Lots of opportunities!
What great January so far!! If you are a ice fishermen maybe not so much, but if you like to chase brown trout, steelhead or alantic salmon it’s been a great start to the New year. With the warmer January so far the water temps have been ideal for chasing fish in the Au Sable. The hardest part is choosing what fish to go after, lol!!!
The last two weeks I start my morning looking where the best water temps are for brown trout. It’s been a juggling act between Mio and further upstream a little bit. Whichever one is warmer has been working the best. Temps between 37 to 39f have been the zone we have been moving the most fish in. For winter streamer fishing a good day is moving a good handful of fish and putting a couple in the net. Out of those 5 fish at least one is normally over 20 inches. I’m having my clients strip the fly in slow with the water temps being a little colder; the fish are a little lazier.
For the lower Au Sable River, beneath Foote dam, water temps also have been ideal. We are still finding atlantic salmon in decent numbers that willing to eat a swung fly. The steelhead fishing is also going strong. In typical winter steelhead form, we are finding them in the deeper, slower holes.
We still have warmer than average temps for the next few and I have a few spots open in the schedule. Give me a shout if you’d like to get out and enjoy the beautiful Au Sable River.
