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River Report - May 10, 2018
The Old Au Sable Fly Shop Fishing Report
Things are shaping up for Northern Michigan trout fishing. The rivers in Crawford County continue to lose water and are clearing nicely. Hendricksons are hatching and the black caddis have exploded. Fish are starting to take notice of the activity and are finally beginning to rise. We’re still looking for the brook trout to get active, but until they do we’ve been finding some brown and rainbow trout. The brookies will rise any day—they do every year. When that happens, all will be right with the watery world.
The guides have been doing pretty well on some days and struggling on others. The boats are, not surprisingly, finding the most fish. When the rise is sparse, cutting off a wide swath of water, obviously, increases your odds. That’s been difficult for us wading anglers. The water, even though it’s cleared and has dropped off nicely, has been too high to do any long wade excursions. We have been able to wade into the Holy Waters, the North Branch, and Upper Manistee, but we always want more. Hopefully, the conditions will continue to improve and we’ll be able to dip our toes into more waters and wade further through the fishable stretches of streams. It looks like it will . . . with a little luck.
If we, collectively, cross our fingers tightly enough we may just get to some fine fishing very soon.
And by that I mean dry fly fishing. The streamer and wet fly fishing has been just fine on the right days. Trout are primarily feeding below the surface. Folks have caught some great trout on streamers and a few truly special behemoths.
This week looks good. After this schizophrenic Spring, I’m not sure I know what perfect conditions look like, but I do know that if you wait for perfect conditions, you’ll never go.
I like to say that there’s only one kind of luck in fishing and that’s bad luck. When the fishing is tough we blame it on conditions. But when we catch a good one or a good day, we pat ourselves on the back and attribute everything to skill. If you go, you’ll be making your own good luck.
And stay tuned in to the Old Au Sable Fly Shop Facebook page this Saturday. We’ll be announcing the winner of our opening weekend give-a-way. Someone is about to get a very special prize.
We’ll see you soon!
Andy
The guides have been doing pretty well on some days and struggling on others. The boats are, not surprisingly, finding the most fish. When the rise is sparse, cutting off a wide swath of water, obviously, increases your odds. That’s been difficult for us wading anglers. The water, even though it’s cleared and has dropped off nicely, has been too high to do any long wade excursions. We have been able to wade into the Holy Waters, the North Branch, and Upper Manistee, but we always want more. Hopefully, the conditions will continue to improve and we’ll be able to dip our toes into more waters and wade further through the fishable stretches of streams. It looks like it will . . . with a little luck.
If we, collectively, cross our fingers tightly enough we may just get to some fine fishing very soon.
And by that I mean dry fly fishing. The streamer and wet fly fishing has been just fine on the right days. Trout are primarily feeding below the surface. Folks have caught some great trout on streamers and a few truly special behemoths.
This week looks good. After this schizophrenic Spring, I’m not sure I know what perfect conditions look like, but I do know that if you wait for perfect conditions, you’ll never go.
I like to say that there’s only one kind of luck in fishing and that’s bad luck. When the fishing is tough we blame it on conditions. But when we catch a good one or a good day, we pat ourselves on the back and attribute everything to skill. If you go, you’ll be making your own good luck.
And stay tuned in to the Old Au Sable Fly Shop Facebook page this Saturday. We’ll be announcing the winner of our opening weekend give-a-way. Someone is about to get a very special prize.
We’ll see you soon!
Andy