The Old Au Sable Fly Shop Fishing Report
For all of the most obvious reasons this has been the strangest Spring ever witnessed on the Au Sable River. We’re all in lockdown and our lives are dynamically changed.
And though I am in no way tone deaf to the situation, I was doing my best to look at the world through glass half full lenses. Lots of time with my wonderful family. And a lingering early Spring; the first in many years where fish would be eating dry flies and we’d have nothing to do but chase early, rising trout.
Run-off came abruptly, and rivers were in spectacular, low water, dry fly conditions. Hendricksons were set to emerge in early April and the trout were nearly guaranteed to notice. And we were going to have lonely reaches of rivers to ourselves. It was going to be like someone had rolled back the clock seventy years.
But warm wonderful days continued to get interrupted with cold mornings and blankets of short lived snow. A couple of life lifting, golden afternoons in a row and then . . . a few days of artic winds wiped away all the water temperatures—week after week.
So now we’re just getting into the first of our best dry fly angling. It sure looked like it would be earlier, but Hendricksons are on every reach of river now. Fish are beginning to take notice. Season is finally underway.
Rivers rose huge with the last big rains but cleared and fell rapidly. The river is back in shape. It’s May, and May is good. Black caddis will fill in the bugginess soon. Things on the River are getting better.
I’m glad it waited for you. There’s some relief in the streams.
Thank you to everyone playing it tight and following restrictions. You haven’t missed too much yet.
By the way, things are getting better there, too. Restrictions are loosening. We can get in boats again with folks outside our household while keeping six feet away. And we can even guide folks down the river now as long as we take the proper precautions. The shop is still open for limited business and we would truly appreciate your visit. Give us a shout and we’ll get you what you need.
Take care,
Andy