The first 3 weeks of May our hatches and dry fly fishing had been pretty inconsistent but that is starting to change now. That’s a pretty common occurrence for that time frame when spring brings us a lot of high water. Of late the Au Sable is getting below normal flows with the lack of rain but it’s in the forecast for next few days. The low water and cool days this week has made the Sulphur hatch boom and some good trout up and rising! Late afternoon, evenings and right up to dark has been the time frame.
The Sulphur hatch on the Au Sable covers a couple different Mayflies and both are going now. Many call them light Hendrickson size 14-16 and tan/yellowish and little Sulphur size 16-18 and very yellow. The little Sulphur is a major hatch on Au Sable and will go all the way into hex hatch time – pictured below.
Below are some of top patterns right now: Sulphur Parachute, Robert’s Yellow Drake and Regan’s spent wing spinner. Also tan and yellow comparadun work very for this hatch for hatching bug and spinner size 14-18.
This time of year the river also gets to a lot of different hatches on the Au Sable. Some are small in numbers and can be localized in certain sections of the river but still can produce some good trout at times. Below Yellow Cahill in dun and spinner – these bug are big size 10. The last couple night been seeing numbers of these and break out some over size Sulphur patterns. Typically when this bug shows up Brown Drake are not that far off!
Other hatches to look for now are March Browns, Great Speckled Olive and Gray Drake. Here are some excellent patterns for them – Regan’s Rusty spinner and natural spent wing spinner.
