Finally. The water is coming down, and I felt that the Ark I was building could be put on hold for a while! The South Branch and Mainstream is nearly down to normal levels the last day or so. Water temps have been in the low to mid 50’s, and the fishing has been good. Even with the high water a week ago today, we still had some very good fish feeding below Mio, and had some exceptional fish feeding. With the water running nearly 3 times the normal flow, stopping to fish the risers was a bit tricky to say the least…the anchor acted like a drag chain, and thank God I had my auxiliary anchor along for the ride.
There have been blizzard hatches of black caddis on the holy waters for a solid week. Hendrickson’s are still going good below Mio, and as of this past Friday, there were no caddis showing up yet, although that will change on that stretch any day now.
Fishing the Mio stretch yielded some nice 13-18 inchers late last week, and we picked up one exceptional fish among some break-offs. All the fish caught were on Hendrickson dun patterns in a near gale wind at times (this made for some interesting casts) . The air temp each night has been too cold for a spinner drop. The first good, warm morning or evening will most likely bring on a superb spinner fall of Hendrickson’s below Mio.
Paul Matthews with a 25 1/2 inch Brown caught 5.5.17 on a Hendrickson Dun!
As always, feel free to stop by the shop for some good ‘ole fashioned advice or simply give us a call. We’d be more than happy to answer any questions you might have, and point you in the right direction to make your stay here in the Grayling area an enjoyable one!
