Thursday and Friday, I was on the Au Sable system hoping to hit the White Fly hatch in full swing, and kill time before the evening hatch fishing tricos and terrestrials. Things didn’t go quite according to plan, but it was a successful trip anyway.
I got to Grayling a little before 9 on Thursday morning. My initial plan was to fish the mainstream during the trico hatch, but most access points I checked already had fishermen in place. I'm sure I could have found a good spot, but in hopes of getting water to my self, I drove over to the lower north branch and got on the water below Kellogg's bridge. Maybe not a good choice.
I saw a few risers near the bridge and offered them tricos, bwo's, and a small adams with no response. Moving down a ways from the bridge I stopped at a nice looking flat to await the little trico spinners. Around 10:30 they came--and went. For three minutes or so around that time, a mixed swarm of tricos, olives, and small caddis swept upriver, but once they had passed, there wasn't a bug in sight on the water. I waited a while, but no more flies came, and nothing was feeding on the surface. I tossed olive patterns for the heck of it as I waded back to the bridge, but go no strikes.
Back at my car to grab a drink of water, I heard quiet popping and tumbling sounds in the weeds. I could feel the heat of the day coming on too. It was terrestrial time, so I tied on a rubber-legged hopper and fished up from the bridge. In about an hour and a half, I got six or so strikes, one of which brought a plump 9" brookie to hand, and another that got me a brief hookup with a sizeable trout that splashed like a landing duck when I set the hook and quickly dove into a logpile where it snapped my tippet in seconds. I marked the spot where that happened in my memory, and will revisit it with a big streamer early some morning next spring.
I got off the north branch a little after two and followed North Down River Rd. into Mio. After buying a few flies from Bob Linsemann, I headed for the big waters below Mio dam. That area has never fished very well for me except during active hatches, and I was interested to see if I could change that. As it happened, I did. Scanning the river from atop a staircase at the first access point I visited, I could see a few fish rising in the tail-out of a riffle. Were they hitting olives, I wondered? When I reached the bottom of the staircase, the river answered in the negative. A steady stream of winged ants drifted by in and below the surface film. Tying on an ant pattern, I caught a nice rainbow on the first cast. I hooked another trout on the second, but broke it off when I set the hook a bit too eagerly . Every time I fish a piece of big water, it takes me at least one, and sometimes two or three lost trout (and flies) until I remember that a heavy current adds a lot of pull even to small fish. One more trout struck and flipped off in that spot, and that seemed to end the feeding. Working upstream, fishing the ant blind, I caught a couple more rainbows. When I reached the head of the riffle, I spotted a two more feeders just beyond a current seam bordering a deep, still pocket. I must have cast to them for half an hour, but never got a strike. They showed an equal disinterest in ants, olives, midges, and various attractors. Eventually, I gave up and decided it was time to go pitch my tent and eat before the evening rise started. Getting in a few last casts at the foot of the staircase, I took another 10" brown with the ant, which soothed some of the frustration his buddies upstream had given me.
In the evening they would give me more. That's a story for tomorrow.
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