![\"Mike](\"https:\/\/www.oldausable.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Mike.GuideJamie.jpg\")
<\/a>The shift is upon us.\u00a0 It happens every year and I\u2019m always amazed how abrupt it occurs.\u00a0 One day it\u2019s the end of June and determined anglers are teaming through the fly shop plucking hex and drakes from the bins and striking out for the river and then it\u2019s the Fourth of July and the afternoon is slow at the shop and we catch our breathes for a moment and we celebrate the holiday watching fireworks at dusk from our front porch.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The next day The Old Au Sable slowly fills up with wide-eyed folks that have just always wanted to give fly fishing try.\u00a0\u00a0 I absolutely love it.\u00a0 The first part of the season is a hard-core charge to the river.\u00a0 We fish long and go every night for a couple of months, chasing some of the best trout fishing in the country.\u00a0 We do it like a job\u2014like we have to do it.\u00a0 Because we do.\u00a0 After all, it is why we live here.\u00a0 But in this second season, we get to share it with new people and maybe that\u2019s just a little bit better.<\/p>\n Folks are coming to the right place.\u00a0 They bring in hand me down and garage sale found gear and we clean it up for them and make it functional.\u00a0 They pick up inexpensive starter outfits and they take inexpensive lessons from great guides and good teachers.\u00a0 We do a good job with new anglers and that makes me proud.\u00a0 There is nothing I care about more than teaching and sharing our passion and our waters.<\/p>\n Everything is in great shape by the way.\u00a0 The cool, wet spring has our rivers and lakes in fantastic shape.\u00a0 The trout are biting and the shallows of our still waters are producing plenty of fish for the fly angler.\u00a0 The panfish, bass, and pike are haunting the lily pads and weed beds.\u00a0 They haven\u2019t been pushed to the depths by heat.\u00a0 Sloshing around in reeds and working the edges of a favorite or new found lake or pond is a fine way to spend an afternoon.\u00a0 Use poppers or rubber-legged trout flies to tempt the warm water fishes.\u00a0 Cast your fly close to cover and when it splats on the surface, let the ripples settle before giving it twitch hard enough to kick the legs and make some more rings in the water.\u00a0 Be ready\u2014the bite will happen quickly.<\/p>\n On the river, look for blue-winged olives in the morning.\u00a0 And take your tricos with you\u2014they will certainly show up very soon with the warm forecast.\u00a0\u00a0 If the fish are rising, they will be rising to one of these small flies.\u00a0 Pick a reach on any of the Au Sable branches when the sun stretches over the tree tops and you just may have a lonely spot with a fine rise.\u00a0 If not, you\u2019ll find some pretty fast action on small attractor flies like parachute Coachmans, Patriots, Borchers, and Adams.<\/p>\n As the sun gets higher, poke around something bigger.\u00a0 It\u2019s time for foam flies and hoppers on the Au Sable and Manistee.\u00a0 But for my money, I\u2019d fish drake and even Hex patterns as an enticer. We like to tie on hoppers here and for good reason\u2014they work.\u00a0 But the fact remains, that the only hoppers that ever landed on the Au Sable were the ones we caught and tossed in into the currents.\u00a0 The fish simply eat them opportunistically.\u00a0 But the trout have been eating drake sized flies for the last thirty days.\u00a0 I\u2019d bet a dollar to a dime that they will recognize those offerings as food.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a good time to be on the water.\u00a0 If you just still need that trophy, the mouse hatch after dark always happens and you can scratch that itch.\u00a0 Big trout need big offerings.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re lucky enough to have some youngster or newbie wanting to spend some time with you on the water, take them.\u00a0 There\u2019s just nothing better.<\/p>\n My boy Jack has been dying to go, so I took him to Jones Lake the other day.\u00a0 He just wanted to go fishing with Dad.\u00a0 He did a great job.\u00a0 We waded out knee deep.\u00a0 His knees.\u00a0 And cast a spinning rod to the weeds.\u00a0 I cast.\u00a0 He reeled.\u00a0 We caught weeds some.\u00a0 And we swam more.\u00a0 We had a great time.\u00a0 It was the best day of fishing I\u2019ve had this year.<\/p>\n I can\u2019t wait to do it again. \u00a0I can\u2019t wait to get him in a boat.\u00a0 But that means I\u2019ll have to be in the front showing him the how-to\u2019s and keeping him from falling in the river.\u00a0 If I could swing it, I\u2019d hire a guide to drive the boat.\u00a0 If you can swing it, it\u2019d be a great way to spend and afternoon.\u00a0 Let some else deal with the details and drag the boat\u2014let you focus on family.<\/p>\n And, I can\u2019t wait to myself and fish to thick pods of short trout rising to tricos in the growing, morning, lonely light.<\/p>\n Get out there.\u00a0 Where else would you want to be?<\/p>\n See you soon,<\/p>\n Andy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" July 7, 2015 The Old Au Sable Fly Shop Fishing Report It\u2019s Summer here in Michigan.\u00a0 The season here is the epitome of Summertime.\u00a0 It\u2019s cook outs and noodle salad and it\u2019s swimming in the lake and it\u2019s camp fires and s\u2019mores.\u00a0 It\u2019s about kids twirling sparklers and chasing fireflies.\u00a0 And, of course, for us … 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":[84,7,5,68],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.oldausable.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678"}],"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=678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.oldausable.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.oldausable.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.oldausable.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.oldausable.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/a><\/a>