I’m not going to pretend to know anything about this river. I do enjoy watching this sort of destruction. Awesome.

Best of all. I’m glad to see that the smoke monster from LOST found a new gig. One that really makes a difference. Pause the video at about the 25 second mark and see Smokey in action!

Click the pic for show details and click HERE for a map.

I just placed my order for a Rise Level 7 wt. If it doesn’t get to my house before April 1 that is just fine by me. I won’t fish it until after then anyway because I bought it for chucking big streamers at browns on the Au Sable. That season opens on the 1st of April this year on the Au Sable’s Big Water thanks to new regs. Hopefully I will be there the week after the opener and I will wait to string it up until then because there is just something about buying a rod for a purpose that says “no, just wait for the right time”. If I get to string it before then for a good reason I will surely post a review. In the mean time you can stop buy the Roughfisher and read this. Either way, I’m pretty excited to be adding this  7wt to the arsenal as I don’t own a rod of that weight and I like what Rise is doing. Visit the Rise site and read all about it. 

I have been pretty satisfied with the TFO TiCR 6wt that I have been using as a streamer rod. As the flies grow bigger the need for a heavier stick to throw them with has grown too hence the purchase. My 6wt. is a build from a friend and it is a slick rod. The black blank, black guides and anodized silver real seat make for a pretty stealthy looking rod. Its not anything super fancy or high dollar but it was built for me with the components that I chose so it will stay with me for a long time. The guy that built my rod is Doug Enslen. He is an old school streamer guru. He was my streamer fishing mentor (though I seem to need some more mentoring sessions!), he builds some of the sweetest rods you’ll ever see under the name of Au Sable Rod Co., and he wades like a goddamn heron on speed. I’m not exagerating, the guy moves down a river unlike anyone I have ever seen. There are times that I would’ve sworn that his wading boots were actually more like running shoes. His boots seem to never touch the bottom, he never splashes, and there is barely a wake behind him. He slides down the river quickly and gracefully only stopping when he sees a spot that looks like it’ll hold a big fish. Fishing with him is a solid lesson on how to cover a lot of water in a sort time and somehow avoid drowning in the process. I look forward to the day I get to row for him and watch him work a streamer from the boat. It’ll be a good lesson for sure. Doug doesn’t build rods commercially but he should because he does amazing work. Its sort of a friends only gig and I am lucky to have had the benefit. As I said before, I love that rod that he built for me and it will still see its fair share of time on the water but sometimes the 6 just isn’t cutting it for the really big stuff so it was time step up.  I’ve been shopping for a bit and I stumbled on Rise via Moldy Chum and took a look.

I think what Rise is doing as a start up is right on target with the kind of company that I would like to support. They are a guide based co. with a healthy portion of the profits going to conservation and they seem to be pretty grass roots and I like that sort of thing. Yeah, the rods are built overseas. So are a lot of them that are affordable these days. I guess that’s what we’ll have to get used to in a global economy. I work for a US auto maker and not buying an American made rod probably makes me a hypocrite but so be it. If I had the $600-700 to throw at one of those sticks I would surely do it but I don’t so I am happy to be supporting a new company that is doing the right thing.

The picture above is Hannah Belford, a Rise team member, via the Rise Blog. I added the red fish pic because a few of us are headed to FL in May to chase reds, baby tarpon, and snook in canoes and I can’t wait. Should be good fun!

In other news… its snowing again here in NW Ohio but I guess that’s to be expected for Feb. We’re on the up-swing for spring though and the second part of  steelhead season is coming fast!

Come out and support the Titan Fly Fishers and watch some freakishly inspiring films!

The Titans event will also be featuring some of the Midwest’s top guides and fly tyers tying up some of their favorite local patterns for catching Midwestern finned critters.

I think this is the least amount you’ll pay to see the films so you have no excuse!

