Well I've actually been back for a week now but just now getting around to resizing/editing pics and stuff due to having a busy week after being gone for some long. Like every years vacation with the family to our cabin on the Au Sable I always enjoy it, but this years was not as good as years past mainly due to unfavorable weather conditions. Super hot daytime temps, and lots of rain kept me from doing any trout fishing at all this vacation. And it also kept me from taking the boat out as much as I usually do as well so this year I spent a good deal of time wading some of the open areas below the dam fly fishing for smallies the entire trip. The smallmouth fishing wasn't very hot either as compared to most years. This was actually the about first year since about 1984 where I failed to land a smallmouth over 20". Most the fish seemed to be in lazy mood most days, most likely due to the water temps being 79degrees as well as the rain each day washing food into the river so they didn't have to search much to find food. But still with that said, I've been fishing the Au Sable for close to four decades now so I know where to find fish even in the worst of times, so I did manage a decent number of smallmouth on the fly that ranged from 14" to 17".

At the end of this post there's a 3min video that has a ton of pics in it of fish as well as other wildlife. I figured that would be a better way to share the pics rather than posting 100 pictures and having guys that are on a slow connection have issues downloading them, so watch the vid at the end, but here is a sample of some of the highlights I enjoyed.






















Took my niece & Nephew down and rigged them up with spin rods one evening so they could get in on some action. They are both growing so fast I'm afraid it wont be long till they are off to college and no longer be joining Uncle Steve on the river





My niece with the first fish on the rod I built for her last Christmas.







Couple pics that just begged to be B&W in my opinion.






I must be getting old because I can remember when the above dilapidated shack was actually a bait shop back when I was a kid.

My buddy Mark was able to come up and spend a day pulling streamers with me, we lucked out and had nice weather that day thankfully.





Small stream between my cabin and town about 8 miles away.



Here's a video with tons more fish pictures and wildlife pics, enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTtQq0sUxOU

You are a rich man Steve. Great photos and vid.

Pretty cool Steve.

You shaved!!!!!

Randy

Yep I usually do during the heat of July&August, then grow the mountain man beard back about Septemeber

Looks like a great trip Steve! Don't worry about your niece and nephew, they will always have time for their uncle, I think you have made sure of that!

Paul

I think that the weather had to be kinda hot, but its good to see you got some green fish.

Thank you Steve for sharing your family vacation.
You have a big treasure in there. Kipp it!
Abraço

Nuno

You didn;t miss much this year Bob, with the heat trout fishing wasn't even an option. We need to get that boat wet again soon as this heat dies down though. I'll give ya a buzz tonight. How was TX?

Steve, great video! Thanks for sharing with us.

Steve
Looks like a good trip.
You can come to this area and fish for Grayling and perhaps I can come out to your area and fish for Small Mouth Bass. We have some non native Large mouth areas and not much for smallis though.
Brian