Where has the Summer gone!? It won’t be long and kids will be filing back into schoolyards.
My clan has been camping a lot. We’re weekly bivouacked in the tent or some lakeside, summer camp style cabin. Jack has learned to swim this Summer. He’s made a lot of one-day campground friends. It’s amazing how quickly and easily kids graft to each other. There’s a lesson in there. Kids tend to focus on what they have in common. And swimming is enough.
I’m missing the River. I’ve not spent this much time away from her since we were first introduced. Back then, we made friends fast too. But like with anything, absence makes the love stark.
I’ll see her soon.
Mornings are the best times in the Summer on the Au Sable. Landings are empty then and the fishing is straight forward. In May and June the pace is hectic here. Crowds are chasing hatches that only last for days so urgency is integral.
Summer is different. Lonely mornings, wading in the quiet with a Heron settling near in the shallow sand, is the standard.
It’s really perfect for a parent. Everyone has stayed up late cooking smore’s by the campfire and are sleeping into bird-chirping mornings and waves lapping. They’re tired from a full day being in water. So, on the River, at dawn you have all the space to yourself.
Usually, the trout rise. The trout aren’t big but it’s not a wrestling match we’re after, anyway. Delicate presentations with slight, little wands are the right tool for the job. This is three weight territory.
It’s tricos and olives every morning. They are so reliable. If you get to the water too early, you’ll be knotting some rubber-tied bug to your too heavy leader and finishing the knot right when brook trout start to dimple the surface.
You’ll have to cut it all off and get real small with your bugs. Old eyes don’t care much for tricos and 7X tippet, but that’s the ante. In many ways, the best trico fishermen on the River are the best anglers the Au Sable sees all season.
You gotta do a lot of stuff right with a dry fly to fool an Au Sable trout.
I wish you all the best,
Andy |
