Au Sable River Fishing Report

Donnie streamer 2

 

March 25, 2017

The Old Au Sable Fly Shop Fishing Report.

The Spring egg is starting to hatch.  There are of small, mid-forty degree cracks in the ten day weather report that show promise for outdoor enthusiasts.   Plenty of those days are predicted on sunny days and the March sun is warmer and longer than its winter step-brothers.  I had my home thermometer poking the mid-twenties last week and the sun that day did its work on my cabin roof and all of the thin snow that fell the day before dripped off and slid to the ground.  The March sun is strong.  Even my Crocus’s are poking a couple of inches through the ground now—a beautiful bellwether of things to come.  Spring is coming and every person in Michigan is just as eager as I am.

There’s some fishing out there on the Au Sable and Manistee Rivers.  The boys have been a bit hungry for brown trout tugs and have been hitting the river every chance the weather allows.  Big streamers have been their flies of choice.  These guys aren’t shooting for even medium sized trout—they’re gunning for big game.   Spring streamer fishing on the Au Sable and Manistee is a time to try to boat a behemoth.  It is one of the few times of year that true trophy trout are fooled in these fabled waters.  And Springtime streamer fishing, not only rivals Fall streamer fishing, but is arguably the better venue.

One of our fine guides, Donny Richards, has been finding his bite on both rivers and on most angling days.  I say “one of our fine guides” because all of our guides at the Old Au Sable are well-seasoned as anglers and top notch as human beings.  Anyway, he’s been boating a fish or two over the twenty inch mark on each of his trips.  Now, appreciate a couple of things, a fish like that is a genuine trophy and in the winter we tend to either find one or two of those on a float or we find none.  Here, in Northern Michigan, this streamer game is not a numbers count affair.  It is, however, a numbers game in length, width, and weight.

Man, I’m getting myself excited.  Get outside.  I will.

We’ve got a bunch of neat stuff happening at the shop this year.  Of course, the restaurant project is happening and is open for dinner service starting at 4 p.m. each day.  The brisket sandwich and the gumbo are my favorites.

No projects happen up North without some hiccups and bumps in the road and for us that means a messy, quagmire of a  parking lot. That nothing new for us–we’ve been tripping around construction for the last couple of years.  The good news is that we truly are getting close to finally close to the finish line.  We’ll get the parking lot paved as soon as Spring allows and the water table drops a bit.  And then we’ll get to the important business of dry fly fishing.

I can’t wait.

See you soon,

Andy

0 thoughts on “Au Sable River Fishing Report”

  1. I’m looking to plan a fly fishing guide/ lesson for my husband and two adult sons. It will be a surprise for his birthday April 28. Will you be open and this something that is possible?
    Thanks,
    Lisa

    Reply

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