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River Report - March 26, 2021
The Old Au Sable Fly Shop Fishing Report
It is sure acting like Spring here. The snow is all but gone, frost is coming out of the ground, buds are popping on the trees, the Tom Turkeys are strutting with white and blue heads, and I saw one fish rise.
Stoneflies and blue-winged olives are hatching on the best days. Fishing has picked up plenty. I still haven’t tricked one on the dry fly, but streamer and nymph fishing just keeps getting better.
It seems every day that anglers move a few more trout. You really have to pick your days - warm and cloudy seem best. But the sunny ones have had their moments and bite windows too. Just treat the warmest, bright days like any other sunny fishing day and go early in the morning or late into the evening and good things just might happen.
It’s sort of going now, so any day you can get out is worth a try. Gone are the doldrums of winter. Water temperatures and flows look good for the time being. I’m jittery with excitement just like I used to be many seasons ago.
I remember when I was teaching my last year at the University. Every single day that it looked like the temperature would top fifty, I just couldn’t stand the thought of lessons on semicolons and making me miss out on the first or next best Hendrickson rise. So, after grading papers, I’d pour one of the two whiskeys I allowed myself and lean into slowly tying flies. I’d grind out a few bugs an hour and put them in a little fly shop cup. It’d take me all week to wrap up a couple of dozen.
One day, after cancelling class on a warm afternoon, and catching a bunch of good trout and not in the least regretting my dereliction, I got back to the rusted, old car and realized I’d dropped the packed cup of Hendrickson flies that I’d painstakingly twisted up. It was heart break after a great, long day, but all worth paying alms.
We only get so many Springs—very few like this one promises. The fish are looking to bite. The bugs want to hatch. And all of the world is so very much ready for a new Spring.
This is going be a big year for me.
Hope to see you soon,
Andy
It is sure acting like Spring here. The snow is all but gone, frost is coming out of the ground, buds are popping on the trees, the Tom Turkeys are strutting with white and blue heads, and I saw one fish rise.
Stoneflies and blue-winged olives are hatching on the best days. Fishing has picked up plenty. I still haven’t tricked one on the dry fly, but streamer and nymph fishing just keeps getting better.
It seems every day that anglers move a few more trout. You really have to pick your days - warm and cloudy seem best. But the sunny ones have had their moments and bite windows too. Just treat the warmest, bright days like any other sunny fishing day and go early in the morning or late into the evening and good things just might happen.
It’s sort of going now, so any day you can get out is worth a try. Gone are the doldrums of winter. Water temperatures and flows look good for the time being. I’m jittery with excitement just like I used to be many seasons ago.
I remember when I was teaching my last year at the University. Every single day that it looked like the temperature would top fifty, I just couldn’t stand the thought of lessons on semicolons and making me miss out on the first or next best Hendrickson rise. So, after grading papers, I’d pour one of the two whiskeys I allowed myself and lean into slowly tying flies. I’d grind out a few bugs an hour and put them in a little fly shop cup. It’d take me all week to wrap up a couple of dozen.
One day, after cancelling class on a warm afternoon, and catching a bunch of good trout and not in the least regretting my dereliction, I got back to the rusted, old car and realized I’d dropped the packed cup of Hendrickson flies that I’d painstakingly twisted up. It was heart break after a great, long day, but all worth paying alms.
We only get so many Springs—very few like this one promises. The fish are looking to bite. The bugs want to hatch. And all of the world is so very much ready for a new Spring.
This is going be a big year for me.
Hope to see you soon,
Andy