Click the flyer for show details

2010 was a strange year. That’s really all I can say about it. Was it kind of uninspiring? Yeah… Kind of. There hasn’t been a post here for a long time and the reason for that I guess is that we have been “wholly uninspired”. But then I really thought about it and the more I thought of it I started thinking that maybe it wasn’t so bad after all. Maybe it was just a year in transition…

Here’s the re-cap:

As far as the fishing goes it started off with some promise with a few decent fish caught in the spring but from there we went to high water temps, low water, odd hatch timing, and trout NOT chasing streamers on the Big Water for what seemed like the rest of the year. Surely the bad catching wasn’t for lack of trying. By the end of the Michigan trout season, and for all time we could give to it, I think we had thrown just about every fly we had at those Au Sable trout and while we may have turned more pigs this year (late in the year) than any other year, the overall fish count was just short of pathetic. I’m not saying we’re numbers guys and counting but when the stockers aren’t even chasing flies its just a little weird. In 2009 we saw more fish chase streamers than you would ever believe. 2010, less than one third that. All in all, 2010 trout season on the big water, bye bye. You won’t be missed. Here’s to looking forward!

Now on the good stuff… It wasn’t a total bust…

Mid summer started with a week long trip up to the Edgewater Cabin on the Holy Water. First part of the week was with friends, second part family, third part was just my wife and I. All three parts were pretty much premium.

It was hot. Damn hot.

Wet wading? Ahhhhhhhh… Feels so good.

Big Water below Mio was out of the question due to high water temps though we did fish it on the one day we could and like most days this year… it didn’t produce.

We did float the South branch from Smith Bridge to Conner’s Flats for the first time though. It was a challenge on the oars on the South Branch in the drift boat but well worth the scout and a buddy did catch his first ever trout and many after that. It was great to watch someone who has never had a fly rod in their hand out fish some one who has had that many times. Sorry Mike… Alex crushed you. Oh… and… leeches… Kwak… do you want a tissue??????? Plus I had the opportunity to show my wife parts of the river that she had never seen later in the week which was pretty great.

Some pics from that week:

Friends at the cabin doing what we did for most of the week.

My nephew Jack, soon to be “master fly tier” swinging a micro bugger.

My other nephew, Noah. “Sheeeeeeiiiiiiiitt uncle Greg. The cast is water proof. I can feeesh!”

Happy little dipshits…

“Its 90 degrees…. They’ll be lucky if they catch a cold!”

Alex’s first trout!

Taking your shirt off ain’t gonna help… the noob is still gonna out fish you. I’ll just row and save myself the humiliation.

My dad, the man who owned the old fiberglass Shakespeare fly rod that got me started.

Probably the A number 1 greatest thing that came out of the 2010 fishing season was the discovery (not that it is anything new but its new to us) that the Au Sable is probably a better small mouth fishery during the summer months than it is a trout fishery…………….. ever. Those parts of the Au Sable that harbor smallies will not be forgotten any time soon and will certainly be revisited this year. Unfortunately the time on that part of the fishery was limited to two trips on two separate occasions. Once, the first, was when Bill and Mike went on a guided trip with Kelley Nueman of Streamside.

From what they say, the trip was WELL worth the admission fee. Good times for sure and Kelley proved (what we already knew) to be THE guide to be with. Here’s a few pics from that trip.

Photos courtesy of Streamside Custom Rod and Guide Service

They had fun regardless of discovering that their campsite had been stolen while they were on the river… Rednecks are only fun if you’re one of them apparently…

While they were catching smallies on the lower river I was on a weekend trip on the upper river with my wife. This was one of the best trips of the year for me. We stayed at Gates Lodge for the first time and it was absolutely perfect. Great staff, great food (from what we saw and smelled… reservations are everything…), and great times at the fire pit. Mid August, exploring new territory around Grayling, MI, meeting new people nightly by the fire, and fishing small flies for a change. By small I mean size 24 and under if you dare. I didn’t dare. Hell, Casting size 24 flies for a streamer guy like me is… well… kind of like just throwing a leader with nothing on it. My best was a 12″ bow right in front of the lodge on a size 24 BWO spinner on 6X. 6X! I felt like I had graduated on to something. Not sure what… just something. After dark I switched to a size 12 Iso and caught a skinny as hell 14″ brown.  I was on cloud nine after that. A goddamn bonafide dry fly fisherman.

