Ausable (Trout Waters)

[brookid]

Spent this past weekend fishing various sections of the holy waters and the mason tract. Threw streamers in the AM and PM and BWO in the afternoon.
Fished from 1 - 6 on Friday, quite a few small browns. Saturday got quite wet fished all day/night. Fishing was great :) , many browns and brookies to olives
8 - 10 inch range, 3 bigger brookies (maybe 11 - 12) and 2 nice fat browns
(14 -16 ) on streamers. Sunday was tougher on the tract...went with streamers all day 7:30 am to 2:30pm and only managed 8 brookies all 8 - 10 range. All in all a great weekend. I love that time of year up there...except for the occasional shotgun blast along the rivers edge that'll scare the s@#$ out of ya!...kinda makes ya nervous...but still nice to get out of the city.
I'm coming back through over Christmas...anyone ever fished it in late December? or is that just ridiculous...I grew up in NE Michigan so the cold doesn't scare me...just wondering how the fishing might be, what type of flys/streamers/midge? and how I might fish it? any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks, Brookid

[HATCHBOMB]

Mild days in the winter can be very good I'm told. Try nymphing then...

HATCHBOMB

[turtlehead]

A few years ago, my dad caught an 18" brown on an egg sucking leech on Dec. 28 on the new 4 wt. he got for X-mas. He was kind of dredging it in a big hole. It was one of those clear, crisp winter days. I've had success on streamers in Jan/Feb on the Holy waters.

We had a great time last weekend on the Holy Waters with dries and nymphs like you did. I put the report in the fly fishing/ tying section. Probably should have posted it here. It's nice having the whole river to yourself this time of year.

[brookid]

Hatchbomb,

Thanks for the info...I dug up an old post from Dec. 28th and this person had success with a beaded pt nymph....hhhhmmm.

Brookid

[unregistered5a]

It's a great time to out there. I've had some terrific days in October in different parts of the Ausable system. With light fishing pressure and the fall colors it can awesome.
EDW

[JEHazeltine]

Fished the mainstream this past Wednesday and caught some nice brown trout on blue wing olives and streamers. :cool:

[fishineddie]

i hunt walking distance from the mason tract,i was up there for opening day a couple of weeks ago,kicked a nice deer out 100 feet from the river .theres an outhouse and picnic area near there and a trail to a dock, i got bored after awhile and hung out on the dock,i noticed some small fish in the water under the dock they looked like rainbow trout about 4-6 inches. the bigger ones would spook quick if i moved around, anyway has anyone else ever been there and seen them? there was what looked like millions of them . guess im gonna have to start leaving a fishing pole in the camper for those not seein' any deer days ,which are becoming to common for the area..

[Arin]

I was seeing alot of brookies in the river near my grandpa's house, which is right before Chase Bridge.. Caught a few in the minnow trap that someone forgot to take out, too.. Has anyone fished in teh area before Chase Bridge? I know there's a spot where they dick the river out to collect silt, I believe.. Anyone know what I'm talking about? Wondering if that would be a good spot to try sometime?

[riverboy]

fishineddie

That sounds like the castle you were at. I seen those little fish during the summer as well. They will hit a fly. I caught one about 6 inches or so and it had the markings of a large mouth bass. Yuck a bass in trout waters! LOL!!! I have a picture at home. I will post it later if I remember.

[Xstream Outfitters]

Riverboy is correct, that is Durant's Castle.

[Arin]

Last time I went there the porta-potty was all scratched up by a bear.. :lol: