You couldn’t have begged for better weather… for early fall color viewing. I mean really. We had perfect weather for anything you would hope to do on an early October weekend in Northern Michigan except target big, hungry, and horny pre-spawn browns on the Au Sable. It was sunny and 70 degrees every day we were there. Absolutely gorgeous weather to sit in a boat, cast your arm off, and consume many beers.

We did turn a fair amount of big fish which is always fun. Especially after a hot summer that had many concerned about a possible fish kill. The words we heard were that we turned more good fish than many of the other anglers that weekend. Nice to hear but boating a few of those that took more than a peek would have been nice. A fair number of teens were put in the boat but when you’re hunting the big stuff, small teeners don’t get in photos like they should hence the lack of fish pics in this post. Everyone caught fish but not everyone got a pic. Redundant is… well… redundant.

Here’s the trip pics.

Todd up front and Bart on the sticks with a great hat that may have helped him earn the coveted "Most improved oarsman of the year" award.

All Texans in the back of the bus please. Steers? Or queers? Its up for debate.

That hat really ties the room together.

Todd figured out that if he really squeezed his butt he could cast further.

Wadsworth... the only pic from the weekend of the man, the myth, the fucking LEGEND!

WTF do you say about this? Ummmm... that's a lovely "dock" you have there? No motor and clearly going nowhere. Fucking awesome. Next time I pass this barge, if there isn't a thong hung on the rail, one that was once worn by a woman, I'm gonna blow it up.

Here's Randy being glad this Ditch Pig was a mini and not tied on a cheap hook with a big ass barb.

Wow! Are you comfortable? Can I Get you anything?

Cooling off a bit. Like I said, it was warm... even for a Texan. I still haven't figured out out why some of us still INSIST on wearing waders in the boat.

I can't remember what was going on here but they seem to think its funny.

The morning commute.

One of Mike's from Friday.

Just plain nice.

 I saw this article and could only think this can’t be good in the long run. Sure, there won’t be as many trucks (see, Megaloads) hauling stuff from way up north and that’s kinda cool. What scares me is that these things will make mining and access a whole lot easier. Read the article. Probably not good.

Here’s the soundtrack for those days when you are ready to settle in and commit to sticking with it.

Clean up weekend is here! Well, next weekend anyway. September 10th is THE day. Saturday after Labor Day. Its that weekend that no one but everyone looks forward to. Its the perfect kind of a weekend to introduce new folks to the resource that we love. Come one come all! This year we are taking a group of 8 down the river in search of trash. Some new folks, some trash collectin’ vets. The good thing is that all are excited to purge the river of the filth that has accumulated over the long, hot summer. If you are interested you can sign up here. Just send an email and get your “beat”. Great raffle and door prizes await those that participate! The ASBWPA runs a killer event! Come on out and get some!

Afterwards… we will all fish.

Via The Chum. Looks like fun to me. Where do I sign up? …and who’s paying for it?

Case(s) in point.

Early May last year, Hennie season… bugs hatch, no fish rising. Bugs come out to do the dance, wind picks up, bugs go back to trees. No spinner fall. This year same time, hatches all screwed up based on weather. Timing was odd, water was off color (which should have meant great streamer fishing… but not) bugs hatched, few fish rose, no spinners.I honestly can’t remember what happened for Drakes, Hex, and Iso’s last year but I can say with confidence that it didn’t happen for us. I did catch a nice fish on an Iso last July but it wasn’t because they were out in force. It was dumb luck. Nice. But dumb luck.

The point of this is that as disappointing as it can be to drive 4 hours north just knowing that you are going to hit the magic moment. when it doesn’t happen, there is a good lesson to be learned there. The lesson is patience. Fine tuning your ears to hunt for the big rises no matter how few and far between they are. We chased Hennies in May this year and it was a good lesson in what I just mentioned. The hatch was not exactly stellar but there were a few good fish looking. We found a few, parked, pitched and struck out. Maybe we put them down… whatever. Bottom line is that it was a whole hell of a lot of fun for the short time that it lasted and it put an even finer point on something that we never thought we’d care too much about. Actually hunting rises. I think it actually started last year with the whole stonefly/”stoned hopper” thing. The fact is, there is now an even bigger place in our hearts for the potential of disappointment. So much that we are going to go up after brown drakes next weekend for one night. Brown drakes are noted as being a pain in the ass and the disappointment will surely bring us back for more with the next big hatch. Maybe hex. Maybe white flies. Who knows.

Here’s a few shots from the Hennie trip this May.

Streamer potential at the launch. “What color today?”

“Cotton Candy was no good. Now what”?

Good fit.

Hard to complain about putting a good fish down with this view.

ditto…

Million dollar dinner.

Best fish of the trip. Not the biggest, but the best… by far.

?

I’m not sure where I made the transition from backpack toting hardcore kid to tree loving fly fishing dude but I guess it works for me. Enjoy some classic Fugazi. I still do.

I would  love to think that Justin Vernon has at some point in his life picked up a fly rod and had fun with it. Of that I can’t be sure but I can say that every one of the music projects that he has been a part of have been nothing short of amazing. This is one that blows me away every time I hear it.