I fished small flies like that every evening just before dark for about an hour and a half the time that my wife and I were up for the earlier mentioned week and I have to admit it was a damn good time. Being on the river alone for a change, no one to be concerned with but me. It was nice. Period. I went back to the cabin with a good story for my wife every night about a fish I had missed, one I had caught in a tricky spot, or one I had just worked on in an easy spot and had finally fooled in to taking my fly. She may not care too much about the fish or any of what I had to do to catch it or, maybe she does care. Either way she does a hell of a job acting like she does and that’s just about everything any of us could ever ask for.

Maybe when I look back on it 2010 wasn’t such a bad year.

More from 2010…

I went on another trip in late August with a friend from work that has an uncle (deceased) that has a cabin on a spring creek off of Cooke Dam Pond. This was another trip that made my year.

Its a rare pleasure to head up north with someone that you don’t know that well outside of work and have the whole weekend go off without a hitch.

We left work with intent to fish the lower Au Sable for small mouth and the creek behind Todd’s Uncle Willy’s place for brookies with just about zero expectations. Within minutes of being at Willy’s, Todd solidified the fact that the brookies were still there after catching two in two minutes under the same log where “they were always there before”. It was kind of funny to us both that after all those years of him not having been up there that we should be surprised that the brook trout in this untouched spring creek would not be there for what ever reason. I guess we’re all just a little jaded in that way. After all, why wouldn’t they be there?  The creek by Willie’s place probably hasn’t been fished since the last time he was there!

Yeah… okay… the brookies are there. Lets go fish for smallies.

Its a short drive from Willlie’s to the lower AS, below Foote, so that’s where we headed. We launched the drift boat at the Whirlpool at about 4 p.m. and motored upstream for a bit. After kind of a of a battle with the old 3.5 horse motor (which performed like a champ) we opted to turn around and fish. To Todd’s credit, a guy who has never really had a fly rod in his hand AND a guy who brought spin gear to fish with, he picked up a fly rod and started casting for smallies and said, “I came here to learn to fish with flies, fuck those spin rods. They can stay in the tubes.” To that I said, “Okee doke, you fish tonight. I will row for the entire night.” You just have to appreciate that.  Todd had cast a fly rod before in the pond at his house but fishing from a boat is different and he was up for the challenge and it was almost as if he had done it before. I really shouldn’t have been too surprised. He is probably one of the top sportsman in the state when it comes to hunting but fly fishing? Totally new game to him.

Here’s his first of many that night.

We fished the rest of the night into darkness and made it back to the launch around 10:30-11:00 p.m. We did see a sturgeon swim right under the boat that night that went about 6-8 feet. Probably 6 but hell, it was dark and with the spotlight on it it was gone pretty quick so who knows?

The rest of the weekend went kind of like this:

Brookies in the morning here behind camp at Willy’s…

This pic took first prize in the Gates Lodge photo contest for best river pic!

…Where we caught and released countless brook trout from 3-10 inches. Every one as pretty as the next.

And afternoons here on the Au Sable below Foote Dam…

…Where we caught and released dozens of small mouth.

The spin rods never left the truck for the rest of the weekend. Todd rowed and fished like he had had been there before and brought up a ton of food. The guy cooks up a mean brat. Can’t make toast worth a damn but that’s okay. His Coleman Roadie grill inspired me to pick up a porta grill for the boat. That purchase  has changed the way I think about food when we camp and float. By that I mean it makes me think about it period. Up until this trip, I was pretty content with beer and Cliff Bars to sustain me for the weekend. Now I cook streamside lunch and dinner!

Yeah,,, maybe 2010 wasn’t so bad after all.

Don’t they look tasty? 

Click the link to find out.

photo from: chicagobreakingnews.com

I received the email below from Tom Buhr today. Tom is the president of a grass roots organization that focuses on the Au Sable river in MI. He is the man we all wish we could be when it comes to having the balls and energy to fight the good fights and get motivated on the conservation front. I’m sure he made Rusty Gates proud on many an occasion. His group, which we are big fans and supporters of, can be found here.

Here is the email:

Subject: Newsletter: Attorney General Mike Cox’s StopAsianCarp.com

Please let me know.
…
Department of Attorney General

Yes. Its a big deal. Check out the site. Sign the petition. Send a letter. Whatever it takes.

Why another boot review? Because I love these fucking boots and they deserve it. That’s why.

