Au Sable River Fishing Report RSS

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,...

Thursday night we launched the boat around 9 PM and were able to lock down a good-looking spot and wait for bugs. The water temp was perfect at 65 degrees. Sure enough, around 10 PM, we started seeing spinners flying up river. Not long after, they were all over the water. We were thinking, “man, are there any fish here? They should be rising by now”. We were about ready to pull anchor when the river came alive. Brad heard a good fish rise upstream and I had 2 or 3 feeding right in front of me. Brad caught his...

Warm weather returned last week and it blew the lid off the hex fishing. Good reports from across the state have been rolling in all week. The little dip in temps we had earlier this week should draw things out just enough for a last hurrah of hex fishing this weekend.  Iso fishing remains consistent before the hatch, and as we roll into the summer day time terrestrial fishing will pick up as the weather permits as will the late night mousing if you're into that sort of thing... Just like the trout eating surface flies during the night we...