05-08-2007, 12:13 AM
We headed out Saturday morning to the Au Sable River in Alcona County with boat in tow .
Our First stop was at the M65 bait store where we were informed by Helen that the spawning run of steelhead happened during the last few weeks of January and the first two weeks of Febuary , none the least , we were determined to catch a few of the fish that might have remained after the run .
We also stopped in to see Bassass, always some great conversation and fresh coffee at his home . Tom and his family had plans for the weekend so fishing had to be put on hold for him this trip .
We launched at Whirlpool and headed slugishley up the river to the Footesite Dam , our moter was acting up and was running on one lung which was a blessing in discuise . Roosterfish was concentrating on visually locating fish and would alert me to submerged logs and stumps as they were passing by .
The weathermans forcast of sunshine and 70's temps were as acurate as the rest of his reports , far from the bullseye . We battled heavy winds and temps in the mid 40's to low 50's , toss in the windchill and you had two disgruntled fisherman cursing the forcaster of the local telivision weather news .
Stopping at the dam and fishing was quite a challange with the wind blowing us around , our only option was to hit the holes headed back down the river .
We identified several schools of suckers along the way , never spotting a steelhead or trout untill they started surfacing just before dark . There was nothing we could offer the fish to entise a strike , they must have been as cold as we were at this point and had an attitude of their own . The steelhead we did see were rich in there red color , signs of them being in the river for quite a long time .
Roosterfish and I found one bend in the river we were shure would hold a brown or two , we were far from right on this guess but did end up with some supreme fishing for about 45 minutes .
Organic baits wern't getting us anywhere and I decided to try a spinnerbait , WHAM ! First cast and not two seconds in the water and a smallie hammered the blade .
Cast after cast the fish were on each and every toss. We had a blast !
As hot as that hole was we decided to leave it in search of other excitement , we wanted something for dinner and if the salmoniods wern't cooperating maybe a walleye or two would give us a break .
There was no such luck , either the wind would kick up or the submerged logs would clean our clocks of our gear , it was a no win situation .
Dinner ended up being a pizza in the Glennie tavern , washed down with a couple Budweiser beers .
Roosterfish upon leaving the establishment was intent on continuing the fishfest with some walleye fishing at the Alcona Pond Dam but, I was way too whiped out to keep my eyes open .
Deercamp was just a couple miles away and I was out as soon as my head hit the pillow .
Sunday morning the birds woke us up with all their shinanigans , that was enough to get us up out of our bunks and down to the Alcona Pond Dam for some early morning fishing . There were a few brookies surfacing here and there with the huge suckers swimming all around below the fishing pier . The bass were the only thing hitting and we had had our fill of catch and release the day before .
Breakfast was to be at the CHAT & CHEW resturant in Glennie , Omlets were the choise .
The next fishing hole was hitting the Five Channels Dam on M65 after stopping at the baitshop that just opened up down the road from there . Leaches were doing well but not for walleye as we were lead to belive , more bass were cought by roosterfish here , I got skunked untill we hit the Footsite Dam .
The Footsite produced a few suckers and rockbass and was a major disapointment untill we saw a few holdover cromers jumping below the ramp, unfortunatley that spot was filled with a few flyfisherman , we pushed on .
Our two last stops were on the Rifle River in the trout section where we had no luck at all due to the overabundance of other fisherman wading thru constantly and then at Peach Lake where we soon discovered we were out of boat fule as we left the launch headed out onto the lake .
Enough was enough , home was our destination now , we fought every urge to stop on the many trout streams along the way for a look-see.
The fish won this weekend but we are not quitters . The next trip will be some Muskey fishing down in roosterfishes neighborhood .
I got a feeling we will have some sizeable fish to report in another couple weeks .
[signature]
Our First stop was at the M65 bait store where we were informed by Helen that the spawning run of steelhead happened during the last few weeks of January and the first two weeks of Febuary , none the least , we were determined to catch a few of the fish that might have remained after the run .
We also stopped in to see Bassass, always some great conversation and fresh coffee at his home . Tom and his family had plans for the weekend so fishing had to be put on hold for him this trip .
We launched at Whirlpool and headed slugishley up the river to the Footesite Dam , our moter was acting up and was running on one lung which was a blessing in discuise . Roosterfish was concentrating on visually locating fish and would alert me to submerged logs and stumps as they were passing by .
The weathermans forcast of sunshine and 70's temps were as acurate as the rest of his reports , far from the bullseye . We battled heavy winds and temps in the mid 40's to low 50's , toss in the windchill and you had two disgruntled fisherman cursing the forcaster of the local telivision weather news .
Stopping at the dam and fishing was quite a challange with the wind blowing us around , our only option was to hit the holes headed back down the river .
We identified several schools of suckers along the way , never spotting a steelhead or trout untill they started surfacing just before dark . There was nothing we could offer the fish to entise a strike , they must have been as cold as we were at this point and had an attitude of their own . The steelhead we did see were rich in there red color , signs of them being in the river for quite a long time .
Roosterfish and I found one bend in the river we were shure would hold a brown or two , we were far from right on this guess but did end up with some supreme fishing for about 45 minutes .
Organic baits wern't getting us anywhere and I decided to try a spinnerbait , WHAM ! First cast and not two seconds in the water and a smallie hammered the blade .
Cast after cast the fish were on each and every toss. We had a blast !
As hot as that hole was we decided to leave it in search of other excitement , we wanted something for dinner and if the salmoniods wern't cooperating maybe a walleye or two would give us a break .
There was no such luck , either the wind would kick up or the submerged logs would clean our clocks of our gear , it was a no win situation .
Dinner ended up being a pizza in the Glennie tavern , washed down with a couple Budweiser beers .
Roosterfish upon leaving the establishment was intent on continuing the fishfest with some walleye fishing at the Alcona Pond Dam but, I was way too whiped out to keep my eyes open .
Deercamp was just a couple miles away and I was out as soon as my head hit the pillow .
Sunday morning the birds woke us up with all their shinanigans , that was enough to get us up out of our bunks and down to the Alcona Pond Dam for some early morning fishing . There were a few brookies surfacing here and there with the huge suckers swimming all around below the fishing pier . The bass were the only thing hitting and we had had our fill of catch and release the day before .
Breakfast was to be at the CHAT & CHEW resturant in Glennie , Omlets were the choise .
The next fishing hole was hitting the Five Channels Dam on M65 after stopping at the baitshop that just opened up down the road from there . Leaches were doing well but not for walleye as we were lead to belive , more bass were cought by roosterfish here , I got skunked untill we hit the Footsite Dam .
The Footsite produced a few suckers and rockbass and was a major disapointment untill we saw a few holdover cromers jumping below the ramp, unfortunatley that spot was filled with a few flyfisherman , we pushed on .
Our two last stops were on the Rifle River in the trout section where we had no luck at all due to the overabundance of other fisherman wading thru constantly and then at Peach Lake where we soon discovered we were out of boat fule as we left the launch headed out onto the lake .
Enough was enough , home was our destination now , we fought every urge to stop on the many trout streams along the way for a look-see.
The fish won this weekend but we are not quitters . The next trip will be some Muskey fishing down in roosterfishes neighborhood .
I got a feeling we will have some sizeable fish to report in another couple weeks .
[signature]