My brother called late on Friday afternoon to see if I was able to meet him on the Huron to do some Sunday AM fishing.  I was free and we set off on the river at 8am.  We fished the riffles down stream of the old bridge and did not have much luck using streamers and surface flies.

At around 10am I switched to a strike indicator and a two fly rig.  I went with a Size 8 Waske Stone as the top fly and a beadhead prince nypmh in a size 8 as the bottom fly.  During the next 1.5 hours I caight and released about 15 smallies.  It was a great morning.

I showed my brother the set-up and he started off fishing with just one fly.  After he hooked one sucker he added a second dropper nymph and proceeded to catch and release 9 bass.  I think the dual fly presentation works really well in the clear waters. 

Next time out everyone is going to use a strike indicator and the two fly rig.  We were hooking bass within 2 feet of our positions in the stream.  Until next time!!!!!

This was the last day we would have a chance to fish during this trip.  The weather on Sunday was supposed to get real cold and rain all day.  Joe had to catch a plane out of Traverse at 3:30pm to get back to California.  We decided to try to hit the black river - but found that the bridges that cross the Pigeon were all washed out after the Lansing Club Pond damn broke.  NICE!  So we decided to head back to the North Branch of the Au Sauble to fish Damn 4 again.  It was so easy to wade and not too far. 

Around 7pm a steady hatch of March Browns and Sulphurs was coming off.  We had good luck until this point with the March Browns, but I couldn't get any hits on the dry.  I decided to switch to the smaller sulphurs in a size 14-16 to see what would happen.  With in 3 casts I had a decent brown on the end of the line.  I used to 2 way radios to let everyone know to switch up and we all had good luck.  I love the radios to keep in touch with everyone.  We fished until about 8:30pm and then decided to head to the bar for the wings game and a bite to eat.  The French Dip at the Big Buck Brewery in Gaylord is great.

The end of the trip was spent with my two brothers and dad in the truck heading to drop Joe off.  We had a bit of time to kill so we drove out on the peninsula in Traverse. These are the pictures we took right before we dropped Joe off at the Airport.  Time goes by too fast when we are all together!

We decided to head out in the morning and to hit the North Branch of the Au Sauble.  We had plans to meet up with my brother in law later in the day and thought we would work south.  It has ben at least 5 years since I fished the North Branch and I now remember why I love the river.  There was a ton of bug action including black and yellow caddis, sulphurs and some March Browns.  We also had some luck with size 14-18 BWO's.  We all hooked a few small brook trout during the mid day period.  

I got the call to head out to meet my brother in law so we decided to meet at the canoe harbor campground on the South Banch of the Au Sauble.  It turned out to be a great day with everyone hooking into some small trout. It was my brother in laws first trout. 

I headed up north on Wednesday with my dad and two brothers.  One of which flew in from California for our annual spring fishing trip.  We picked him up at the Travrse city airport last night and stayed at a friends place in Gaylord.  He and I stayed up too late and drank too much beer and RUM.  The morning of 6-4-09 we headed out to hit the Sturgeon river to see if we could hook onto some good fish.  Last spring Jess hooked up with a nice sized rainbow in Wolverine so we chose to start out our new exploration.

We started the day checking out the Green Timbers public access site.  This was at one point a vehicle accessable site which has been changed over to a hike in site.  We walked a ways and decided to turn back prior to getting to the river.  Maybe next time!!

We ventured to the Sturgeon Bridge and decided it was a bit too tight for four of us to fish so we moved to the Trowbridge site.  It was a real pretty scene with enough room for all of us to fish up ad down stream.  We had a little luck with small fish on BH PT's in size 10 fished as emergers.  We also hooked into some fish using brown drakes in size 10.  There were also sulphurs and black & popcorn caddis coming off on all of the rivers.  Fishing was decent with mostly small brook, rainbow and brown trout.  A decision was made to buy some two way radios to try out on the river so we know what is hitting from now on.  Good fishing - Great Company!!

I hit the local stream after work today.  It has been about 3 days of nice weather with no rain.  I was hoping that the water level would be down and the visibility clear.  I went to D road after work alone and parked at the pull off.  There was another fisherman that showed up about 5 minutes after I arrived.  We spoke and I found out he was using a spinning rod.  He said there was not much of a hatch on the stream.  I found that my flyrod and flies to be very productive because of a nice caddis hatch.  I told him I would start pff upstream because I had never fished the area.  I walked the path fishing frm shore until I could get in the water.  I had a few hits near the pool north of the bridge.  They were hitting a size 10 BH Prince.  I hooked and landed one 8" rainbow.  I ventured upstream a ways and found many homes and not much cover so I decided to work my way downstream.  At the first major bend in the river I came upon a rising fish.  I cast to him until I though he was spooked.  I decided to cross the river at this point to get a good angle on the large pool just downstream.  There were a few risers that seemed willing to hit something near the surface.  There was no hatch coming off at this time so I tied on a size 10 BH Pheasant Tail.  I was able to land one of the rising rainbows using a dead drift down and across the surface.  He was about 6".  I moved further down stream and landed another rainbow in the 8" range. 

I ended up fishing this area for a while and then decided to hike back in a little ways to a run that I visited last time I fished this area.  The run ends into a deep undercut pool.  A small black caddis hatch had started comin off so I figured I would fish the run with a dry or a nymph fished as an emerger.  I spent a while fishing the run with a dry and a nymph and had no luck.  I moved down to fish the undercut pool and switched over to a size 10 BH Sparkle Caddis - my own fly - with a strike indicator.  I fished the head of the pool with no luck.  As I moved down stream a little ways I let the fly dead drift down and then across at the tail end of the pool. I let the fly sit at the end for a few seconds and then SMASH!!  I had a nice brown on the line.  He put up a great fight.  I quickly landed him in the net, placed him on the grass for a quick shot and then back into the water he went.  Ended up being a 17 1/2" brown!!!!  I sent the picture to my two brothers and my friend Scott right from the stream.  Had to rub it in.


I fished for a short while there and then walkd back towards my car.  At the bridge there were some small fish rising so I tied on a black caddis dry size 16 and landed one more 8" rainbow.  I called it a night around 7:30pm in order to pick up pizza and watch the Redwings.  Great day!!