Hex
Thursday June 17, 2010
Nate with a teener off the dock. Tough place to work.
The big question is, “Where are the Hex?” The easy answer is, “everywhere”. The more difficult answer includes which waters are wadable.
The South is blown out to the point that the water is dangerous to fish for the time being. It doesn’t look like that will change in time for the weekend. The Manistee probably offers the best wading opportunity but will likely be crowded until the South comes back down to a reasonable level. Most of the AuSable hex activity will be in boat water this weekend and that water is high as well. But that poses it’s own challenges. The water is very high. I heard rumors of someone swamping a drift boat below MacMasters. It takes a lot of flow and error to sink that stable craft so this rumor should serve as a warning to all. More than ever, know the water you’re fishing on the AuSable after dark. Big water like this shouldn’t be taken for granted.
To put thing is perspective, let me tell you about the big rain last Friday. We fished that night for hours as lightning went cloud to cloud. The bugs poured off. Then the bolts started hitting the ground. My friends were in a drifter and we were bobbing around in a riverboat. Both boats ducked for cover at what I’m thinking is the only cabin on the AuSable that doesn’t have a front porch. Then the rain came. Inches and inches of rain in an hour. There were five of us in total and all of us had fancy raincoats built by five different manufacturers and even the high dollar name brand stuff flat failed. That takes ridiculous amounts of rain. The South, already flowing at 250 cfs last Friday (borderline wadable) bumped to 685. The South has since come down (600 cfs) but we’re far from fishable levels. When the rain finally slowed, we had to bail both boats to make them safe to float the rest of the way to the landing. Quite a night.
The weather forecast bodes for great bug activity . . . these warm nights nearly guarantee hex spinner flights. We’ll be chasing them high water or not.
Good luck and be careful,
Andy
