![\"55875358_746468075748695_865576351279611904_n\"](\"https:\/\/www.oldausable.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/55875358_746468075748695_865576351279611904_n.jpg\")
<\/a>last Saturday of April all eleven thousand five hundred miles of trout stream in our great state will be open to anglers.\u00a0 Combine that with more coastline than the entire Eastern seaboard and we\u2019ve got a mighty impressive fishery here in the Great Lakes.<\/p>\nTrout Opener has been an unrivalled tradition in our great state for generations. Even the white-tailed deer rifle season takes a back seat.\u00a0 Many years ago children had the first day of school off for the dawn of pheasant season.\u00a0 It was only after the pheasant all but That tradition has faded over the last few years with year around trout fishing opportunities on special waters and with more hectic family schedules and internet weather and fishing reports that have folks trying desperately to pick only the best, most perfect days.<\/p>\n Rarely is an opening day of any season perfect for reaping the wild. Trout openers usually have high water or cold days and fly hatches that don\u2019t quite materialize.\u00a0 I remember many where we knocked snow off the tent by bumping the canvas from the inside and kept This one – this opener – has just a little more chance of better. We\u2019ve turned the corner of high water with all reaches of river in Crawford County crested, clearing nicely, on pace for fishable conditions.\u00a0 Better yet, the hatch progression of our earliest blue-winged olives and stoneflies are predicting that Hendricksons are imminent.\u00a0 There are turkeys gobbling and Spring peepers peeping.\u00a0 There\u2019s buds on the trees.\u00a0 And we\u2019ve seen some of those Hendricksons already.<\/p>\n Grab your gear and your family and your friends and get back to making the old tradition new again.<\/p>\n We\u2019ll have our 12th<\/sup> annual day before opener party.\u00a0 Complete with food and drinks.\u00a0 It\u2019s become part of the tradition.\u00a0 I hope to see you there.<\/p>\n I\u2019m looking forward to seeing the old anglers come through the door with the slow-footed, riverwalk shuffle they\u2019ve earned and meeting the new hawk-eyed, young guys that stride deliberately\u2014straight backs, chests out\u2014moving with the swagger they need. I\u2019m especially looking forward to the unblinking newcomers that move in small circles around the shop with a bee hive of question in the heads.\u00a0 The annual Au Sable Waltz\u2014in shops and over rocks and sand and between anglers and insects and trout\u2014is about to begin.<\/p>\n I can\u2019t wait. It\u2019s going to be a fine season on the Au Sable.\u00a0 I\u2019ll be in the shop a little less and in the boat a lot more this year.\u00a0 Guide demand is through the roof and I need to stretch my back some, so I\u2019ll be guiding some.\u00a0 Many days are already filled or close to it, so if you\u2019re thinking of getting together with a guide give us a call soon\u2014the major outfitters in our area are in high demand.\u00a0 Wait too long and you\u2019ll have to head to the tavern at lunch time and find an independent!<\/p>\n Let the games begin!<\/p>\n I\u2019ll see you on the River,<\/p>\n Andy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" April 25, 2019 The Old Au Sable Fly Shop Fishing Report The opening week of the Michigan trout season has arrived. On the last Saturday of April all eleven thousand five hundred miles of trout stream in our great state will be open to anglers.\u00a0 Combine that with more coastline than the entire Eastern seaboard … 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":[199,148,164,155,84,7,166,5,158],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.oldausable.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1715"}],"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=1715"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.oldausable.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1942,"href":"https:\/\/blog.oldausable.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1715\/revisions\/1942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.oldausable.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.oldausable.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.oldausable.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a> disappeared\u00a0 from our Southern Counties that deer season became so important.\u00a0 But always, through it all, men and women pulled campers and pitched tents in Northern Michigan at the end of April in the hopes of fooling brook, brown, and rainbow trout.<\/p>\n<\/a>fires in the rock ring steaming and smoking from breakfast to the empty bottle.\u00a0 But they were always openers with good friends and family old-timers and eager young newbies.\u00a0 Sometimes the weather and fishing was better and sometimes it was worse.\u00a0 Always we were there.\u00a0 Always we had such fun.<\/p>\n