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<\/a>brook trout, or a buck in a misty morning meadow means Fall in Northern Michigan to me.\u00a0 Some things may just be as good, but nothing is better.<\/p>\nI loaded my gear into the car the night before.\u00a0 Not because of my excitement, but because I didn\u2019t want those dogs of mine turning circles and clicking crazily on the hardwood before the sun came up.\u00a0 All it takes is an orange hat to get those boys whimpering for the woods.\u00a0\u00a0 It sorta worked, too.\u00a0 I was able to make have a quiet cup of coffee and fry up an opening day breakfast, but all under the watchful eyes of a few, not completely fooled, setters.<\/p>\n
Truth is I was just as ready as they were and scraped half of my breakfast into their bowl before I was finished\u2014partially for an opening day treat and even more as a decoy as I made for my hunting boots.\u00a0 It hardly worked and those hounds left the better part of eggs over easy and jumped on the door.\u00a0 They may not have a calendar, but they know . . . oh they know.<\/p>\n
Opening day, like all opening day is very much about tradition.\u00a0 But, for grouse, it\u2019s equally about scouting for birds.\u00a0 Folks always like to believe in secret spots and, sure, there are those covers that just seem to produce year over year, but any pullover can be the new secret hollow at the beginning of the season.\u00a0 Grouse can have around ten chicks per clutch and ten new birds\u2019 turns last year\u2019s empty woodlot into a red hot turn through the trees.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0The trick in the early season is to do a bunch of quick hits.\u00a0 You\u2019ll be able to dip your toes into a lot of different spots and you\u2019ll keep Summer fat dogs fresh on your search for first year grouse.<\/p>\n If you find ten new clutches, you\u2019ll have as many as eighty birds to hunt over the coming season.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s not just good hunting, its good conservation.<\/p>\n The brook trout are podded up and already starting to spawn in some stretches of the river, so be prepared to walk a far distance between brook trout bites.\u00a0 And be prepared to use every fly and technique in your arsenal.\u00a0 The fishing is dynamic this time of year and you\u2019ll want to be just as versatile.\u00a0 Dries like Chernobyl Ants and Parachute Adams will certainly continue to produce, but wet flies will likely be the golden ticket.\u00a0 Knot on a nymph, traditional wet fly, soft hackle, or small streamer for your best chance at success.<\/p>\n Have a great week in the outdoors,<\/p>\n Andy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" September 16, 2016 The Old Au Sable Fly Shop Fishing Report. On September fifteenth I was awake at four a.m. and just couldn\u2019t force myself back to sleep.\u00a0 The opening day of grouse season is one of my favorites of the year.\u00a0 A dog on point, like a spawning colored brook trout, or a buck … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[202,148,155,84,7,149,5,150,68,158],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.oldausable.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1200"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.oldausable.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.oldausable.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.oldausable.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.oldausable.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1200"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.oldausable.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1988,"href":"https:\/\/blog.oldausable.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1200\/revisions\/1988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.oldausable.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.oldausable.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.oldausable.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\n