I’m fairly certain that I bought these last year and they were closeouts from 2007. If someone knows differently, I stand corrected. Patagonia is, as most of us know, expensive gear that is worth what you pay for it. Most every piece of gear I own that wears the Patagonia label has been purchased direct from their website via the “web specials” section or inherited. Whichever the case, I will always stand by the label. “Patagucci” or whatever, I believe in the product and I like what they stand for.

These boots were on the “web specials” page and I think I paid about $75 for them. The sticky soled versions were there too for a whopping $5 more but for whatever reason I went with felt. Do I regret that decision? Maybe. But certainly not by any fault of the boot. The basics are pretty simple. They are light as hell well they are dry so a long walk to your favorite spot is a piece of cake. On the flip side, they remain light as hell for the walk back even after they get wet. As for the walk, they’re pretty much like walking in hiking boots. Super comfy even after a mile or two. What about durability? Well, the felt has worn well and hasn’t started to de-lam yet and the rest of the boot looks about like they did when I bought them. (I wish I could remember when that was. As I write this I’m starting to think that they may be in to their second season.) And getting in and out of them is easy enough thanks to a wide opening. What more can I say? Overall, these are well designed boots and I will absolutely buy another pair when these wear out.

Clean up crew at MDOT launch. Mio, MI

This is a report from the “newbie” we took along with us for the  ASBWPA Clean Up. To be fair, this was not Scott’s first fly fishing trip so he really isn’t a true “newbie” but it was his first weekend on the Au Sable. We asked him to put together a little trip story for the Hatchless blog. He was kind enough to leave out some stuff that we may or may not remember happening. Friday night was kind of a blur. I’m blaming it on the scotch Scott brought. I am told that someone may have punched someone in the face. PBBFFFFTT, whatever, I’m sure the guy had it coming. (After all, he didn’t catch any fish on Friday, he was too busy wader shopping for the dumbass that left his waders at home.) I think some other demonstrations of stupidity also occured that night but like I said, blur…

Here’s Scott’s story.

Fly Fishing the Ausable
9/11/09
4:00pm. I’m sitting in my driveway, running through my head everything I packed and worrying about what important detail I missed. Other anxieties crop up as well. I’ve never really fished for trout before. Would I make a fool of myself on the water or what? Plus these guys, Mike, Greg, and Bill. We’ve tied a few flies, drank a few beers, and waded a stream once together, but what would they be like in close quarters?

4:10pm. Bill arrives and we load up. I know I’m missing something but I can’t think of what.

4:30pm. Loaded Mike and we are officially off!

5:30pm. Obligatory side trip to Cabelas where I purchased a 2 day Michigan license and tried not to drool over all the cool stuff.

6pm. Leave Cabellas (Almost- We had to return to buy waders for Greg)

10:30pm. Arrive at the Loop, a. primitive camp site on the Au Sable. Mike handed me a head lamp. Inside I was laughing at the need for light. I figured once my eyes adjusted I’d be okay. Wrong! The darkness greeted us and it was overwhelming. I noticed right away that looking at  the sky without any light polution lets you see the stars so clearly. After a  few minutes of marveling at that I set up my tent and unpacked the truck. Greg who had arrived ahead of us had a raging camp fire going. It was chilly so I went to the campfire and realized then that I had forgotten my chair.

9/12/09
7:00am. I haven’t slept a wink. My air matress had a hole in it and I ache from exhaustion. Opening the tent flap, I step into a still dawn morning airbrushed with fog. Dead silence. Dead still. It almost seems a shame to wake my friends, but after all, there is a river to clean and then fish to catch. I go from tent to tent trying to wake them up and it feels too much like my morning efforts to get my kids up for school.

8:10am. We park by the river and exit the truck. I see the river for the first time in the daylight. Walking toward the river I am reminded my love for water. I watch as the crystal clear water moves quickly under the blanket of fog. I ache to grab my 7 weight and start fishing and say the hell with the clean up. But I don’t let the allure of the water act as a siren call and take me away from the task at hand.

8:30am. Jazzed on coffee and donuts, handful of day glo orange bags in hand, and two pointy sticks safely stowed away, we begin our float. Lots of garbage to collect from what I hear.

