 2 minutes of my phone turning on I get a call from the Sheriff's Office asking me if everything's all right and yada yada my parents are trying to like contact me they're all freaking out thinking I went missing and dude oh my God like who knows what would have happened if I would have stayed out there and just let them high and dry who knows maybe there'd be a search out for me but everything happens for a reason and I'm glad that I made that decision that was the right decision for sure I think uh this video is going to have to continue another time like I said I wanted to do a three-day float I put a little bit too much on my plate more than I could handle in this time frame and these guys were so kind to actually give me a ride back to my spot and also watch my boat in the meanwhile I think we're going to have to we're going to have to finish this video up someday maybe we'll bring somebody out maybe I'll bring one of you guys out but the rest of the river is going to have to wait I hope you guys enjoy the video absolutely crazy adventure I wouldn't change a single freaking thing happy New Year I'll see you in the next one