For our summer vacation, my wife Maureen and I decided on a week long fishing excursion in northern Michigan. Our trip started in Traverse City, where we did some fishing on the upper Boardman River. Next, we headed over to Lovells and to Fuller's North Branch Outing Club.

We had booked an evening float trip to fish the Hex hatch with Jamie Clous, one of my favorite guides. Maureen had never been night fishing before, so this trip was going to be a completely new experience for her. Because we were already into the end of June, Jamie suggested that we fish the upper Manistee. The Hex were still going up there, so we started our trip in late afternoon at the County Road 612 bridge. Our intent was to float the upper stretch and dry fly fish until dusk, then head down to the Hex water for sunset and night action. Jamie has one of those great wooden Au Sable canoes, so we had no trouble navigating the skinny water and shallow spots on the upper Manistee.

The dry fly fishing was pretty good, with us taking a number of Brookies and small Browns. Just a beautiful stretch of river. Once at our halfway point, we had our dinner and geared up for the night fishing. After a half hour paddle down to the Hex water, we found a likely spot and waited for the bugs to come out. They did, right on time. The spinner fall began just at dark, and the trout began to feed. We tied on some spent-wing Hex flies and began casting to rising trout.

Maureen had the first hookup, but ended in a LDR (long distance release). I was next, getting a great take from a nice 13" Brown that was parked in front of a log jam. Brought him to the net, and a quick release. A few minute after that, I began to hear the sounds of a rising Brown tucked way back in between 2 log jams. You know that sound; it's that "blurp!" sound a big trout makes when sipping bugs off of the surface. By now it's dark, so I estimated distance and tossed a #2 spent-wing Hex pattern his way. After a couple of casts and no response, I added a few feet to the line and casted to what I thought would be a definite snag on the logs. A few seconds of drift, the I heard the splash of an aggressive take. Hook set...and I had a big guy on!! He immediately took a dive into the log jams, so I stripped hard to pull him out. Break off!!! Oh well, had him on for a few seconds.

The spinner fall tapered off quickly that night, so we waited a bit for the Hex hatchers to begin rising. After about 1/2 hour, you again heard the sounds of the trout feeding. We targeted what we believed to be another big guy feeding, but again he was in a spot between 2 log jams. Jamie and I got out of the boat and waded up between the 2 log jams to get a shot. Strategy was that if I hooked up, I would have to move fast upstream to keep this guy from diving into the downstream log jam. I had changed the fly to an emerger pattern (basically an oversized parachute Roberts Yellow Drake), so I put a cast up a few feet above the last rise we heard. Immediately, I got a fast aggressive take!! After a good hook set, I was basically running upstream to pull this guy out of the logs. Jamie moved toward the fish with the net, and this one we landed. Great teamwork here! You can see the pic below, a fat 19" Brown Trout.

Maureen got the last shot of the night. We heard some feeding activity about 100 yards downstream, and paddled down toward the sound. We targeted another feeding fish, but the problem was that she would have to cast over a log to get the drift down to the fish. Maureen, with assistance from Jamie, got the fly in the right place. Another slashing take, and a great hook-set! Maureen worked fish out of the logs and landed another nice Brown. Right around 15", a great picture, and a lifetime's worth of memories.

It was a great night of fishing and camaraderie! I encourage anyone who is planning a fishing trip on the Au Sable or Manistee rivers to contact Jamie at Fuller's North Branch Outing Club. You'll have a great time!