East-side kings, we need rain!

[ausable_steelhead]

Fished a couple spots this weekend. Fishing is picking up, but still on the slow side. Alot of fish are still out in the lake and all the area rivers are really low and still a bit warm. We seen alittle polish, but it's nothing serious. Bass, carp and sheephead, as well as moss/weeds on gravel beds are still prevalent, so that tells me we need cold weather and rain.

The first river was low and clear, but had a nice flow. There were alot of snaggers and not a lot-lot of fish. We hooked every fish on spawn but one, a chrome hen I landed on a wobble-glo, which was stolen by some snaggers during a downpour. Here's a few of our fish:

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m114/ausable_steelhead/100_0851.jpg

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m114/ausable_steelhead/100_0856.jpg

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m114/ausable_steelhead/100_0859.jpg

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m114/ausable_steelhead/100_0858.jpg

This little fish had some kind of rip/wound, not sure from what?
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m114/ausable_steelhead/100_0855.jpg


The other river is really low and kinda warm. The piers were slow, but then again we didn't fish hard. I caught one on skein and my bro got one on a mauler. We also hooked 3 in the river, landing two. They all came on bags, only thing on skein in the river were a couple smallies. Here's our fish from there:

This skinny male had another treble in it's throat. I believe that is the reason he was so skinny, he couldn't eat/swallow anything. He had good length, you could tell he was stressed from something.
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m114/ausable_steelhead/100_0861.jpg

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m114/ausable_steelhead/100_0862.jpg

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m114/ausable_steelhead/100_0860.jpg

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m114/ausable_steelhead/100_0864.jpg

[snowman11]

dang, i was really hoping it would pick up. I'm going up again on Wednesday with my dad.

Although, Tuesday it's supposed to rain all day. Mebbe will get lucky.

[fishing pal]

Nice looking fish. How warm is the water? I to am heading up Wed. and am hoping to get some quality time in fishing between the pier and up to the dam. Hopefully the rain this week will push the kings up.;) Have some spawn I have frozen from last year and also wondering what size to make my bags for best results in the river?

[Burksee]

Hey AS - Nice Job! Thanks for the report. Even though it appears slow it sure the heck is better than it was last year!

At least you were able to get out! :D I'm about two weeks out from being able to head up that way to wet a line. :sad:

[LuckyChucky]

its funny how kings are differant up there,the ones in the thumb dont touch bags and only hit skein.Nice fish AS

[aquaticsanonymous]

nice fish as, looks like some of them are starting to turn darker.

[ausable_steelhead]

Thanks guys. The fish hit both bags and skein. I mostly just tie up quarter-sized bags for kings, and I use a glob of skein from quarter to golf ball sized, there is no need for anything larger. The bigger river is staying steady at 68, but may have risen with the heat today. We seen some half-ass redds dug, but definanetly nothing major. There have been dark fish for awhile now, there usually always is. If the east-side rivers stayed in the 60's all summer, we'd have July/August kings in the river. I believe the smaller river was slower because of all the ripping going on, those guys were hitting fish left and right for awhile. There wasn't a ton of fish, but more than last week.

I'll say one thing, the fish in my favorite river sure are on the bite this year, we seem to hit atleast a couple river king every trip lately. If we fished more holes, we'd probably do better, but I'd rather float it in a boat. The weird thing about this season is the river fish seem more prone to biting than the pier fish. There's plenty staging, they just are not hitting well, atleast when I'm on the pier.

This will probably be my last post till later in October, as most river kings will soon be gravel fish, so nothing special there to report. I'll post if I get a nice one or any steelhead. I'm posting alot this year pretty much because this is my last full season on the east-side, so I'm going out with a bang man:D! I'll surely miss all the fun I've had on this side of the state the last few years, the most fun I've had fishing was over here, some damn good times man! This may sound crazy, but I'd rather fish here than over there. Probably because I grew up fishing here, it's just different than over on the west-side. I'll be up on some east-side river this weekend, should pick up with the cold-front and if we get the rain, it'll be on.

[quackmaster]

Great post. Thanks and good luck this fall!! There is nothing better than the east side!

[RiverRanger]

Nice job AS, great post as always. It's too bad your going west but I'm sure it for a good reason. I don't make it nearly has much as I would like to your Favorite east side river but I was hoping one day that I would run into you and chat a little and maybe even get some pointers. Good luck where ever you end up.

[Fishndude]

We really do need some rain - and it looks like some might be coming down shortly. But the Northern half of the lower peninsula could use a blanket rainfall of about 3 - 6 inches right now. The Ausable is so low you could practically walk around and pick the fish up. Love the pics, AS. Have you ever fished that spot when the water was up to the 2nd step? Now there is GRASS growing where the water should be.

"Thangs was good when thet thar water was up to the floodgates; yar it were. Fish was everywhere."

It is good to see that you are finding fish, and getting them to bite, though. Nice fishing.

