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River Report - August 20, 2015
The Old Au Sable Fly Shop Fishing Report.
All too often in the month of August, prolonged hot and dry spells really put the damper on daytime, stream trout fishing. Anglers are generally pushed to the smallest hours of the night and to the breaking dawn trying to find active fish before the heat of the day forces those trout back to hiding in their shadowy lies where they lazily fin away the day. And there they stay until gets dark, rains, or the season changes from Summer to Fall.
We saw a bit of this over the past week with some heat that pushed the mercury toward ninety. But, for the second time this year, the weather trend moved through relatively quickly and the timely relief of rain and cool is settling back into the Northern Michigan river valleys. The upper rivers are in great shape with better than average seasonal flows and good water temperatures especially the nearer one gets to the headwaters.
Early morning fishing will still provide the best opportunity for anglers. In the growing morning glow, fishermen can find solitude and fish that haven’t yet been spooked back to cover by others. You may just be rewarded by a much better fish if you try harder than the next guy. Often, the best catch of the day happens while most folks are either still sleeping or just starting to pour syrup over their pancakes.
Tricos and blue winged olives remain the main ingredients of the morning rise and flying ants have finally kicked in for the afternoon action. The best flying ant days are generally the sunny days after a rain and there’s plenty of that in the forecast this week. Be sure to have both black and cinnamon ants with you in sizes ranging from sixteen to twenty. If fish are consistently surfacing in the afternoon, it just may be flying ants.
We also have the white fly hatch below Mio dam. The Mio water temperature has been too warm for any quality fishing this past week, but that’s all about to change with the coming cooler temperatures. This should be a great week to explore below the dam. White flies are the last heavy hatch of the year. It’s big water down there, so you may want to book one of our guides to show you the fishing.
We hope to see you all soon,
Andy
We saw a bit of this over the past week with some heat that pushed the mercury toward ninety. But, for the second time this year, the weather trend moved through relatively quickly and the timely relief of rain and cool is settling back into the Northern Michigan river valleys. The upper rivers are in great shape with better than average seasonal flows and good water temperatures especially the nearer one gets to the headwaters.
Early morning fishing will still provide the best opportunity for anglers. In the growing morning glow, fishermen can find solitude and fish that haven’t yet been spooked back to cover by others. You may just be rewarded by a much better fish if you try harder than the next guy. Often, the best catch of the day happens while most folks are either still sleeping or just starting to pour syrup over their pancakes.
Tricos and blue winged olives remain the main ingredients of the morning rise and flying ants have finally kicked in for the afternoon action. The best flying ant days are generally the sunny days after a rain and there’s plenty of that in the forecast this week. Be sure to have both black and cinnamon ants with you in sizes ranging from sixteen to twenty. If fish are consistently surfacing in the afternoon, it just may be flying ants.
We also have the white fly hatch below Mio dam. The Mio water temperature has been too warm for any quality fishing this past week, but that’s all about to change with the coming cooler temperatures. This should be a great week to explore below the dam. White flies are the last heavy hatch of the year. It’s big water down there, so you may want to book one of our guides to show you the fishing.
We hope to see you all soon,
Andy