SB of the AuSable

[beer and nuts]

Caught two very nice 17 inchers and one 15 incher last night onthe South Branch. Hatch of drakes was OK, very few fish feeding though. Water is still high cause they have the dam wide open trying to drain water out of Northern Michigan's biggest swamp trying to be made a lake..aka Lake St. Helen. Your really can not wade more than 150 yards in most sections, the water is still artificially too high!!!

[gomer]

I was on the south branch friday night, and it was indeed quite high and little to no surface activity, even though there were bugs on the water.

[Steve]

Thanks for the report Gomer. Any signs of the bigger bugs yet?

[gomer]

THere were some drakes in the air, but out of the many times i have been on the water and have had drakes in the air, maybe once have they hit the water..... no hexes

[Banditto]

Hope things improve in a week. We'll be June 25.

[beer and nuts]

Blanket hatch last night(do I need to tell you what kind of fly when one says 'blanket hatch'??), they gorged themselves for the first 30 minuets and it was all over, one 17 incher again for me,buddies missed a couple fish too. Water is too high and could hardly wade and could not throw to alot of the bigger fish.

[Doublegun]

I fished it last Friday, Saturday and Sunday, below Smith Bridge. You can wade, but te flow is heavy and some holes that were save to wade through last summer are way too fast and deep this year. There are also a lot of logs and other debris that are very easy to trip on. We had great hatches in the evenings but fish were not really looking up - very few fish feeding on the surface. The ONLY fly that was productive for me was a size 12 tan soft-hackle. I fished a heck of a lot of wet flies but the only bumps and takes came on soft-hackles.

It will be interesting to see the effect the heavy water will have on the hex hatch. I honestly don't know what to expect.

[WEEZER]

Water temps are on the high side for good surface feeding, warm water is still draining from swamps and last time I fished there (about 2 weeks ago) the water temps were at 75 @ spinnerfall. It's been a rough year for the South.

[beer and nuts]

Last night saw a very good spinnerfall not a great amount of fish feeding but some decent ones, cannot explain it but they would not take my fly or my dads and we never touched a fish. Lasted about 40 minutes or so and it was done. That might have been the end for the south branch at least above Chase. Weezer your right it has been a very tough and weird year for the SB.