[ausable_steelhead]

Nice job AS, great post as always. It's too bad your going west but I'm sure it for a good reason. I don't make it nearly has much as I would like to your Favorite east side river but I was hoping one day that I would run into you and chat a little and maybe even get some pointers. Good luck where ever you end up.

Yeah, I'd like to eventually move up to that area, Tawas or Oscoda. Hey I'll be on the Au Sable all fall, possibly into the winter. I fish the dam alot, actually that whole area, so you should be able to find me somewhere!

We really do need some rain - and it looks like some might be coming down shortly. But the Northern half of the lower peninsula could use a blanket rainfall of about 3 - 6 inches right now. The Ausable is so low you could practically walk around and pick the fish up. Love the pics, AS. Have you ever fished that spot when the water was up to the 2nd step? Now there is GRASS growing where the water should be.

"Thangs was good when thet thar water was up to the floodgates; yar it were. Fish was everywhere."

It is good to see that you are finding fish, and getting them to bite, though. Nice fishing.

The highest I've ever fished it, was late November 2004. There were three of us at the gasline, and me and my bro had just landed a double of nice steelhead. The water all of a sudden got a heavy green stain, and started raising pretty quick. We left and went to the launch and walked all the way to the point, and the water was RAGING! We went to the dam and the coffer was STRAIGHT across! They had two flood gates open and all the gates on the dam were wide open, it was crazy. Needless to say, there were no more fish caught and we left.

The river kings so far have been pretty active, and pretty scrappy fighters. Spawn is working well right now, but we've hooked some on hardware as well. I still don't think we've got any real pushes of fish yet, there's alot still out in the lake. We did see a decent pod in one hole this weekend, 20-25 fish.

[snowman11]

I was up this morning.

Still nothing. There are fish in the river as before, but no big push. Was on pier from 6 til 10 (alarm didn't go off). One person left with a king. I think I caught the only other fish and that was a bass. Looking straight down on the pier wall, you could see fish sitting there...I tried everything, from spawn bags to skein to every spoon and plug to wobble glos....basically, I should have just dumped my tackle box upside down, because that's what I essentially did. I actually HIT the fish a couple times, they would just move out of the way. I ended up catching the bass on wax worms, because I figured what they hey, I'll give it a try.

Same thing once we went inland. Saw some very nice fish, but you float a bag or skein, and they were literally just moving out of the way. Very frustrating. These were the bed fish.

If you got one of the roaming fish, I could get them to chase skein, but not spawn bags and they were interested in NOTHING else. Could not get them to commit, and didn't really have enough of them to get enough chances to get lucky I guess.

I saw one fish landed, and that was a guy that was fishing with flies, I didn't really find out what kind, as he was sorta a jerk.

[snowman11]

Oh, almost forgot. Talked to the booth worker at the launch. He was doing surveys of fish caught. He said that ONE boat caught ONE fish this morning. I think there were five boats out. And he confirmed that there was ONE fish caught off the pier. Probably 10 guys out there.

[Reel_Screamer86]

WTG AS see there is salmon on the east side :yikes: :yikes:

[fish4life]

AS, I think I have fished with you on the North pier before in Oscoda. Early last August I was out there with my girlfriend and I believe it was you that I talked with while fishing all night. I'm heading up that way tonight and wondering if you've been up at all this week or if you are interested in heading that way tonight. I'm new to the site, my name is Andy if you want to reply. I live in Essexville, and I'll be headin out tonight around 12:00.

[ausable_steelhead]

Snowman, bedding fish this early are usually pretty spooky, but they're really skittish when the river is as low as it is right now. You can see EVERYTHING, so the kings are pretty freaked out right now. I burned a vacation day yesterday on a whim, I wanted to get another trip in before they hit the beds hard. I did see a good little gob on gravel in the morning, but when people started fishing them, they disappeared quick. I seen some BRIGHT fish, like blueback bright, cruising around the gravel, mostly in the dark water of course. I went to a different spot to actually fish, and did alright, though definanetly not great. I whacked a small, dark buck(skinny) on a spoon, and landed another small male that was well into his spawning colors on a bag:

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m114/ausable_steelhead/100_0875.jpg

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m114/ausable_steelhead/100_0883.jpg

I'll be up tomorrow night, but may head farther north first, then drop down and fish. The fish are there, you gotta go light and be patient, they are river kings in warm water, good luck guys!

[snowman11]

dang, i thought that was you but couldn't figure out what you were doing up there!

i was the guy that was just showing up at the scenic overlook when you were leaving...i know i saw you at the dam. you were bombing the far edge, right where the fish were :) We decided not to fish the dam as it's a 250 mile ride home for me...and i still had to do the dishes at the cabin.

what was up with the buck in the parking lot at the dam...was that there when you got there?

[ausable_steelhead]

The far edge isn't the only place they're holding, there's a certain little eddie in close that holds them;). That buck was there when we got there as well, it was smaller than the two I caught, which I released. It looks like someone snagged it and took off in a hurry:confused:?