Steeldrifter

1 hour ago, partsman said:

Looks like a great trip! Those are some beautiful browns. I fish a different branch of the river which is running low in the extreme, maybe this rain coming this weekend will help. Enjoy the rest of your trip!

Mike.
 

Yeah supposed to start raining this evening and get around 1" or more of rain over the next 2-3 days, as well as highs on Tuesday of only 67. My fingers are crossed that gets the mid day fishing going a bit better once again for this final week of the trip.

2 hours ago, richmce said:

is it too early for the night mouse fly bite ?

I don't think so. I actually saw a real small field mouse in the river a couple evenings ago that must have down so I'm sure mousing would most likely be doable by now.

Best wishes and hope it is a quicker recovery than expected. Let us know how you are doing when you feel up to it.

Steve

Look at the light I give off, I must be an angel 🤣

Slower night tonight, but did manage one really nice big brown again. I think I'm starting to get spoiled!

Yet another great night on the river. The Au Sable has been good to me my whole life, but she's being especially good to me this trip for some reason. Got this beauty about 10:30 tonight. Nothing better than hearing a big brown trout slurp in your dry fly and then setting the hook into a solid weight out there in the darkness.

Nice looking rig Robert. Welcome to the site. Make yourself at home and enjoy!

Steve

Pics didn't load above, so here they are.

Cool stuff Mark. Halibut on a fly is something really neat to see.

Well last night was the night of missed/lost fish I guess. Had a real good fish blow up on my dry fly right before dark and totally missed it. Had another take and lost after a few seconds. Then right at dark had a real good fish suck in the cahill, I set the hook and could tell it was easily a 20" range fish. He ran downstream like a freight train and in the dark it's really hard to follow along that riverbank due to all the logs. So I tried putting pressure on him to slow him down but tippet snapped.  So last night was fish 3 Stevie 0 😐

Back for another go at them tonight. Just hanging at the motel with heat on my shoulder today. Long days of casting and a bad rotator cuff are not a good combination.

1 hour ago, DFoster said:

"And last place in the best markings contest goes too..."  

🤣😆 That's hilarious.

But yeah wow...I think some other fish must have jacked the rest of his spots from him when he wasn't looking.

81 here in upper Michigan right now, going to about 84 today. Really clear and sunny. Just got back from throwing some streamers for bass for an hour thinking they would be active but nope, guess they took the day off 😆 Did see a Loon as well as an Eagle though so that was cool.

3 hours ago, DFoster said:

I'm glad they're back Steve, why do fish suddenly shut off?  Those are some beautiful trout!

Fish in the Au Sable are spoiled. There's a ton of bug life in this river, pretty much any hatch you can think of happens here. So the fish in the summer get to where they simply relax and hang out during the day light hours come June, then soon as it gets dark and the bigger bugs start hatching like Iso's and cahills right now at dark, then they slide out and start chomping bugs in the dark when they feel safe. There's still some fish to catch during the daylight hrs, but now at this time of year (mid June) the hatches start coming off mostly after dark now.

Also the water temp I think is playing a role. There was a cold front last week that dropped the water temp from 68 to 60. That somewhat shut down the hatches. Now yesterday it got to 65f water temp since the daytime air temp is hitting 80's so the hatches are kicking back in again.

Great smallie Tom 😎 I bet seeing that big sturgeon was exciting. I remember seeing one in the Mantistee one time that was 4' long right next to my drift boat when we floated over a shallow riffle and it freaked me out because I was not expecting to see a fish that size in there lol

1 hour ago, Poopdeck said:

Wawa sizzlis

Never even heard of that...I had to google it to see what it was lol

Nothing wrong with a Fathers Day spent in that manner.

Nice lookin' smallie Tom 😎

All ready for this evenings hatch 🙂

Yeah chug, with the tough fishing of the past 2 days it was pure joy to feel the take of a decent (or any) fish last night 😁

Hard to believe but I actually decided to not go fishing this morning/afternoon With the way the hatches were coming off last night and fish rising, I decided to stay at the motel and tie flies all day till this evening. Have a good feeling about tonight, hopefully I am not wrong.

Had an excellent hatch of light cahills last night right at dark so tying up some with a little hi-vis mixed into the wing for tonight.

Was a pretty decent night on the river. Much better than the past couple days. That cold snap had the hatches and fish both out of sorts. Warmer weather today got both the iso's and light cahills going again. Didn't get anything real big but did get some decent ones that made for a really enjoyable evening/night.

Yesterday was a bit of a rougher day. Only two small browns and a small bass.  Really rainy which was good because we needed it, but also cold so between the rain & cold the hatches stopped and the fish stopped rising. The river level is in great shape now. Water temp is only 60f which is down from 69f it was just a week or so ago. But supposed to turn sunny and get into the 70's and even 80's starting today/tomorrow so that should get the water temp back up into the mid 60's and get the hatches going again so I think the hatches/fishing should really pick back up in the next day or two.

2 hours ago, flytire said:

 ...btw....here's some strange sounds in the woods when you're all alone 

you are not alone! i see you

It definitely sounded "squatchy" 🤣 . There was what sounded like a pretty good size tree branch break just down river about 50yrds from me about 10pm last night. I keep telling myself it was just a 300lb deer 🤣

Mio, it's about 30 miles or so downstream of Grayling.