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North East
Michigan
Steelhead Fishing Report - May 11th
Still some
good steelhead fishing on the lower Au Sable
River. Water levels have dropped and a
good rain is needed. Right now look for fish in the fast
gravel runs and most of them are very close to
spawning gravel. Top flies right now have
been bright colored egg patterns, hex nymphs,
black stones, and green caddis. This time
of year with water temps being in the 50's is it
also a good time to swing some streamers for
steelhead. Leech, sculpin, and bait fish
patterns are all productive.
The lower Au Sable is considered by many to have
the latest run of steelhead in the lower
peninsula of Michigan and typically there are
good fish around most of May.
 May 10th - Roy Larson and
daughter Sandy with a couple of real nice
steelhead on the lower Au Sable River. It
is getting a little late in steelhead run but
there are still some nice fish around.
Today was summer like conditions and water
levels are getting a bit low, with a good rain
needed. With each rain look for new fish
to move into river for the next couple
of weeks.
 May 5th - Cormorants numbers
in the lower Au Sable are finally dropping.
This was the second year of our harassment
project and overall it went very well.
There were roughly 150,000 young steelhead
stocked in the lower river this year and these
nasty birds were in there trying to eat them all
up. Volunteers did a excellent job of
keeping these birds out of river and not to many
young steelhead were eaten. The biggest
problem we had was a lack people coming to help,
which is surprising, but the truth. Lynn
Davis owner of the Au Sable River Store did a
excellent coordinating the volunteers and even
let some use his rental boats. Shawn,
Randy and Art I think you guys were there
everyday and you did a unreal job! All the
others that helped thank you so much for coming.
Tom Buhr made a huge financial contribution to
the project and we were able to get some money
back to the guys that spent so much on gas
running around the river. Thank you so
much that was huge! Project was set up
USDA biologist Pat Ryan and Michigan DNR
biologist Steve Sendek we all do thank you guys
very much. Also thank you very Roger and
Pat for coming and killing those nasty birds!
The goal of this project was to stop these birds
from eating the young steelhead and I think
overall that was done. I hope in future we
can improve this project and I do wish that more
of these over populated birds can be permanently
removed. Also we are going to need more
help next year and I sure hope the fly fishing
community in Michigan can step up.
 Here is Randy picking up the
trash in the Au Sable River. Birds were
shot by federal shooters and volunteers did
helped by removing them from the river.
The last two years good numbers of stocked
steelhead have made it out to Lake Huron!
Should start see a increase in fish returning
next spring.
 May 4th - Steve Stoll with
two real nice Au Sable River steelhead.
Below Bob is fighting a good one. Water
levels were high today. This high water
has brought some good steelhead into the river.
If water levels stay up should have good fishing
for a while longer.
  April 29th - Mark with a nice
fresh run steelhead on the Au Sable River.
Cold day on the river with a few snow flakes.
Put four steelhead in the net and lost a number
of others.
 April 29th - Dave Champion
fighting a steelhead on the Au Sable River.
Small nymphs were the top patterns today - green
caddis and black stones.
 April 28th - Here is
steelhead that Larry Hull caught that is being
released.
 April 28th - Larry Hull and
Dave with a couple of beautiful Au Sable River
steelhead. Good fishing today with 6
steelhead put in the net and a number of others
that were lost. Cool weather has brought
more silver fish into the river.
 April 26th - Max Kerstein
with his first steelhead! Max and his
brother Zach each hooked and fought a couple
steelhead. Except for the gale force winds
it was a very nice day on the river.
 April 25th - Andy Marko
fighting a steelhead on the Au Sable River.
Lots of action today!
 April 25th - Bill Jack with a
nice Au Sable River steelhead. Had a
excellent morning today with Bill & Andy hooking
a bunch of steelhead! Right now most of
steelhead are in the fast gravel runs.
Today there was way to many suckers in there
with them but they should start dropping out of
river very soon.
 April 24th - Pat Barker and
Andy Marko with a couple of Au Sable River
steelhead. Good action today with
four being put in the net! Small nymphs
and bright colored egg patterns have been best
of late.
 April 22nd - John O'Neil with
a Au Sable River steelhead. Bright and
sunny with extremely warm weather for this time
of year. Fishing was a bit slow today but
we did get a few good hookups and landed this
very nice steelhead. Yesterday's problems
at Foote Dam might have had some negative effect
on today's fishing.
