The last couple weeks there has been some wonderful Atlantic Salmon and Steelhead caught on the Au Sable River. Always hard to predict these Atlantics and we have had some big days and then others that’s we cant find a bite. Still bright silver pre spawning fish around and I would think should see them well into December. Most of the early run Atlantics from October have been spawning the last 10 days. These fish will get aggressive and start feeding again once they leave the redds. Mark and Frank had a great day last week and put 6 in the net and a steelhead!
Look to the shallow edges of the gravel runs for these post spawning Atlantics. They love sitting in shallow logs and will ambush minnows and food much like a brown trout does. Stripping and swinging streamers are very effective. My favorite setup is Switch rod or small two handers and a skagit fly line and 10′ sink tip. This setup is ideal for both swinging and stripping a streamer. Cam and John with awesome Atlantics from last week!
Steelhead numbers are slowly building now and there are some good sized ones around. Look for them in the dark water below spawning Atlantics. Egg pattern bite has been good and they start to eat swung streamers now. Hard to beat a fly that looks like a goby! Water temps are down to 42 degrees and will continue to fall with current weather pattern. Time to start fishing the slow sand holes of the Au Sable and deer season is typically the time for our fall steelhead to take off.