Au Sable Fly Fishing and Guide service Report

 

 

May 22, 2013
 
 
Another May week on the Au Sable has come and gone.  And with it we saw the variables that May and trout fishing brings. 
The weather predicted thunderstorms that didn’t happen and some that did. Crawford county had rain and sunny 80 degree days. In short, it was typical Northern Michigan weather.
 
 
It was a change over week. The brown bugs (Hendricksons, mahoganies, great speckled olives, and black quills) peaked and fell off while the light insects started to show up. 
We dipped our toes in the still high South Branch with mixed success. We didn’t catch a lot of fish over there but did manage that next class of teen size trout most outings. The Holy Waters and North branch produced better numbers of fish in their much more normal water levels and,  while the Holy Waters showed vigilant anglers an occasional fish in the next age class, the North Branch browns remained stodgy though the brook trout were willing to play the game. 
 
 
The Hendrickson, mahogany, and black quill (same pattern as the Hendrickson) spinners along with mating flights of popcorn caddis made for a mixed bag of activity during the evening rise. Caddis emergence and the beginning of the sulphur duns rounded out the daytime action.
So I can’t say anything was peak the last few days. All of the hatches had their moments and we did have some very good fishing, but we also saw very complex hatches comprised of every phase of every bug that we get in the Month of May. In the shop it was almost easier to say, “Drakes, Iso’s, Hex, and tricos aren’t hatching—take everything else you own”.   It was, at times, tough. Fly anglers that were prepared, patient, and hard-working found reward. They madetheir own luck.
 

 
As an example, I fished with Biker Dave for spinners a couple of days and each night started with a few small fish rising to caddis and ended with better trout that ate either a mahogany or Hendrickson spinner or ate nothing we offered as we noticed sulphurs emerging. It seemed every trout wanted a different pattern. 
That should change over the next few coming days. Sulphurs and caddis will be the dominate emergence and their mating flights will be the main event. But a good angler would be foolish to pretend those mahoganies and Hendricksons won’t show up in spinner flights. As always, be prepared.
Man, I love this time of year.   You gotta think, you gotta pay attention, you gotta go, you have to be an angler.
 Plus, it’s about to get better. Sulphurs are about to blow up.
Don’t miss it.
Thanks you,
Andy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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