 April 21st - Power failure at
Foote Dam caused flood gates to open today and
turned water to a chocolate mess. This
photo was taken as the dam was starting to
operate properly again. You can see the
dirty water still coming from flood gates and
clean water from normal turbine side of dam.
Fishing was not good after all of this happened.
 April 19th - Charles Jergler
with a couple of beautiful Au Sable River
steelhead. Hex nymphs and orange egg
patterns have been working best of late.
Today fishing was a bit slower on the river but
also with being the weekend there were a few
more anglers around. Water levels have
been dropping the last few days and we need a
good spring rain.
  April 18th - Felt like a
summer day on the Au Sable River today! It
is hard to beat shorts weather in April, hardly
any fishing pressure and a bunch of fresh run
steelhead. Excellent fishing today
with 10 landed and a few more that were lost.
Bright colored egg patterns caught the most fish
and natural nymphs (hex & black stones) also
caught a few. Should have some good
fishing for while!
 April 18th - Mike Sargent and
Tom Olenczuk with some great steelhead on the
lower Au Sable River. Rising water temps have got
good numbers of steelhead moving into the Au
Sable. Just a few fish are starting to
spawn and good numbers are in the fast deep runs
right now. Should have peak steelhead
fishing the next few weeks
  April 17th - Tom Olenczuk
with beautiful bright silver Au Sable River
steelhead. There are some nice fish
around right now and such a great time to
steelhead fish. Look for these pre
spawning fish in the deep fast gravel runs.
 April 15th - Joe Swantek with
a nice Au Sable River steelhead. Water
temps have finally moved over 40 degrees and
steelhead are holding in the deeper fast gravel
runs. Good numbers of bright silver fish
are around now.
 April 15th - Fighting a
steelhead on the AuSable River. As you see
still lots of water in the AuSable River.
Water has cleared up and is in great shape.
 April 13th - Tom with a very
nice steelhead on Au Sable River.
High water and high winds today on the river.
High water is bringing some new fish into the
river. Steelhead are now starting to
use the deep gravel runs. As the
water drops this week look for some excellent
fishing on the lower Au Sable River.
Bright colored egg patterns were the top
producers today.
 April 10th - A very nice
steelhead from the shoreline of Lake Huron.
Right now the Au Sable is extremely high and
fishing is bit slow. When river gets in
poor shape there is lots of great water to fly
fish in Lake Huron. With the late spring
this year there is still lots of steelhead out
in the lake and many are hanging just off the
river mouths. These are very aggressive
and will smash large bait fish and sculpin
patterns.
 April 1st - A beautiful
Au Sable River steelhead! Lots of new
water in the river today. Heavy rains last
night with warm temps made for lots of run off.
Fishing was a bit slow today but that should
change very soon. We did manage a couple
of steelhead and one big walleye. In the
higher water today top fly was clown color egg
pattern.
 April 1st - Walleyes are
starting to moving to the lower Au Sable.
These fish do need to be release due to there
out of season.
 March 30th - A nice fresh run
Au Sable River steelhead. Small Hex nymphs
were the top fly today.
 March 30th - Steelhead right
now are in the deep slow holes like the one
pictured above.
 March 27th - Jon Wilcox with
a real nice Au Sable River steelhead. New
fish are moving into the river everyday now.
Next batch of some new water should really get
this fishery going! Right now with the
cold conditions small natural nymphs have been
working best with Hex Nymphs being the top
producers of late.
 March 16th - Steelhead
fishing on the lower Au Sable. Just got my
new steelhead fishing boat from RiverMan in
Clare, MI. Jason Phillips did a very nice
job on boat and it will work much better than
drift boat in this bigger water and along the
shore line of Lake Huron. Boat is
16' long and 60" wide which makes for a very
stable boat to fish from and lots of room.
As you can see in photo water is very low and
clear right now. Spring run off is coming
very soon and steelhead fishing will just keep
getting better. Slow deep runs like
the one above in photos is where the largest
numbers of fish are holding right now.
