Jeff Gardner 
I live by the Au Sable River mostly because of May and June. Those two months are hatch match time – the time of the year when water-born insects like mayflies and caddis flies emerge and live out the adult part of their life cycles (even while sandal wearing fifty-year-old fly anglers with Peter Pan … Read more
The Old Au Sable Fly Shop Fishing Report. Windshield wiper smeared bug guts mean fishing is getting good. We’ve been lurking on the top of the basement steps of water temperature – peeking through the door but, now, the forecast warm weather is about to karate-kick-splinter the opening of Hendricksons. Things have been hovering just … Read more
Folks are vibrating with Spring energy here in the Northwoods. Jack and I have been taking Stella puppy for after work spins in the grouse coverts (before the woods close to unleashed dogs on April 15th), so that she can get a sniffer full of smells and so that Jack can work on his compass … Read more
I’m glad March came and glad it’s gone. Streamer fishing has been solid on the best days and will just keep getting better with more of those best days to come. I love pitching meatbugs and stripping flies from the bank and pausing them into the streambed contours, and jolt-strikes, and a leviathan, thick-sided brown … Read more
This is the weather we’ve been waiting for – Spring is breaking. We’ve moved the clocks and the kids will steal a week away from school. There’s a change settling into Northern Michigan. Spring creep is kindly welcomed. Temperatures move from twenties to thirties and thirties move to forties and each marker sheds a layer … Read more
March toward Spring I say. Even though this month often serves up some of our most ferocious winter weather, it’s nice to turn the calendar page. Days are getting longer and the sun’s angle stronger. There’s no more going to work in the dark and coming home in the dark. We can look forward to … Read more
You won’t often hear these words, but January flew by for me. The cold was so bitter that it, in fact, shut down the lake effect machine. Weather prognosticators had foreshadowed a warmer than average winter highlighted by heavy snow fall due to an unfrozen Lake Michigan. Clearly, they are overpaid. No problem for Michiganians—we’re … Read more
The Old Au Sable Fly Shop Fishing Report Well I guess we have to call the Hex Hatch finished for 2019. Sort of anyway. Our insect hatches never turn of like a light switch; instead, they sort of linger and nag at anglers like a leaky faucet. It’s hard not to pull on damp, mildewed … Read more
The Old Au Sable Fly Shop Fishing Report Hex have blown up on the Au Sable since the last report. While it certainly isn’t over yet on the Au Sable it is well past peak emergence. The bugs will be less consistent than they have been over the last week, but nice fish will continue … Read more
June 25, 2019 The Old Au Sable Fly Shop Fishing Report Hex are imminent. They have been for the last week. We saw the big fish-flies blow up in enormous number on Lake Margrethe and have been waiting for the big mayflies to make an appearance ever since. It normally takes about a week of … Read more