The first-ever season of the Michigan Anglers’ Base Camp has now drifted on down-river, so to speak. I wanted to take the opportunity to report on our experiences for those others in the club who may be interested in how things went.
Camp Rotary, a Scouting America facility located a bit north of the town of Claire, Michigan, hosted a total of 4 weeklong sessions of the Anglers’ Base Camp throughout the month of May. For those not familiar with the “mitten” of lower Michigan, Claire sits right about the base of the middle finger! During May of this year, Camp Rotary celebrated 100 years of scouting activity on the property. Despite its hearty age, the facilities for the angling group were all quite modern and comfortable. The staff was excellent – friendly and accommodating. The food was always good.
Last November, a group of anglers (including Gus D. and Brian K. from DCFF) spent a week at the camp to help research and advise for the inaugural season. That trip resulted a report of findings which are well worth a read (https://derbycityflyfishers.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Anglers-Bas-Camp-Report.pdf). I would generally agree with their “Final Thoughts” summary: If your goal is to fish moving water, the camp location is less than ideal. Though centrally located, Camp Rotary is still a considerable drive away from the primary trout waters of the region. The Pere Marquette is at least an hour to the west. The Manistee is at least an hour to the northwest. The Au Sable is at least an hour to the north. The Rifle is at least an hour to the northeast. Much like the small town from “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”, Camp Rotary is a bit of a geographical oddity in its 1-hour proximity to all trout! The camp’s location facilitates access to many fabled trout waters, but “convenient” access to few.
Organizers selected the camp running dates based on the potential to align with the typical spring hatches. We attended the 4th and final session, which occurred over the week of May 25th. As for the fishing, it was a challenging week on top of what I understand was a challenging month. The confluence of various weather conditions and cooler-than-usual temperatures had suppressed the hatches usually seen that time of year. Even the ever-optimistic fly shop employees didn’t have much advice on overcoming the lack of bugs. Slow fishing aside, I can say that the streams and rivers I encountered were among the prettiest waters that I’ve had the privilege to visit. I saw lots of attractive habitats, but unfortunately not so many fish. Before the good-natured aspersions about my fishing skills are cast, I can say that my experience for the week was not unique! Despite the diverse group of veteran anglers from states such as Louisiana, Alabama, South Carolina, Indiana, and Ohio, no one came back with great stories of busy, tight-line days. The best fishing seemed to lie in the guided trips, though even that was somewhat hit or miss. A couple of guys did a guided night trip where they fished mouse patterns for big browns into the wee hours of the morning. Their trip wrapped with only one hook-up, which sadly didn’t result in a landed fish.
The saving grace of the week was Camp Rotary’s own Lake Beebe. Protected within the confines of the camp property and away from general public access, this lake is thick with endless 16” largemouth bass and fat, shouldered sunfish. The lake was a great way to end the day after dinner. Camp management is understandably cautious about the introduction of invasive species and doesn’t allow random boats in the lake. Fortunately, they made some exceptions for clean kayaks. The camp has a motorized pontoon, canoes, and rowboats for anyone to use. The DCFF fall scouting report indicated accurately that there are lots of relatively close lakes to fish, though for the life of me I cannot fathom that any would produce better action than Lake Beebe.
Aside from proximity to fishing waters, I found two main challenges with camp. One was the meal schedule. The sun rises in Michigan at around 6am and sets around 9pm. That makes for a long run of daylight and puts the staff in a tough spot for picking mealtimes. Hot meals were scheduled at 8am, noon, and 6pm. Continental breakfast and sandwich fixings were available each morning around 6am. Considering the camp’s distance to moving trout waters, nearly any round trip would involve a minimum of 3 hours of travel and set up – and that doesn’t include any actual time spent fishing! Those travel times combined with the set meal schedules made day-trip planning a challenge, particularly with dinner served 3 hours ahead of sunset. To the credit of the kitchen staff, they would happily put food back for you if you let them know you would be back late. But it always felt like a sacrifice one way or other to plan out your day. If you wanted to stay on the water until dark, you probably won’t be getting back to camp until 10:30 or 11 at night.
The second main challenge was with the absence of knowledgeable fishing personnel on premises. To be fair, Michigan Anglers’ Base Camp never made any claims of having in-house guides, but it would have been great if there had been someone there familiar with the area’s waters and how they were currently fishing. Any knowledge or insights gained by previous session attendees were lost from week to week. Fly shops can and do provide up-to-date fishing intel to some degree, but the shops were all located remotely near their respective waters. There were ample resources at camp in the form of online references, maps, and books, but at the start of the week it was kind of like throwing darts at a board to decide where to target. Very few of us had ever fished in that region of the country. Of course, as the week progressed and we all collectively met to discuss our experiences, we began to form a better picture of where and where not to put our efforts. It would have been great if there had been some way to capture the collective knowledge and experiences of previous weeks’ campers.
In the end, we met some great new friends and had a nice trip. The rivers of upper central Michigan are remarkably scenic. It was a lovely region to fish, even if the catching was a challenge. For our last day, Valerie and I took our kayaks on a float trip along the Au Sable. It was one of the most beautiful river floats we’ve ever done. We got a late start and were pushed for time to make the takeout before the sun set. As such, we stayed on the move and mostly kept our lines dry. But the perfect water was all around us, and in it was the promise of that big brown you know is there, lurking just out of sight. The next time will be different…
Darren & Valerie Meyers