The Old Au Sable Fly Shop Fishing Report
July 1, 2015
What a Hex season it’s been. Such a crazy time on the Au Sable. The big flies come out by the many thousands and create an audible hum of flapping insect wings at dark and the big trout slip out of their log jams and sensibilities and succumb to an armada of anglers armed with row boats and riverboats. And well equipped anglers dangle fine feathered offerings to those lunkers.
It worked well and often this year. Lots of folks saw their fair share of bent rods and got their pictures. The best I saw so far was a twenty eight inch whopper. Hatch match dry fly fishing simply doesn’t get better than that anywhere in the world.
It’s just about done now on the Au Sable, but our sister river, the Manistee is now proving her medal. I bet you could work a good one under the fireworks in the coming days.
That said, it’s like the Au Sable has finally taken a deep breath. Around here, you sort of hit the river running at trout opener and start chasing after the glory hatches of hendricksons, suplhurs, iso’s, brown drakes, and Hex and you just don’t stop until July.
I’ll likely sneak over the Manistee a few more times after dark to see if I have any more Hex hatch Karma left, but I’m really looking forward to the second season on the Au Sable.
There’s a pretty wonderful time for trout fishing upon us. The hard core trout camps have broken up and the huge fishing crowd is largely gone. Gone too is the constant rehashing and second guessing that comes with chasing hatches.
You can kind of go whenever you want and where ever you want. We’ve got blue-winged olives showing up in the mornings and iso , cahill, and gray drake spinners at dusk. The terrestrial fishing with hoppers, ants, and beetles should be good at any time of the day. You can also fish attractor patterns on any river at any time to find trout from here on out.
Best of all, some of the most productive waters have been ignored for weeks because of the great hatch chase. Places like the Holy Waters haven’t been touched.
This is a much more relaxed time on the streams and brooks of Northern Michigan.
Hope I’ll see you on the River,
Andy
Please stop promoting the Manistee! We don’t like crowds over here…
Please stop promoting the Manistee! We don’t like the crowds over here…Thanks
Quit promoting the holy waters……very slow
Please continue with your manistee updates! Its not a secret trout stream tom. And to be fair you should probably get after josh (gates) and Hawkins if you want to try to keep your “secret”.
Keep promoting all of our beautiful streams Andy! It takes the efforts of folks like you and other shops to keep our sport alive, and for us to support you and your efforts to keep others active in the pursuit and teaching of the next wave of flyfishers.
After all, It’s “His River” ,crowds need to congregate elsewhere . Too funny. I appreciate the honest reports. My son and I fished Sunday night and Monday night and saw a Few boats and a few fisherman and had some nice success with a really nice spinner fall on the upper Sunday night. And Yes!!! it is a beautiful stream.