Old AuSable Fly Shop River Report The Spring Peeper as peeping!  Those little frogs singing in the vernal ponds are truly the first and best signal of Spring.  They started screaming a few days ago and, shortly after, Hendricksons hatched on the River. That’s right the Hendrickson hatch has begun to trickle.  Fish have barely taken notice, but with more seasonable weather in the forecast that are highlighted by cloudy damp afternoons, trout will rise greedily very soon.  I...

By: Jeff Gardner   Category: Brook Trout, Brown Drakes, BWO, Dry Fly Fishing, Fishing Tips, Fly Fishing Community, Hex, ISO, Michigan Reports, River Reports, Tourism, Weather

The Old Au Sable Fly Shop Fishing Report The chives and garlic are sprouting in my garden, turkeys are strutting, and the fish are biting more aggressively all the time.  The Ides of March are past and April is upon us.  Of course, we woke up on April Fool’s day to a light covering of snow—fitting.  T.S. Elliot wrote, “April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain”.  Well, that doesn’t sou...

By: Jeff Gardner   Category: Brook Trout, Brown Drakes, BWO, Dry Fly Fishing, Fishing Tips, Fly Fishing Community, Fly Tying, Grouse Hunting, Hex, ISO, Michigan Reports, River Reports, Rusty Gates, Streamer Fishing, Tourism, Weather

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 t...

By: Jeff Gardner   Category: Brook Trout, Brown Drakes, BWO, Dry Fly Fishing, Fishing Tips, Fly Fishing Community, Fly Fishing School, Fly Tying, Hex, ISO, Michigan Reports, River Reports, Streamer Fishing, Tourism, Weather

The Old Au Sable Fly Shop Fishing Report What a wonderful, mild beginning to March.  Temperatures have given us highs in the forties and even a beautiful stretch of fifties.  The trend has begun a slow melt of ice and snow that is much welcomed as winter winds down. Who knows what the coming weeks will hold? We could very well see snowstorms and big rains, but for now the promise of a gradual run-off is very much exciting.  We’ve had a nearly five year run of long, sustaine...

By: Jeff Gardner   Category: Blue Gills, Brook Trout, Brown Drakes, BWO, Dry Fly Fishing, Fishing Tips, Fly Fishing Community, Fly Fishing School, Fly Tying, Grouse Hunting, Hex, ISO, Michigan Reports, River Reports, Steelhead, Thunderstorms, Tourism, Trico, Weather

The Old Au Sable Fly Shop Fishing Report The miserable cold snap has finally ended.  It has been a beautiful, mild winter and the cold spell lasted just long enough to thicken the blood.  Mild temperatures are in front of us for a good while and after the toughening up, it’s going to feel like Spring when daytime highs reach the thirties.  As much as it was appropriate to hunker down in the depths of Winter, it is time to get outdoors now. Go outside and shake off the winte...

By: Jeff Gardner   Category: Brook Trout, Brown Drakes, BWO, Dry Fly Fishing, Fishing Tips, Fly Fishing Community, Fly Fishing School, Fly Tying, Hex, ISO, Michigan Reports, Michigan Winter Fishing, River Reports, Tourism, Trico, Weather

The Old Au Sable Fly Shop Fishing Report Well, when you live in the North it’s only a matter of time before winter turns tough and Arctic air dumps into the Great Lakes Region. There’s a beauty of a deep freeze settling in. The snow will be squeaky when daytime high temperatures just tickle single digits. So, you do what you’ve learned over the years of living around the forty fifth parallel—you hunker down. You fill the wood box and the gas tanks and you dig out indoor ...

By: Jeff Gardner   Category: Brown Drakes, BWO, Dry Fly Fishing, Fishing Tips, Fly Fishing Community, Fly Tying, Hex, Ice Fishing, ISO, Michigan Winter Fishing, River Reports, Trico, Weather

The Old Au Sable Fly Shop Fishing Report Hey Folks, I’ve been running ragged working the shop and guiding and have been a little behind with the reports I know you are all looking for. So, here it is.  Hex are winding down on the Au Sable and are all but over on the South Branch.  There should be some shorter spinnerfalls and hatches left in the Au Sable’s lower reaches as the hatch sputters to an end. We’re waiting on the Manistee to hold up its end.  Hop...

By: Jeff Gardner   Category: Brook Trout, Brown Drakes, BWO, Dry Fly Fishing, Fishing Tips, Fly Fishing Community, Fly Fishing School, Fly Tying, Hex, ISO, Michigan Reports, River Reports, Weather

The Old Au Sable Fly Shop Fishing Report We’ve got our last cold front of the season behind us—we hope.  Fishing shut down for a few days, but now we should be back on track for the goodness of June. The Manistee has some fine brown drake nights in the bug forecast.  And the Au Sable is looking forward to quality evenings spurred on by Iso’s and Suphlurs.  In fact, every angler should have a healthy dose of those patterns in their boxes for the next couple of weeks....

By: Jeff Gardner   Category: Brook Trout, Brown Drakes, BWO, Dry Fly Fishing, Fishing Tips, Fly Fishing Community, Fly Tying, Hex, ISO, Michigan Reports, River Reports, Tourism, Weather

The Old Au Sable Fly Shop Fishing Report. It’s finally June. The trials and tribulations of May are behind us. High water is giving way to clearer, more fishable conditions. And, best of all, the drakes are started. Anglers can find gray drakes on most of our waters and brown drakes have exploded on area lakes and have made their initial appearances on the River. Sulphurs and mahoganies and caddis still make up the most prominent emergence, but drakes are what we’ve all been...

By: Jeff Gardner   Category: Brook Trout, Brown Drakes, Dry Fly Fishing, Fishing Tips, Fly Fishing Community, Hex, Michigan Reports, Tourism, Weather

The Old Au Sable Fly Shop Fishing Report. The River just keeps on flowing unconcerned about what we’re doing and unconcerned with what we want to happen. Hendricksons have largely moved through the system, but I surely wouldn’t go to the river without some parachutes and I’d be looking for Hendrickson spinners at dusk.  We’re moving toward Sulphurs and popcorn caddis.  And we’re especially moving toward the time of the evening rise. As much as the afternoon, E...

By: Jeff Gardner   Category: Brook Trout, Brown Drakes, BWO, Dry Fly Fishing, Fishing Tips, Fly Fishing Community, Fly Fishing School, Fly Tying, Hex, ISO, Michigan Reports, River Reports, Streamer Fishing, Tourism, Trico, Weather