Michigan Fly Fishing Report

2009-04-25T19:08:00.000-07:00

Well all of the trout water is open in michigan now and I have to admit it is my favorite time of the year for chasing big brown trout with streamers!!! We fished the Au Sable today from Mio to Comins flat and my brother erik got this nice brown. Overall things were slow today. Dry fishing should be here by next weekend i would hope.

Meeting in Oscoda on Feb. 10th

2009-01-26T21:40:00.001-08:00

A meeting at the AmericInn of Oscoda has been scheduled for Tuesday, February 10 beginning at 7:00 PM to discuss concerns regarding the Au Sable River. At 3:00 PM on Tuesday, February 10 arrangements have also been made to visit the Foote Dam powerhouse. Topics to be discussed during the meeting are 1) what are the license requirements regarding operations for the six dams, 2) a discussion of run-of-river, peaking and re-regulation, 3) a brief discussion of the available data, 4) a discussion of potential alternatives being looked into. The primary focus of the meeting will be to discuss what can be done to address the operating concerns and maintain compliance with the project license.

People Are Watching

2009-01-26T21:37:00.001-08:00

Here is an article by eric sharp of the detroit free press, it is good to see people are taking steps in the right direction!

Thousands of stream fishermen have bemoaned the collapse of the Lake Huron salmon fishery, where they used to troll for salmon offshore and intercept the chinooks when they entered the handful of rivers that offered some spawning gravel on the Michigan side.However, there's a ray of hope for those anglers; in the past couple of years there has been a significant increase in the winter and spring steelhead fishery in the 11 miles of the Au Sable River below Foote Dam.The fishing is still well below the peak of 10 years ago, and the steelhead have almost no chance of reproducing successfully because that part of the Au Sable gets too warm in summer.Some of the few chinook salmon in the lake still make a fall spawning run and can produce young. And from about November to April the steelhead give it the old college try, and a number of dedicated anglers still brave frigid temperatures and knee-deep snow to try to catch them.But that has been a lot tougher this winter, many say, because of rapid and wild fluctuations in the water flow caused by Consumers Energy Co. trying to maintain specified water levels in the pond above the dam.Kelly Neuman, a salmon and steelhead guide from Fairview who fishes the Au Sable in winter, says the fluctuations are destroying the fishery and often leave large stretches of gravel exposed to sub-zero temperatures that no fish eggs can withstand."We've seen times when the river below the dam has gone from 1,000 or 1,200 cubic feet per second (CFS) to 500 or 600 CFS in less than an hour," he said. "And Consumers can't seem to get a handle on maintaining the levels in the pond. We had some of these same problems last year, and they said it was because a new employee made some mistakes. But now we're seeing the same thing again this winter. It seems like whenever they can't come up with another answer, Consumers blames it on operator error."Foote is one of a series of hydroelectric dams built on the Au Sable between 1911 and 1924, but today they produce a total of about 41,000 kilowatts of electricity, or enough to run a town of about 20,000 people. That's insignificant considering Consumers' total production of 40-billion kilowatts. But all energy companies now fiercely protect old hydroelectric dams because the dams represent a significant portion of energy from renewable sources that are required under government mandates.Kyle Kruger, a senior fisheries biologist from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, has been dealing with Consumers and complaining anglers, and he said one major problem is that the water levels above the Foote Dam are controlled by a manual system, while other dams upstream have automated systems that keep the water level more even."Another part of it isn't so much the size of the fluctuation as the speed at which the water goes up and down. If we came up with a system that changed the flow by 300 CFS over 12 hours instead of in 15 minutes, it would let the fishermen plan their day and let the fish settle down," he said.And for the past two winters, large increases in the amount of ice forming on the river and snowmelt during thaws have made changes in the water flow even more unpredictable and difficult to manage. The extreme cold weather also requires that the hydroelectric plant at the dam run at higher capacity simply to keep the plant warm, Kruger added.But Neuman said the erratic flows at Foote don't start until other dams upstream cut back their production during the winter ice season, and he believes some planning and operation modification on the part of the electric company could result in a far more natural flow in the Au Sable below Foote dam.Bob Stuber, fisheries manager for the Huron-Manistee natural forest that lines much of the Au Sable, wrote in an e-mail that the problems at Foote were not anticipated when the dam was relicensed in 1992 under an agreement that most people thought would see environmental improvements.Stuber has called for a public meeting of any and all interested parties for a "frank, open discussion."Consumers Energy spokesman Kelly Hall said the meeting with interest groups would be held Feb. 14 in Oscoda. He added that because the company has a state mandate to double its renewable energy output from the present 5% to 10% by 2015, the hydroelectric plants represent a significant part of that goal.Neuman and some angling and conservation groups want the DNR to charge Consumers with violating the 1992 re-licensing agreement, but Kruger said that anglers don't understand that a court would be unlikely to shut down the Foote hydroelectric plant.But he said that because Consumers and other energy companies are so eager to retain these old hydroelectric systems, it gives environmentalists, anglers and state agencies a powerful bargaining chip in convincing to make changes that would improve the river flow.

2009-01-16T12:19:00.000-08:00

There is some real issues going on with the Lower Au Sable River right now below Foote dam! Consumers energy is no running the river the way the should be. They are supposed to be running it as a "run of the river" operations but they are doing major pool and peak operation which causes major flow changes. They will decrease flows one day and the next increase them the next and this is not good for the whole river ecosystem let alone the steelhead fishing. If you fish this river I would encourage you to join the Au Sable Big Water Preservation Association. You can follow the link under links and join. Membership is free and they even send you a little gift just for joining. All you have to do is pledge some time to the river which could be a river clean up or helping with the cormorant harassment project in the spring. Groups like this help preserve our rivers and help fight big business's who only care about money and not about the rivers or the people who use them. Here are a couple pictures that I got off of michigan sportsman.

Welcome to my blog!!

2009-01-16T11:54:00.000-08:00

Hey people, I am creating this blog to give you a up to date fishing report from around mostly Northern Michigan. I mainly fish the Au Sable river but venture off to other locations across the state and country! I will give advise on fly fishing and fly tying on a regular basis. I hope you enjoy this blog!

Adam