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Water is back down to somewhat normal levels. Large chunks of ice are flowing over the dam again making wading out to far somewhat tricky.
I was out there from 4:30-7:30pm. Fished both salmon eggs and wax worms under a bobber with no luck. The guy next to me was fishing flies and green eggs with no luck. (we were the only 2 crazys out there)
I have only one other comment about steelhead fishing in Jan.
[#ff0000][size 4]HOLY CRAP IT'S COLD OUT THERE !!!!!![/size][/#ff0000]
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Au Sable was a little on the cold side too .
On the way back the radio said with windchill it was -29 degrees .
I was able to take the waders off when I hit Westbranch .
I had one good run , peeled off about 20 yards when the line snapped , my spool ( my line I should say )was frozen at that point .
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Update 1-23-08
Water is now at normal levels once again. Due to the "holy crap it's cold out" weather the river has A LOT of large ice chunks flowing down it and over the dam. There is still plenty of open water to cast out near the dam but keeping your line from getting ran over by a big piece of ice is starting to become a challenge. I would also advise against wading out anymore than 10 feet unless your with a buddy. The water is still running fast and if you slip or a big piece of ice hits you, you would be in some serious trouble.
Fished from 5-7pm tonight using eggs under a bobber. I was 1 for 2. One snapped the line the other was a small steelhead that was foul hooked. It was released to GET BIGGER and fight another day.
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Yea , I can't wait for the weekend !
That buddy thing is very important to remember . A couple years back there were two guys going up to the Manistee and one got there early , he couldn't wait , slipped , fell in and his buddy found his rod on the side of the river , he also found his freinds body
downstream .
Your drifting eggs ? Are the eggs doing better than hot-n'-tots or waxeys ?
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Yeah I've been drifting eggs under a bobber. Single or 2 eggs on a #8 hook. The singles seems to be working better than a spawn sac.
I've been tried green red orange but have been getting more strikes on hot pink.
No luck at all with the wax worms. Casting hot-n-tots or mini rapalas is almost imposible with the large ice flows.
Hopefully the water above the dam will freeze over soon. The large chunks flowing over the dam is making it difficult to fish.
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