Great casting tips... Now I'm not sure if I ever really felt my rod load before. Of course, I started to see my backing while practicing, started to try too hard, and my form fell to pieces. But I've got some great stuff to work on. JC showed a neat little side arm cast that gets the fly to fall gently, was able to use that immediately the following day.

Of course, the best day of fishing was the last one, in a brief 15 minute period where we caught a light BWO hatch that for some reason was driving the fish nuts. I only got two small brookies and a spunky little rainbow during that period, but missed several more. Once the hatch shut down, so did the fish. We caught fish every day, but nothing like during that hatch.

Hare's Ears on the Manistee, Pheasant Tails and BWO's on the AuSable worked for us, but I'm no cold-water fisherman.

Oh and watch out for all the creek chubs between Grayling and Burton's landing. Should have skipped that stretch.