February 16, 2018<\/p>\n
The Old Au Sable Fly Shop Fishing Report<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Winter in Northern Michigan can be an affair of shivering and suffering in solitude.\u00a0 Now, I don\u2019t know about everyone else, but this winter is flying by for me.\u00a0 I guess I was charging through it with my head down, but when I looked up we were well into February.\u00a0 And the mornings were glowing with sunshine.\u00a0 Or maybe I just am choosing to see the sunshine.<\/p>\n
Either way, these winter warm-ups are getting my blood up.\u00a0 I am not mired in winter and glowering over my wood pile.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m thinking about Spring and trout fishing.\u00a0 Speaking of which, there has been great winter fishing this year.\u00a0 The anglers sliding into the River have had some good success swinging small, naturally colored streamers.\u00a0 Winter fishing here doesn\u2019t mean tons of great big trout, but it does mean fish striking short from wooden lairs and showing themselves.\u00a0\u00a0 And it does mean pulling a heavy trout to hand once in a while and it does mean being outdoors on the finest trout stream in North America with no one else around. It\u2019s that kind of stuff and it is fun.<\/p>\n
Me . . . I\u2019ve been ice fishing and that\u2019s been just fine.\u00a0 But it is not dry fly fishing for trout.\u00a0 These nice days have the smell of the ground in them and that makes me think of rising trout.\u00a0 Now there\u2019s lots of ways to catch a fish and I fully support them all and practice most, but there is nothing like catching a fish on the surface.\u00a0\u00a0 I love catching bass or pike on a Hoola Poppers or bluegills on panfish \u00a0poppers, or a musky on a walk-the dog lure.\u00a0 It\u2019s visual and violent and exciting.<\/p>\n
But hatch match dry fly fishing is different.\u00a0 You trudge too eager too fast into the water, look around and then sit down and wait and let everything settle.\u00a0 It takes a while and you get to have to hear the birds and get to see the mink.\u00a0 When you disappear into the woods and water, the trout start to rise.\u00a0 First the small ones.\u00a0 And then, if it\u2019s good, the big one.\u00a0 And you sit on the grass on the bank trying to disappear\u2014trying to be a part of it\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0And sometimes you beat the fish at their own game.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
SPECIAL EVENT<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Charles Chlysta a.k.a. \u201cPicket Pin\u201d is an avid Au Sable Fly Angler and one of the most innovative fly tyers of our time.\u00a0 Picket Pin\u2019s flies are some of the best kept secrets on the water.\u00a0 His flies are creative and interesting and better yet\u2014they work!<\/p>\n We are fortunate enough to have Charlie join us at the Old Au Sable Fly Shop for two days of fly tying demonstrations.<\/p>\n Clear your calendars for Saturday February 24th<\/sup> and 25th<\/sup>.\u00a0 Picket Pin will be conducting demos from 12-3 p.m. each day.<\/p>\n On Saturday, Chlysta will focus on some of his fantastic trout flies.\u00a0 He\u2019ll show you how he twists up his \u201cX-Dun\u201d, \u201cPF Usual\u201d, as well as his Flymph recipes for Iso\u2019s, Brown Drakes, and Hex.<\/p>\n Then on Sunday, you\u2019ll become acquainted with flies for his other passion\u2014Bass and Bluegill fishing.\u00a0 You will witness Pin tying \u201cThe Stealth Bomber\u201d, \u201cThe Bass Crawler\u201d, \u201cThe Blue Gill Pooda\u201d and his version of the ever dependable \u201cGurgler\u201d.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n There is no cost for the event.\u00a0 We hope you can all attend.<\/p>\n See you all soon!<\/p>\n Andy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" February 16, 2018 The Old Au Sable Fly Shop Fishing Report Winter in Northern Michigan can be an affair of shivering and suffering in solitude.\u00a0 Now, I don\u2019t know about everyone else, but this winter is flying by for me.\u00a0 I guess I was charging through it with my head down, but when I … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[156,155,166,167,5,150],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.oldausable.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1521"}],"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\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.oldausable.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.oldausable.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1521\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.oldausable.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.oldausable.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.oldausable.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}