Au Sable River Fishing Report RSS

Last week was a bit tough on the dry fly front. I was able to get out of the shop for a few days on the water up north. Unfortunately the weather did not really cooperate and it made for a tough couple of days of fishing.  Early in the week we had some cloudy weather which made for a good iso bite in between rain storms. The Iso is always one of my favorite hatches of the year. Fish love to chase these swimming mayflies down as they emerge. Blind fishing Isos can be some of the best daytime...

It’s been a while since the last report and quite honestly this has been the most difficult start to spring fishing that I’ve seen in a long time for trout. The flooding and worm flow events shuffled the deck and gorged the fish. I spent a significant amount of time searching water for rising fish while we had strong Hendrickson hatches to little avail. Along with the water conditions and weather clashing, boat traffic was off the charts on certain rivers. Combine that with tough fishing and it made for some pretty quiet weeks on what are typically productive fisheries...

It’s officially fall despite the weather acting as if it’s late June. We got a couple small shots of rain which were much needed, but still not enough. Despite low, clear water there have been some great opportunities for trout. With increased river traffic focused on the salmon, the night bite is still rolling. Don’t stray away from the larger mouse patterns this time of year, it can help weed out a few of the smaller fish. With the upcoming forecast of cooler nights and a big temp swing during the day, I’d expect the mousing to fall off. But...

Summer is finally here and we are settling into our favorite month of the year for fly fishing in Michigan. Along with warm weather and long days, June brings some of the best fly fishing opportunities of the year. From smallmouth on top water to Trout sipping big bugs and everything in between June has it all.  Trout fishing takes center stage in June. As we transition from the weeks of bug soup into "Big Bugs" matching the hatch becomes less complex, but timing and tactics still play a roll. Northern rivers are fishing well, its been a slow start...

It was around 3:00 AM Sunday morning and we were 3/4 of the way through our night float. We had been grinding through an hour long mousing lull, and I was about ready to call it. We had caught a 19.5 incher early on, and had a decent amount of non-committal bumps on the surface throughout the night. I was struggling to keep my eyes open in the rower's seat, when I heard a thrash on Shane's mouse. "Got him, good fish, GOOD fish". I gave one hard back-row and we turned our headlamps on. When we saw the fish,...