1:30pm. We land at Comin’s Flats and Tom from ASWBPA greets us at the landing and says that the “Boys from Toledo” cleaned up on the raffle. We dump the trash and get fed courtesy of the ASWBPA. Turns out we won two gear bags, a fly rod, and a fly line. Cool return for our efforts. The “Big Waters Group” runs a great clean up. They greet you in the morning with coffee and donuts and send you off after the clean up with a belly full of burgers and dogs. Not a bad gig for a few hours of work and good fish Karma. After lunch we head to the drift boats and gear up. I prep my 7 weight and switch from a floating line to a sinking line. But I’m way too eager. While my friends continue their efforts to get ready, I wade in and fish.

2:00pm Let the drift begin! Now we’re fishing! As you might guess with the Hatchless crew it’s streamer fishing all the way. About fifteen minutes in I have the first hookup on a crystal minnow with an olive tail. I caught two more on an olive wooly bugger with a lot of crystal flash worked into it.

7:30pm. Tired, we anchor mid river and take a break, awaiting the dusk. These white bugs started drifting in and I saw a few rising trout. I couldn’t resist. I switched to my 5 weight with the floating line and tied on a white dry fly. I blew several strikes before finally landing one as the sun finally disappeared. When the sun was gone, we started the drift again. I kept working the dry fly in the dark, but for the life of me I couldn’t figure out how I would know if I got a strike because I could see nothing at all. Then BAM! A trout struck hard and had to be fought into the boat. After that we started mousing. This consisted of a big mouse fly being hurdled to the banks and retrieved slowly. Tricky when you can’t see in the dark. I had a trout slap at it once but that was it.

9:30pm. Our big sky moment, we dropped anchor and just enjoyed the night. The river, maybe 60 feet wide, had the banks covered in these huge towering trees. And above that a night filled with stars so bright you could practically read by them.

10:30pm. The drift over, we grabbed some food and supplies and headed back to camp.

9/13
7:30am. Up and at em! This morning we had to break camp. No fog today and noticeably warmer.

9:30am. Got my coffee and breakfast from McDonald’s while the trucks were moved around. These guys had been living off oatmeal and peanut butter for days! I don’t know how they do it, but I was grateful for something hot.

10:00am.  I only caught two today, though the others had a much more productive day. I lost a couple of flies to wear and tear and the brush in the water.

3pm. By the time we hit the landing I was ready to call it a day. I could tell I was getting tired because my casting rhythm kept turning to crap.

3:30pm. The boats are loaded and we head home.

8:30pm. Bill and I arrive at my house. As we are emptying my gear from his truck, I look up at the sky. I spot a few persistent stars but nothing like the night before. I point this out to Bill and say my goodbyes.
I am finishing off writing this article a week after we left. All I can think of is that big sky and going back. I have a nice weekend planned with the family, but it’s hard to compare to a weekend drifting the Ausable. The trip has forever changed me. I now know what fly fishing for trout is like. I now know I can hold my own out on the water. I also know that a weekend with Bill, Mike, Greg is a weekend of fun to be treasured. Thanks guys!

Here’s a few pics from the weekend.

Had a good turn out for boats this year. Here's 3 of the 7 from this year's event.

Sign in and get your raffle tickets!

Tom Buhr. ASBWPA President, 2009 Riverkeeper award winner, general bad ass of conservation.

A man and his trash poker.

We’ll be hitting the ASBWPA Clean up gig on Sept. 12th. Click the link for details and contacts on that one. The Trophy water gets a solid pounding from sloppy canoe folks all summer long and it needs your help! (Fisher folks too but its easier to blame the canoes for the obvious reasons)  ASBWPA makes it worth your while with prizes and a BBQ afterwards.

The upstream clean up is also well worth it for the same reasons. Rusty Gates from Gates Lodge and Anglers of the Au Sable has been running this one for many years. It covers three rivers, the Au Sable main, South, and North branches and is also followed up by a BBQ. Rusty gets a load of  folks up there. We’re hoping to see some of them make the jump and help us out downstream this year to level the field a bit but either way, the river will love you for it no matter which section you choose. Check the Anglers site for details on Rusty’s clean up.

Again, BOTH gigs are on Sept. 12th. Hope to see you there!