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River Report - April 28, 2015

The turkeys are strutting, the crocus’s are sprouting in the garden, and the spring peepers are singing all day long in the swamps.  It’s Spring here in Northern Michigan and on the Au Sable and Manistee Rivers that means trout fishing with dry flies.

The Hendrickson hatch has started on all branches of our local streams and will simply continue to get better with each warm day.  Commonly known as the Hendricksons, a collective of three similar mayflies actually combine to create this hatch.  It can be a complex venture to decipher which bug is which.  You’ve got three different Latin names and a limitless load of fly pattern labels like Red Quill, Quill Gordon, and Lady Beaverkill to name just a few.  The good news is we’ve got them all at the shop and the better news is that the fish don’t know those names, anyway.  All you have to do is catch one of the naturals in your hat and tie on the bug that we’ve sold you at the Old Au Sable that matches best.  We’ll give you the right tools for the job, so you’ve just gotta match the screwdriver to the screw.

Should be a pretty easy fit this week.  Hendricksons should be a lock.  We’ve got stoneflies that the fish and ardent anglers couldn’t care less about and then the hatch is really only blue-winged olives and Hendricksons.  And both will certainly show up every day if the weather man’s crystal ball holds together like they are promising.

But don’t for a minute think you should wait around for the two o’clock hatch, you should be plying the water with nymphs and soft hackles or simply blind fishing the dry fly.  These fish are coming off winter slumber and may just feed like a bear in a berry patch.

The fish have just started to rise and with some warming sun on the water, that activity will certainly just get better every day.    Brook trout have finally begun to stir and are beginning to take notice of the surface.  They are true sentinels of spring a harbinger fine fishing days to come.

The water is in great shape everywhere, and so, the season is shaping up for fantastic dry fly fishing.  This is a great year to take that guided fishing trip you’ve been thinking about.

The shop is open for business and the construction crew is literally banging away.  It’s all pretty exciting and everything is coming together.

Thanks for listening and I’ll see you on the River.