I know everyone is holding out hope for the hexs to hold off until the Fish-In. Well, whatever some of you might be doing (praying, not changing your socks, waving dead chickens around, whatever) keep doing it cause they still have yet to really get going in earnest! In fact, everyone is still really waiting for the brown drakes to fall! Talked with Andy at the new Old Ausable Fly Shop and he said last week Monday they had hex’s on the window of their shop (just below the old dam in town). Then a batch of colder weather settled in and shut the whole thing down.
So unless the temps rocket into the nineties in the next two weeks, I think we could be in for a Fish-In for the ages! Pack the big stuff folks!
I also was in the area (Roscommon at the McMullen Conference Center) this weekend for an FFF educational seminar, and can confirm Jim’s report. Unfortunately, I was unable to get to the Au Sable (or call Jim as planned), but some folks got over there and said the Main Branch was quite high, and the South Branch was not fishable due to high water from the recent rainfall in the area. As a matter of fact, we received rain in Roscommon on Saturday afternoon, which nobody was excited about.
Just checked the 10-day forecast for Grayling and it looks like we’ll be getting warmer weather with minimal rain. Not as warm as last year, but definitely comfortable weather.
I posted in the thread “9 Days and counting” also—I had to work on sunday so I went fishing on the mainstream on saturday—I got caught in the rain—the river was up—the brown drakes were done on the north branch (according to Gates Lodge fly shop)—the south branch was unfishable—they were waiting for brown drake spinners on the mainstream—not much was rising but i caught trout on top and moved some bigger browns on a muddler off the deadfalls. Isonychia parachute dries worked well after 3 pm—the aluminum hatch was getting rolling pretty good and in mid afternoon i was tempted to grab an unopened beer that floated by from an overturned canoe.
In that picture, the farthest you can see in it, is where my wife and I met. (both waiting for a spinner fall) We were married at the campground there.
I was at Keystone Camping from Friday till monday. 3 nights of sitting on the banks. We had 5 in our party and we had a hunch on the Hex hatch. Friday night was nothing. Saturday we had some duns on the river from 11:00 till 11:45. Sunday we had less duns but the fish were expecting them and took any they could find. We did not fish at Keystone but drove to a spot that trends to start early. (please dont ask me for the location). We floated the mainsteam during the days and caught some small trout during the days and caught fish on hex flys during the short time they were on the water. If you are going up this week it would not be a bad time to hire a guide. They know where they are. We had 6-8 river boats come by Friday and saturday nights and they were doing the same as us. My best of the weekend was 17+. I will post a picture later.
-Jeff
