# ausable 2/3



## cdacker (Jan 10, 2011)

Figured I would chime in to add some balance to the aus reports. Two guys drifting spawn, waxies, and flies for 4 hours. Not a bump. Not quite as easy as some of these experienced guys make it out to be. Gotta love winter steelheading!


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## herb09 (Jan 11, 2009)

God no, never said it was easy. At my age it's much more pain than pleasure, but like any addiction you know it's killing ya, but ya can't stop.


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## ausable_steelhead (Sep 30, 2002)

cdacker said:


> Figured I would chime in to add some balance to the aus reports. Two guys drifting spawn, waxies, and flies for 4 hours. Not a bump. Not quite as easy as some of these experienced guys make it out to be. Gotta love winter steelheading!


Not sure how anyone made it out to be easy? If you can read water and know the Au Sable, you get fish. Simple as that. Put your time in, and you'll have your day(s).

There's a certain kind of water I look for with winter fish. Hard to explain, but once you know what it is, you know as soon as you see it. Soft seams and wood are your friends on the Big A in the winter.


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## cdacker (Jan 10, 2011)

ausable_steelhead said:


> Not sure how anyone made it out to be easy? If you can read water and know the Au Sable, you get fish. Simple as that. Put your time in, and you'll have your day(s).
> 
> There's a certain kind of water I look for with winter fish. Hard to explain, but once you know what it is, you know as soon as you see it. Soft seams and wood are your friends on the Big A in the winter.


Wasn't trying to imply anyone was being misleading. Just giving a different perspective from someone with almost no experience on that big of water and maybe what to expect if you don't know the river well. Kudos to you dudes that get it done on a regular basis!


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## Shift7609 (Aug 9, 2011)

Its not easy on any river let alone the big a gotta put time and alot of that and once you get that fish itll pay off goodlucks!

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## Fishndude (Feb 22, 2003)

cdacker said:


> Figured I would chime in to add some balance to the aus reports. Two guys drifting spawn, waxies, and flies for 4 hours. Not a bump. Not quite as easy as some of these experienced guys make it out to be. Gotta love winter steelheading!


I've been fishing the Ausable for Salmon and Steelhead for close to 40 years. I still get me assets handed to me some days. But I have learned a lot of spots that typically might hold fish, if there are some around. And, if I hit 8 or 10 of those spots, at least a couple/few will give up a bite or two, most days. So, that is my MO (modus operandi). I hit some spots, and fish them thoroughly, then move on to the next spot. If I miss bites, I might hit that spot again a few hours later, if there is time. 

The A is a really woody river, so the places you can get a clean drift have to be learned through trial and error. But the river does change, and where you could get a beautiful drift last year might not be so great this year - and vice versa. Being willing to use bobbers/floats will give you a bit of an advantage, but I often find that fish will bite better on a bait drifted a long the bottom. I also like to feel the tug vs seeing a bobber dip. But that is my preference.


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## PHEDDEN (Feb 5, 2012)

We too fished Ausable saturday with no luck. Despite no fish still was a nice day to be on river.


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## 4lbtest (Feb 28, 2007)

It can be easy... when you get to one of your favorite hole's, (or one of AS's) there's good water, 2 day old snow, and NO FOOTPRINTS...my heart pounds almost as much as when a wallhanger walks under the treestand. I know I'm gonna hit fish, and this winter, it's been a dream. At least a dozen fish came on first casts in the above conditions. Some holes produced multiple fish in an hours time. HOWEVER, low water, a blazed path to the water and new "floatballs" all along the bank, can leave you standing there chucking lead, in these same holes, for hours with nothing. It pays to have a plan, have a playbook of spots your willing to hit. There are so many holes from top to bottom, each with multiple drifts, that it pays dividends to be flexible. All the years I spent exploring, I always got a bigger rush out of pulling the first fish out of a new hole (new to me at least). Now I can't hit all the holes I know in a day, not and truly fish em'...


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## stelmon (Sep 21, 2000)

I put a lot of time in on the Au sable when I started steel heading and salmon fishing. Salmon was pretty easy...steelheading, not so much. Then I went to college on the west side and learned to fished chrome over there and have caught a decent amount since I started. Now, I consider myself a pretty decent steelheader now a day. Take me to the Au sable and I blank just about every time and I am fishing some of the best holes in the river thanks to 'Ausable_steelhead.' I did catch a nice chromer during the spring of 2007?. 

So it's not you. Just, your fishing one of the toughest steelhead rivers in the state IMO. To anyone that thinks the AS is just like any other river on the west side, your outta your mind.


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## 4lbtest (Feb 28, 2007)

Well I'm not sure of the timeline, but before the falloff, drought, mismanagment or whatever you want to call it, I regularly brought customers, to the Ausable, who couldn't tie a knot and had no fishing skills period. All I_ had to do was _put them in my loaner gear an within a hour or 2 they would have a fish on a rope. Herb had 2 put up with more than a few of these guys who's main obstacle was learning how to cast a 9ft rod. 

