November 28, 2016<\/p>\n
The Old Au Sable Fly Shop Fishing Report.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a turbulent 2016 Deer Rifle Season here in Northern Michigan.\u00a0 The thermometer in my truck read temperatures from seventy degrees all the way down to a chilly, nine degree morning start.\u00a0 We had everything from Summer to Winter in a sixteen day season.\u00a0 The drastic changes and short-lived weather patterns made it difficult predict deer movements and plenty of hunters (at least in my circle of friends) ended the season empty handed. \u00a0I\u2019m guessing that the harvest rates may be a bit off from last year\u2019s season in our area.<\/p>\n
That said, I did see some really heavy antlered bucks taken.\u00a0 Maybe part of the production slow down amongst my group of friends is that the boys seem to be getting a bit choosier.\u00a0 Every one of us that saw horns passed on young bucks this year.\u00a0 Now we\u2019re not in the \u201cLet \u2018em go, Let \u2018em grow\u201d camp that would pass on a 3 1\/2 year old, but we are, more and more, in a camp that passes on one year olds.\u00a0 And it\u2019s made for a fun season.\u00a0 I\u2019ve seen seven different small bucks this year and one \u201cshooter\u201d that slipped away.\u00a0 And even though I\u2019m sure the neighbors took some of them, I\u2019m excited thinking about seeing just a few more two and a half year old racked bucks next year.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m always sort of relieved when the rifle season ends. \u00a0It\u2019s like taking off hiking boots or waders\u2014it feels great when you first pull them on and it feels just as good when you kick them off.\u00a0 The season is a bit long for me and part of that feeling comes from the fact that a lot of other seasons are closed. \u00a0Rifle season sort of dominates the forest.<\/p>\n
December is like a new start in field.\u00a0 The game cameras still have a lot of nice deer posing on them and bow season opens on December 1st<\/sup>, while muzzleloader opens on the 2nd<\/sup>.\u00a0 Small game hunting resumes on the 1st<\/sup> as well and it\u2019s once again safe to take your dogs for a woodsy walk.\u00a0 I know mine can\u2019t wait to get a change in the program.\u00a0 And, frankly, neither can I.<\/p>\n I may even hit the river, but then again . . .<\/p>\n I have always loved the year \u2018round fishing regulations here, but after watching anglers target spawning trout and harass fish during deeply brutal winters, I find myself on the fence.\u00a0 I always thought that the weather would be a self-limiting factor in the depth of winter.\u00a0 And that ethics would prevail when fish lay vulnerable on redds.\u00a0 There\u2019s a season for all things and maybe I\u2019ll just find something else to do.\u00a0 Maybe.<\/p>\n Spending all that time in the woods this Fall sure has given me a lot of time to think.<\/p>\n Hope you can find some time too,<\/p>\n Andy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" November 28, 2016 The Old Au Sable Fly Shop Fishing Report. It\u2019s been a turbulent 2016 Deer Rifle Season here in Northern Michigan.\u00a0 The thermometer in my truck read temperatures from seventy degrees all the way down to a chilly, nine degree morning start.\u00a0 We had everything from Summer to Winter in a sixteen day … 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":[202,151,152,84,7,149,68,158],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.oldausable.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1249"}],"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=1249"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.oldausable.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1981,"href":"https:\/\/blog.oldausable.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1249\/revisions\/1981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.oldausable.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.oldausable.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.oldausable.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}