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<\/a><\/p>\nWe\u2019ve been twisting in the \u201cbetween time\u201d here in Northern Michigan. Every year there\u2019s a time when winter appears and shuts down the fall fun but doesn\u2019t quite wield enough bluster to kick on the frozen wonderland events.<\/p>\n
It happened twice this year. Everything looked like a green light to skiing, sledding, and ice fishing but just as the woods and waters froze under a thick blanket of snow, a warm-up squashed a strong starting bell and put us back in a holding pattern once again.\u00a0 That\u2019s all over now.\u00a0 The weather forecast has winter locked in the crosshairs.\u00a0 The ice is boning up nicely for fishermen and predicted snowfalls will soften the snowmobile trails and fluff up the ski hills and trails.<\/p>\n
Ice conditions on area lakes have improved greatly. The last warm-up melted much of the thick snow that was insulating the early, thin ice.\u00a0 That\u2019s allowed lakes to add important inches of ice in very short order.\u00a0 Many Northern lakes are showing five to seven inches now, and with the exception of the unfrozen Higgins Lake, I\u2019ve heard of folks fishing on most of the waters in our area.\u00a0 Conditions vary and can change quickly, however, so continue to check with local bait shops for the most up to date reports.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s time to get started and reports are that the fishing has been pretty good. I\u2019m rigged and ready.\u00a0 My adventures are mostly for panfish and this year I\u2019ve twisted up some special ice flies for the bug eating bluegills.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been messing with ice flies a little over the last couple of seasons but, with the help of some more experienced ice fly fishermen, I\u2019m feeling more confident that ever.\u00a0 Naturally colored, unweighted, small flies that move naturally in the water and ultra-limber rods are supposed to be the ticket.<\/p>\n
The rig I\u2019m banking on is a modified trout fishing two nymph set-up and style called Czech Nymphing. The beauty of this system is that it utilizes a heavily weighted bottom fly called an anchor to speed the descent and to keep the line vertical.\u00a0 Meanwhile, the unweighted fly is knotted 12-18 inches above the anchor with a fine dropper line that allows that top bug to move naturally. The theory is solid and I\u2019ll fill you in on the practice next time.<\/p>\n
Have fun,<\/p>\n
Andy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
December 29, 2016 The Old Au Sable Fly Shop Fishing Report. We\u2019ve been twisting in the \u201cbetween time\u201d here in Northern Michigan. Every year there\u2019s a time when winter appears and shuts down the fall fun but doesn\u2019t quite wield enough bluster to kick on the frozen wonderland events. It happened twice this year. Everything … 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":[202,165,5,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.oldausable.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1261"}],"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=1261"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.oldausable.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1979,"href":"https:\/\/blog.oldausable.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1261\/revisions\/1979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.oldausable.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.oldausable.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.oldausable.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}