Winter fishing is always hit-and-miss. Some days you find a stream where the fish are just voracious, and others you can't get a bite to save your life. My friend Rich Merlino, who is the fishing manager at the Royal Oak Orvis, had told me that during winter you look for periods where you get a rise in temperature, then fish the second day of the warm-up period. This is where you get the best chance for the fish to be active. That opportunity came to us just recently.

This past week, we had some freakish weather. Over the past weekend, we got hit with 8 to 10 inches of snow and very cold temperatures, followed up with 2 days near 60 degrees and torrential rains. This washed away nearly all the snow. The stream flow on the Au Sable nearly doubled, with water level up from between 6 inches in some areas to over 1.5 feet in others.

Jon Griffin, Doug Shore and I took off on Thursday, January 10, for a couple of days to try our luck on the Au Sable. We headed to Mio and Jon's cabin, which would be home base for us. We arrived a bit before noon, got the heat going, and then we headed out toward the Au Sable North Branch for the afternoon. Afternoon temperatures were in the mid-30's, with grey cloud cover and very light wind. We were about 36 hours on the backside of the warm-up, but we were hoping that the meltdown and added stream flow had the fish interested in feeding.

We decided to fish at Sheep Pasture (this location is described in our Au Sable Holy Waters River Guide). When we arrived we found some remnants of snow, but mostly muddy banks and the river up about half a foot and a bit cloudy. A good wading opportunity!! Jon and Doug went for nymph patterns, and I started off with a #6 egg-sucking leech. We separated, and then went about the business of fishing. Jon went upstream, I went downstream, and Doug worked the middle ground that we had staked out.

Streamer fishing in the winter is quite different than summer. The fish are much less reactive. You really need to just float the streamer in front of the fish and show a bit of movement to encourage a strike. Taking that in mind, I used a modified nymphing technique rather than the jerk-strip technique most associated with streamer fishing. I use my 5-weight with floating line, 10 feet of 2X tippet, then throw 45 degrees upstream and let it sink and drift on the bottom. When the fly gets about 30 degrees downstream from where you're standing, throw a little downstream mend in the line so that it will begin to swing toward you. This adds a little action to the fly, while allowing it to still move with the current.

Since the current and depth was up on the river, the leech wasn't getting down fast enough. I switched over to the #6 Little Rascal. This cone head fly is made with a white rabbit strip tail and an olive crosscut rabbit body with a lot of flash (the Au Sable fish seem to like red for some reason). This fly has the ability to get to bottom and shows some nice action, even on the drift.

I got one short strike after working the downstream chutes for about and hour, and then I meandered back to where Jon and Doug were to check on their progress. They both had gotten a couple of tugs, but no fish on as yet. Jon pointed out a couple of trout motels upstream of his location that he had worked, but without results. I walked the bank to about 100 feet upstream of the trout motels, then got back in and worked my way down.

Using the technique I described above, I drifted the fly past the trout motels then allowed it swing toward me just as it reached the downstream end of the motel. This action simulates a small fish swimming past the motel, and then quickly swimming away. After a few casts, I saw the line sag a bit. Looked like a snag! I applied a strip-strike to clear it, but still felt weight on the line. Must have gotten either some wood or a clump of weeds. Then felt a slow wiggle on the end. Fish on!! The fish was lethargic at first, but really came to life as it got it near the surface. A nice 14-inch brown trout! After a couple of quick pictures, it was back to the river for this guy to grow a couple more inches for the summer season. Who says you can't catch brown trout in the North Branch!!

We continued our day until dark, had a couple of more hits, but no more fish in the net. We headed back to Jon's cabin for a warm up, a couple of nice bottles of wine, and a homemade meals of steaks, mushroom risotto, and grilled asparagus. The best thing about the meal was that each of us contributed our efforts, so preparation and cleanup was easy. Who says you can't eat well in the North Country?

Unfortunately, a storm blew through Mio on Thursday evening, dumped about 6 inches of snow, and dropped the temperature into the low 20's. Over coffee on Friday morning, we decided to relax rather than fish. Does that make us fair weather fisherman; maybe! Did that decision keep us warm, dry, and without sprained ankles from tripping on snow covered deadfall, most definitely!!

We all headed back early on Friday afternoon, slip-sliding down the road a bit. All in all, a short trip but a good one. Can't wait for the next winter warmup. I'll be calling Jon and Doug first thing!