The lower Au Sable River has been fishing real good the last few weeks for Atlantic Salmon and now Steelhead are also showing up. Conditions have been pretty much ideal with stable flows coming out of Foote Dam 1200-1400 cfs most days. Been a few spikes from rain and that is also a good thing to bring new fish into the river. Water temps have been slowly dropping and at 46 degrees right now. What an ideal temp to fish both Atlantics and Steelhead! Some warm days are in the forecast for the rest of this week so it should stay in this same range for a bit – hopefully a long time.
The last week we have been hooking a couple real nice Steelhead most days and they are a handful to land with some insane runs/jumps. Some of these steelhead are sitting right behind spawning Atlantics and are looking for eggs to feed on. Most are in deeper faster gravel runs now and we hitting them on swung flies or egg patterns down deep. The sand holes in the very lower end are holding Steelhead fresh out of Lake Huron. Not much current down near Oscoda with Lake Huron so high it is backed up in river. Below Joe and his son had some real good action last week putting about a dz in the net in 2 days of fishing. Here is your classic big male all colored with a crazy kype. Below is gorgeous silver hen and just love hues of blue and purple.
Currently the first big push of Atlantics from the last couple weeks are spawning now. These spawning fish don’t bite well and best to be left alone. But these spawning redds do attract new fresh fish just coming in. Behind them and along structure near them. Atlantics love logs, posts and stumps. Often a swung or stripped streamer right down logs and they will come out and crush it.
A lot of the gravel runs in the Au Sable do have areas of relative shallow water with logs and sand and is ideal water to be holding fresh Atlantics. Our fall run has never been a big push of fish at one time more of little spurts and a consistent trickle thru November and December.
This fall its been so good to see all age classes in river which is one sign of a healthy fishery. Currently have caught Atlantics from around 20″ up to 32″. I haven’t weigh any these fish yet but they are so heavy and with some up to 14-15 lbs.
November should continue to have new pushes of fresh fish but also lots of post spawners. After these Atlantic spawn they don’t die and many stay in river for while. Back to searching for food and feeding heavy. They love flashy bait fish and goby patterns. November and December is ideal for those that like to fish two handed fly rods – swinging and stripping. Sparkle Minnows, Intruders, Natural Goby/Sculpin patterns. Will post a lot of my flies we are using in next post. When comes to peak Steelhead mid November and December is typically the time frame.
