Northern Michigan Trip Report
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I spent last week in northern Michigan taking a break after graduation and getting in lots of much needed fishing time. Monday, my Dad and I floated a long stretch of the upper Manistee River, yellowtree landing to CCC bridge. It was my first time out on my pontoon, so it involved a fair amount of getting used to how fishing from the pontoon worked. The bug activity was off the charts with stoneflies, caddis, mahogonies, hendricksons, and speckled olive drakes. The surprising thing is that there were very few fish rising. That river is alive with bug activity, and I’m sure it’s about to blow up with rising fish in the very near future. I ripped streamers almost all day with some disappointing results. I boated zero fish, but the silver lining was that I turned a BEAST of a brown about 5 feet from my pontoon. It definitely got my heart pounding.
Tuesday was spent floating the keystone landing to stephan’s bridge section of the Au Sable. The Au Sable seemed to be about a week ahead of the Manistee in terms of fish activity, with the fish definitely looking up. Again, I ripped large streamers searching for some trophy browns with minimal results. I couldn’t ignore the rising fish all day, and some great dry fly fishing brought plenty of fish to hand.
The rest of the week was spent bouncing between the Manistee and the Au Sable. There was an epic hendrickson spinner fall on the Manistee Wednesday night, but again, very few fish were feeding on them. The Au Sable was the place to be, with rising fish all over the place, and huge blanket hatches of black caddis and hendricksons all week long.
Overall it was a great week of fishing, so without further ado, here are some pictures:
Nest on the Au Sable:
Au Sable River:
There is an annual canoe race on the Au Sable that attracts teams from all over…The Au Sable Canoe Marathon. http://www.ausablecanoemarathon.org/sub-index.html
It’s supposedly the longest continual canoe race in the country, and the contestants are SERIOUS about it. We start to see more and more teams out practicing as it gets closer to the race (late July), but we saw quite a few teams out practicing already, trying to get a jump on the competition.
The birthplace of TU, just upstream of Wakeley Bridge on the banks of the Au Sable:
The river was a buffet of these guys for most of the week:
I apologize that these pictures are out of focus, but it gives you an idea of what the bug activity was like. This is during a spinner fall at dusk on the Manistee. You can see the bulging yellow egg sacks hanging from the Hendricksons.
I had one of the coolest fishing experiences of my life this week as well. I was fishing to a couple of small rising fish and hooked about a 6″ brown. I was bringing it in, and all of a sudden it seemed to start thrashing around a lot more and fighting significantly harder. I looked down, and my 6″ brown had grown to about 3 times it’s size! A much larger brown had the fish that I originally hooked sideways in its mouth trying to get an easy meal. It was so intent on not letting go that I was able to work about a hundred yards downstream to my dad, who landed both fish (of course my net was in my pontoon, which was on the bank). I’ve seen big browns chase smaller fish before, but have never had one actually a hold of one….much less hang on for dear life long enough to land it! It figures that I ripped huge streamers for almost two full days with no fish landed, only to have a nice brown make a meal out of my dink.
The fight:
The G&G:
The release:
And some of the less glorious fish of the trip. They aren’t big, but I can’t complain about catching rising fish all day. I started playing around with some different ways to take pictures of fish when I had to do the holding and picture taking myself. I’m not a fan of laying the fish down to get a picture, so I’m trying to find an alternative. I think some of them turned out pretty good. Feel free to give tips/advice.
Supermodels of the trout world:
Overall, a great trip. If you’re in Michigan and looking to get into some dry fly action, point the car north and go! It’s on right now. I love Michigan in May.
-Tim
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