I left for the Ausable River Friday afternoon after a fun filled day of family court and dealing with my ex-wife. I planned on arriving at the river with just enough time to set up my campsite and catch the evening hatch. Unlike my trip the Ausable River last year, the skies were clear and I had visions of rising trout around every bend. When I got there reality sunk in. After, setting up camp I headed to some past spots that have always produced for me, totally expecting to have to be fishing shoulder to shoulder with other fly fisherman. When I got to the river nobody was there and I mean nobody. This wasn’t necessarily a good sign. Normally, especially on the weekend, this place is a popular fly fishing destination and packed with fishermen. As I sat watching the water I realized why I was the only one. I didn’t see a single fish rise. This place normally has bugs crawling all over any exposed part of my body but on this day, I didn’t even have to put on bug spray. After skunking out that night I went back to camp and had to listen to two guys from Quebec get drunk and fart all night. I arose at 5 am the next morning and packed my stuff before heading back to the river. I watched the water again but again I saw no rising trout. It was a balmy 33 degrees and I just kept shaking my head as I waded into the water anyways. Something told me to tie on a streamer and it’s a good thing that I listened to that little voice in my head! My very first retrieve and I had a brown trout come clear out of the water trying to get to it. Now I was pumped and it was just a little messing around with my retrieve speed before I dialed into the fish. The Brown Trout seemed to like it when the streamer was almost surfing across the surface. Any slower of a retrieve and they wouldn’t even look at the streamer fly. I landed a bunch of Brown Trout all of varying sizes but the most memorable part was when I was retrieving my line across the current and I had six different trout, in different parts of the retrieve, come out and miss the streamer every single time. It almost looked like water ballet. I initially had on a 3 lb tippet but that changed quickly after a couple of bruisers snapped it like it wasn’t even there. All in all I had a great trip and was very surprised that I had a river such as the Ausable, all to myself.
nice work. funny how it sometimes pans out. sometimes the days or trips that we expect to be epic, turn out to be duds. and, conversely, sometimes when things look dismal; it turns out to be the best trip ever. that’s part of the fun and mystery of it all, and it is a constant never ending roller coaster of dissapointed and amazement. also, i liked how you changed your mindset and dug in. rather than throwing in the towel when there were no bugs coming of, you changed things up and got it done with streamers. yet, even then …. it was not just a simple matter of put on a streamer and start slaying. as you learned, the trout wanted to see that streamer presented a certain way. so, as is often the case for me, nothing is as easy or as hard as it appears. it’s just a matter of figuring out the puzzle at a macro and a micro level.
ps. i’ll remember to pick my campsites carefully in the future, based on your candid and hilarious description of your campsite “neighbors” … funny stuff..
Good to hear you struck the right cord with the fish.
In the past I never fished with streamers for trout.
At one instance I was fishing a pool with heavy nymphs and got no fish at all.
Still I knew for sure that fish where in that pool. A friend told me to tie on a streamer but thickheaded as I was I declined.
Finally I took on his offer and fished the streamer through the pool, the result was an instant hit.
I have learned now that streamers will coax trout out of their hiding when nymphs are ignored.
I am now a firm believer in the almighty streamer and will use it as a first choice when I want to get a trout.
Mental note: watch out for farting French speaking Canadians 🙂
This past couple of years the streamer has become my go to fly when things aren’t happening with anything else. I had to try a couple of different color combinations but once i got that and the retrieve speed dialed in it seemed like every retrieve and I had a trout chasing or hitting my streamer.
My neighbors definitley made for a memorable and sleepless night. I can’t blame them though because they got skunked that night also. I need to learn french because it would have been even funnier if I knew what they were exclaiming everytime they farted!!
Oh Yeah…Thanks again for a job well done posting this!!