Now that was more than a few years ago, so if your talkin the last 5-7 years I understand but back then (I sound old) and this will probably bring a tear to Ole' Herbs eye, we regularly landed doubles and hooked triples. The Ausable was Gravy. Easy, While landing a fish during the peak, it would not be uncommon to have another fish follow it up to the bank. And Lord at dusk the surface boiled in steel.

I guess if you never saw it, it would be hard to believe. I think I met Ole' AS, back then which would have made him about 18 I guess. Jon, Don't know if you'd recall, but one particular day Coty, and I think you were hammering a suicide log jamb, that literally produced a fish or snag, almost every cast. Had to respool my main, and we paid some youngin, you guys knew to make a run for terminal tackle and Pizza. We didn't count, least I didnt, but I'd say we hit 25 fish that day, that particular spot. Beside that, Norm and the Owosso gang were just below us, and probably hooked more. I recently viewed a picture of me & Coty and our limits of 10lb+ fish from that day and OOO.

Glory Days, sorry Ya'll.


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## hamburger man (Nov 9, 2011)

good times


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## ausable_steelhead (Sep 30, 2002)

4lbtest said:


> I guess if you never saw it, it would be hard to believe. I think I met Ole' AS, back then which would have made him about 18 I guess. Jon, Don't know if you'd recall, but one particular day Coty, and I think you were hammering a suicide log jamb, that literally produced a fish or snag, almost every cast. Had to respool my main, and we paid some youngin, you guys knew to make a run for terminal tackle and Pizza. We didn't count, least I didnt, but I'd say we hit 25 fish that day, that particular spot. Beside that, Norm and the Owosso gang were just below us, and probably hooked more. I recently viewed a picture of me & Coty and our limits of 10lb+ fish from that day and OOO.
> 
> Glory Days, sorry Ya'll.


Oh yeah, I remember that! Cody and I nicknamed that run the "broke hole", because it was hairy. We aimed for a particular log and if we hit it, good drift; if not, re-tie. But damn was it loaded with fish! I have a pic from either that day, or maybe the next, of the launch there. It's shoulder to shoulder on each side. Always that way there in the spring, when the run was on and they were pounding fish. I used to chuckle at the myriad of ropes intertwined with fish on them. It seemed that at some point in April, when the peak hit, the first 2 miles below the dam were absolutely PACKED with steelhead. Some spots would give up 25-40 fish every morning and at the dam, you could do 30 by yourself if you fished all day. **** was fun as hell.


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## Fishndude (Feb 22, 2003)

That was what made the Ausable such a fantastic river to fish. Literally every decent spot that would hold fish would usually have 10+ fish in it, and sometimes a LOT more. If you were in the right spot, first thing in the morning, you could easily have 20+ fish on in a few hours. A Fisheries biologist told me that they estimated 13,000 - 16,000 Steelhead returned to that river each year to spawn. And those fish only had a bit over 10 miles of river to be in, and quite a few places would never hold any fish. So the better places got completely stacked at times. 

2004 was the last really good year on the Ausable, and for a few years after that the fishing was pretty dismal. Last fall had a nice run of adult fish, and quite a few of those early-maturing male Skippers. The fall of 2010 had tons of early-maturing male Skips, and just a few adults. The year before just had few fish, but 2008 had a pretty decent fall run. 

Although I fished the spring run on the Ausable for decades, I grew to understand that the fall fish were just so much more active (they fight like demons) and were much more inclined to bite, so I kind of laid off the spring run for quite awhile. I started fishing the spring run, here and there, about 8 years ago, and realized it can still be fun. I am really hoping the fish that are migrating into the Ausable right now are not the spring run coming early, which might reduce the numbers in 2 months. We should know around the 2nd week of April. :evilsmile


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## herb09 (Jan 11, 2009)

4lbtest said:


> Well I'm not sure of the timeline, but before the falloff, drought, mismanagment or whatever you want to call it, I regularly brought customers, to the Ausable, who couldn't tie a knot and had no fishing skills period. All I_ had to do was _put them in my loaner gear an within a hour or 2 they would have a fish on a rope. Herb had 2 put up with more than a few of these guys who's main obstacle was learning how to cast a 9ft rod.
> 
> Now that was more than a few years ago, so if your talkin the last 5-7 years I understand but back then (I sound old) and this will probably bring a tear to Ole' Herbs eye, we regularly landed doubles and hooked triples. The Ausable was Gravy. Easy, While landing a fish during the peak, it would not be uncommon to have another fish follow it up to the bank. And Lord at dusk the surface boiled in steel.
> 
> ...


 Yup those were great times and I look forward to many more. Hope to see you up there soon, it's been awhile.


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## 4lbtest (Feb 28, 2007)

You fish Tuesday-Thursday, I'm stuck on second shift, hang out a weekend, I'll buy you a beer.


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## herb09 (Jan 11, 2009)

Yea I know what your saying, too many grandkids and every weekend it's somebody's game or birthday plus it's really hard to convince the better half that I should be fishing on the weekend when I've been gone all week. These are some great stories though i hope to hear some more. Just a short one, back in the early 80's a buddy from work took me to his new secret spot. After a long walk through the woods we got there just at daylight and when I looked out on the river, I'll bet there were 70 steelhead in front of us with not another soul around, was one of my better days .

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## 4lbtest (Feb 28, 2007)

Are we really going to start this???? Okay

Morning rush had died down at a very popular hole. It was a very sunny blue bird Sunday. At this "very popular" hole there is a bank about 20ft higher than the water, you can fish from here when the water is stupid high like 4k. Anyway sitting there tired thinking about heading back home, watchin the boys flip lead, and this "dark cloud" starts to fill the hole. Except it's no cloud it's a push of fish. Hole is to deep to count but there had to be a couple hundred becasue it's a long deep hole. Needless to say it went nuts.


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## ausable_steelhead (Sep 30, 2002)

4lbtest said:


> *Are we really going to start this???? * Okay
> 
> Morning rush had died down at a very popular hole. It was a very sunny blue bird Sunday. At this "very popular" hole there is a bank about 20ft higher than the water, you can fish from here when the water is stupid high like 4k. Anyway sitting there tired thinking about heading back home, watchin the boys flip lead, and this "dark cloud" starts to fill the hole. Except it's no cloud it's a push of fish. Hole is to deep to count but there had to be a couple hundred becasue it's a long deep hole. Needless to say it went nuts.


Why not? Love all the stories, brings everyone back to the good times!

I have a 2 in 1 kinda story, as the first sets up the second. My bro and I were fishing a "popular" winter hole about 2004, and had just hit doubles right away in the morning. As soon as I landed my fish, the water came right up and was a cloudy green color. The fishing died off instantly! Short story-the dam had all 3 turbines going and the flood gates cracked, which had the river CRANKING. The dam was _flat_ going over the coffer. That was around the very end of November. 

Fast forward a few days into early December, and we were back at our hole at first light. My first cast hooked a colored up hen that jumped 9 TIMES! Landed her, and hit another fish within two drifts. That hole produced 6 hookups. The next two only produced a fish each, then jackpot on our last stop. We hit 9 fish here, and ended the day with 17 hookups from the bank. They were mostly fresh fish, from 6-11lbs. One of my best winter days. Springtime, there's MANY!


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## Shift7609 (Aug 9, 2011)

What a rush just reading your storys if I had a comp instead of my phone I would share mine just to hard to type the as is the most beautiful river in mi and I wish the fishery would come back like that!

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## hfitch (Apr 14, 2011)

these stories give me hope that some day we'll figure that river out and we'll finally get a steelie. I've caught em up by the mouth before casting for salmon in the fall, but never in the spring. We need to spend more time up there, either money or kids or grandkids dictate the time, and the money sometimes! Keep them coming, good stuff!


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## herb09 (Jan 11, 2009)

4lbtest said:


> Are we really going to start this???? Okay
> 
> Morning rush had died down at a very popular hole. It was a very sunny blue bird Sunday. At this "very popular" hole there is a bank about 20ft higher than the water, you can fish from here when the water is stupid high like 4k. Anyway sitting there tired thinking about heading back home, watchin the boys flip lead, and this "dark cloud" starts to fill the hole. Except it's no cloud it's a push of fish. Hole is to deep to count but there had to be a couple hundred becasue it's a long deep hole. Needless to say it went nuts.


That was going to be my next story what a site that was watching them move into that hole. 

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## 4lbtest (Feb 28, 2007)

Durning the peak, we packed the hole pretty solid. Somedays there would be 8-10 guys pretty much on top of one another, casting in sync, like a machine. When somebody hooked up you got about a 10 count to play your fish, or at least get it moving out of mid stream. Of course thats impossible, but the only way to land doubles and tripples was for guys to fish on ya. You just cut your drift short as it ran into the fight, or from the down river side just shortcast before the battle and run it. Then of course somebody would hook and there was a double. Chaos in the hole, now 2 fish fighting, jumping and flyin around, with the rest of the gang trying to get in and make it a tripple, which always led to wrap-ups tangles, and having to cut off when you ran up on an active line, just fun! One of my favorite moments was doubled up with Herb, and him handing me his rod, so that for those few seconds I had live steel on, in each hand, I returned the fav so he could enjoy how fun!


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