Au Sable 5/20-5/23

My buddy Todd and I just returned home from a few days at my cabin on the Au Sable. The intent was to spend Friday working at the cabin and then chase some trout on Saturday & Sunday. Some recent very high water flows really put the trout off the feed since they most likely gorged themselves during the flood waters. So we had to be versatile and change what we were going after on the fly.


Started out Friday at the cabin doing some work. While Todd fixed the stairs on the front deck I brought in some end tables/lamps/shelves/new TV stand and misc other things to add to the whole trout/fly fishing decor of the cabin...

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Saturday found us on a fav stretch of river. But the higher than normal/stained water put down any rising fish before they evens tarted, and no fish even showed to streamers. It was tought day with only one small 5" bow to show for 8 hrs of fishing. Tough to say the least, but still nice to be on the Au Sable.

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Back at the cabin good food was had and neither of us went hungry with fried catfish as the main course...

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The smell of dinner must have carried quite a ways because a good friend from the cabin across the road showed up and was invited in for a snack...

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Sunday we changed gears since the trout were not active at all and we swapped out all the trout gear from our vests and loaded up with steelhead gear. There were a few steelies left in the river so we headed to the lower reach of the Au Sable. After spending some time on a high overlook below the dam and only noticing a very few fish already harassed by some other anglers we talked it over for a minute and decided to head back and swap out the gear from our vest yet again, and this time load up for some Smallmouth & Pike. Ya have to be ready to change at a moments notice at this time of year if you want to catch fish because you never know what you may be chasing in May.

So we started stripping streamers at one of my fav spots for fly fishing from the shore. I quickly had a decent Smallmouth hooked and come off right at shore, then a small pike bite me off on the take. Just as things were starting to look like the big skunk for the day I had this very healthy 17" Smallmouth attack my 7" long articulated streamer I had tied a couple nights previous.

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Even though the fishing was touch it never gets me down, it's hard not to have a great time on the Au Sable. And there's always next trip, I'll be headed back up this Friday for another 3 days so I can't complain much.