March 1st - March is what I consider the beginning of Spring and one of my favorite times to steelhead fish! After being very sick the last week it was very nice to fish the lower Au Sable this afternoon. The river has been fishing pretty good of late - landed four nice steelhead and very much enjoy my afternoon on the Au Sable. The water is very clear and cold right now. Today the key was fluorocarbon leaders and very small natural nymphs with a #12 green caddis being the top fly today.
Some beautiful March Au Sable River steelhead!
Steelhead Photos from the spring & winter of 2007
 April 24th - Pat Walsh with a
couple of beautiful fresh run steelhead on the
lower Au Sable River. Put four nice
steelhead in the net today but overall fish
numbers in the river were very low today.
Typically spring steelhead run lasts till mid
May on this river and there should be still a
good number of fish to come. Right now
water levels are very low and a good rain is
needed. With the low water conditions
fluorocarbon leaders are recommended. We
have been using Seaguar Carbon Pro and have been
very happy with this brand. These leaders
are thinner, stronger, sink faster, and are very
hard to see in clear water.
 April 18th - Tom Olenczuk
with a couple of big fresh run steelhead on the
lower Au Sable River. Rain this
morning and rising water made for some good
afternoon fishing today. Landed four nice
steelhead today. Top flies were nuke eggs
in egg/orange and chart/orange. Also of
late small hex nymphs and peacock stones have
been top producers. Look for these big
silver steelhead in the deeper gravel runs.
 March 25th - Good steelhead
today on the lower Au Sable River. Recent
melt down and warm weather has brought some
fresh run fish in from Lake Huron. I hear
many talking about muddy flooded rivers with
heavy crowds on our Michigan steelhead streams
of late. Not on the lower Au Sable!
This section handles high water better than any
river I have seen in Michigan and has been
running clear all week. Today we saw only
two boats on the river and landed four beautiful
steelhead and lost a couple of others.
The backwaters are still frozen but ice is
getting very dark and should be gone in another
week or so depending weather. Look for
steelhead numbers to really increase once ice is
off backwaters.
 March 25th - Another great
steelhead from today's fishing. Small size
#12 micro cluster egg pattern in cheese color
and a small #10 hex nymph were our best patterns
today. Even in high water these small
flies work best on the lower Au Sable when water
temps are very cold like right now.
 March 18th - A darker winter
steelhead on the lower Au Sable River.
Right now there are a mixture of darker winter
fish and bright silver fresh run fish.
March can be a very nice time to float the lower
Au Sable. Today I did not see another boat
on the river and landed three steelhead.
With the cold water temps, small nymphs and egg
patterns continue to be the top flies.
 March 13th - A beautiful
fresh run steelhead on the lower Au Sable River.
It definitely felt like spring today with high
temps around 60! Had pretty good fishing
today with hardly no pressure on the stream.
Right now there is mixture of darker winter fish
and bright silver steelhead in the river.
The river is in excellent shape right now (just
a little on the cold side) but look for water
levels to come way up with the snow melting
fast. Warm temps and run off should
bring more fish into the river.
Typically peak spring steelhead fishing on the
Au Sable is April thru mid May. Right now
the river is not full of them but fishing has
been decent of late. Right now water
temps are in the middle 30's and with these cold
temps small flies have been working best.
Best flies are small egg
patterns (nuke, glo-bugs, micro
clusters) size #10 in salmon, cheese, and
clown colors, Hex Nymphs size #8-10, Hares
Ear Nymphs size #10 and small Green Caddis.
As water temps increase and more fresh run
fish enter river look for larger sculpins,
leeches, and baitfish patterns to start
producing.
Feb. 15th - Late winter can be a excellent
time to steelhead fish on the Au Sable River!
We
do have fall & winter steelhead dates open
for those looking for guided float trips.
If
interested in trips or any questions you can contact
us
via
email or give us a
call at 989-848-5983.
Lake
Huron & Lake Michigan brown trout, salmon and
smallmouth photos from the 2005 & 2006 season
(click
here)
Steelhead photos from the 2005 season (click here) Trout photos from the 2005 & 2006 season (click here) Trout photos from the 2004 season (click here)
Current water levels at Parmallee Bridge - Trout waters Current water levels at Mio Dam on the AuSable River - Trout waters Current water levels at Alcona Dam on the AuSable River - Smallmouth Bass & Trout waters Current water levels at Foote Dam on the AuSable River - Steelhead waters
Michigan flyfishing opportunities this season include:
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