Steeldrifter 0 Report post Posted July 28, 2008 Just returned home late last night from the 37th year in a row of doing two weeks on the Au Sable with the family. This year the weather was probably the worst I can recall in all the years with probably 10-12 days of rain during part of each day, and the days the sun did show the wind blew so hard it made fishing very difficult. Also the mosquitoes this year were just INSANE and would try to carry you away when you went outside. Anytime on or even near the Au Sable is a great time though so I did what I could an made the best of the weather and bugs. Fishing very early or very late in the day sidestepped the winds and bad weather, and some 100% DEET kept the skeeters to a managable level. The Au Sable is usually gin clear and seeing a penny on the bottom of a 8ft deep hole is easy as pie, but this year with all the rains and wet spring/summer the visibility is maybe 2ft at best even on a sunny day which is very strange for the Au Sable. If your on a slow conection the pics may take awhile to load, and may even take a bit on a fast conection since there are so many of them, but its worth the wait, theres tons of good fish porn for everyone to look at here. I wont drag this out with a ton of writting so I'll just let the pics mainly speak for themselves. It was a great time no matter how the weather was and I'm looking forward to heading back up again in a few weeks to take another run at the fish I didnt catch the past couple weeks. Northward bound 22-1/4" of hard fighting Trophy Smallmouth Fighting a chunky 15" smallie And the reward Another healthy Smallie Cant resist a Wooly Sculpin Trout in Mio...This bow was actually a decent fish around 14-15" but I use a pretty good sized net so it looks a bit dwarfed by the net, but you get the idea. More bows falling to Matress Thrasher dries and Wooly Sculpin streamers... Back to the lower river for some more smallies on streamers Another Trophy size smallie Too thick to even get my hand around, this one went around 5lbs or better. Pretty markings on this one This one jumped on an EP fiber minnow I Guided my brother- in -law to get a few on one of the days. He's not a fly fisherman but he only gets out to enjoy fishing maybe once a year so he enjoyed me getting him on a few decent fish. Most people dont realize theres some good smallies in one of the sections of the Mio area in the trout water, so since the weather was hot and water temps high on one of the days I fished the area below Mio that holds a few nice smallies and was able to get this fat 16.5" fish to jump on a crawfish pattern. And another On Saterday evening I nailed this fish while fishing a crawfish fly twitched along bottom for smallies. I'm not much of a roughfish angler but the size of this redhorse river sucker was just amazing, and he actually was a pretty neat looking fish with the bright red fins Few shots taken with my new Underwater digital/video camera Took the niece&nephew spin fishing on the weekend to get them into some fish and they had a great time. The fishslayer herself enjoying the evening. I was told I have to build her a PINK rod for next years trip. Few random pics to end the trip A selection of flies for the night A loon fishing nearby Pretty stretch of water in Mio A very lightly fished creek by the cabin Lumbermans Monument dedicated to the Lumber heritage of Michigan Canoe monument deadicated to a young man that drowned years ago in the big canoe marathon on the Au Sable which now searves as a memorial to all racers Hex fly resting on one of my rods made for a very nice picture That ends yet another year of vacation on the Au Sable. I'll be back up there numerous times before the summer is over but I'm already looking forward to the two week trip of 2009! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Floyd 0 Report post Posted July 28, 2008 Looks like you were fishing west of Oscoda around the Foote Dam area. I used to go up there in the fall to watch people snag those big Coho Salmon. My favorite river up there was the South Branch of the Al Sable just north of Roscommon. Great looking bunch of fish you got there. :headbang: Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Steeldrifter 0 Report post Posted July 28, 2008 Close Floyd....My place is at Five Channels dam, about 12 mile from Foote. Then the trout where at Mio around 35 miles from there. Steve Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
letumgo 0 Report post Posted July 29, 2008 Great photos, Steve! I looks like you had a great time. Boy, the bass look like real hogs up there. They must have a lot of forage to get that large! It looks like your niece and nephew had a great time again this year. Thanks for sharing! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Redwings1 0 Report post Posted July 29, 2008 Great shots Steve with some real hog smallies! I get up there as much as I can and it is never enough... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nymph chucker 0 Report post Posted July 30, 2008 steve not that I didn't pay attetion to the fish photos that "loon" is atually a red-breasted merganser and some ok fish fine better than normal fine good-sized fine mosters Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
