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3. Summer Fishing Trip, Page 2

Spence, we got another foot up here yesterday. I sure as hell hope this leads to an outstanding morel crop this spring! The lower Au Sable is still frozen from bank to bank, found this out during some not-so-fun trail breaking on skis today...

When my tax returns come in, I'm going to get me a nice new brown dry fly neck and break out the stuff!

Jonathon

Jonathon,

For my Hennies I tied up today I used a brown neck a friend gave me a while back...It isn't primo but has very usable hackle, but the color is rare...Think darker brown/dun...It has little or no red in it...Not the classic brown. I did the Adams thing and mixed the brown with grizz.

I have a couple old necks I can barely pull a feather from they are so sweet! My fishing buddy told me they need to be framed, not used. :)

Hang in their sir! Spring will get here. Even in Au Sable country.

Spence

Snow is good for morels? That's good news. Last spring at camp one guy brought ramps, we found morels, and feasted. We know where to look for them again, and a heavy crop would be welcome.

Louis, morels and other fungi require a good deal of moisture for growth, especially to produce the fruiting bodies (i.e., mushrooms). You may have noticed that during summer, mushrooms generally appear after rains, and you won't see very many if the season is dry. Snow pack melt is a great source of moisture in the spring just when the morels are about to get going. I can tell you for certain that during the spring after our bone-dry winter of 2011-2012 the morel crop was nearly non-existent, perhaps only 10% of what it would be during a good year (like last year when we at least got good rains in April). With this year's snowpack I'm anticipating a good crop, plus nice healthy wildflowers around the same time (during that dry year they were almost dwarfed, trillium were about half their normal size).

I should mention, however, and bringing the discussion back to trout, that May and June of 2012 was the best spring trout fishing I have ever had - low stable waters, massive hatches, and massive feeding frenzies! I caught more trout per trip than I had ever before (or since). So, what's bad for the morels may be good for at least the spring trout fishing...hopefully this doesn't work in reverse, though I'm expecting to see a lot of blown-out waters when this stuff finally melts...

Jonathon

Would that also be true for psilocybin then? ;)

I had a conversation with a guide a couple weeks back at dinner and he said that last years higher water on the Manistee may have contributed to one of the best Henny hatches that he could remember...During the spinner falls you were advised to keep the mouth closed or you were eating bugs...:)

Spence

You old hippie...I can neither confirm nor deny those allegations...

Funny how things work, Spence. High water on the Manistee = good Hennies, yet low waters on the Rifle = good Hennies, at least in 2012...although actually there were caddis in there like mad too, at least 2 or 3 different species...it was crazy fishing, that weird early spring we had got them going faster than usual.

Jonathon