THE RIVERWATCHTHE QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER OF

THE ANGLERS OF THE AU SABLE

Spring 2010Number 57

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THE RIVERWATCHThe RIVERWATCH is a quarterly pub-lication of The Anglers of the Au Sable, a non-profit corporation dedicated to the protection of the Au Sable River, its wa-tershed and surrounding environs. Dues are $25 per year. For membership please contact:

The Anglers of the Au Sable 403 Black Bear Drive Grayling, MI 49738

www.AuSableAnglers.org

DIRECTORSPresident Alan Diodore, Grayling, MI

Vice PresidentBruce Pregler, Rochester Hills, MI

TreasurerPat Dwyer, Rochester, MI

SecretaryKaren Harrison, Fredric, MI

DirectorsTom Baird, Diamondale, MIWayne Blessing, Ann Arbor, MIThomas Buhr, Luzerne, MIDon Boyd, Wayland, MIDick Daane, Ann Arbor, MI (Emeritus)John Dallas, Troy, MIDan Drislane, Emigrant, MT (Emeritus)Jay Gleason, Huntersville, NC (Emeritus)Josh Greenberg, Grayling, MIJoe Hemming, Beverly Hills, MIBruce Johnson, Rochester, MIMike Krause, Ann Arbor, MIJohn Bebow, Milan, MITerry Lyons, Perry, MIEd McGlinn, Farmington Hills, MI (Emeritus)Tess Nelkie, Tawas City, MIJohn Novak, Grayling, MIJoe Reed, Grosse Pointe, MIDon Sawyer, Okemos, MIJim Shiflett, Grand Ledge, MIDean Schmitt, Toledo, OHJim Schramm, Pentwater, MIJohn Wylie, Grayling, MILance Weyeneth, Gaylord, MI

from the editor

A DIffEREnT KInD Of SpRIng

A special thanks again to the 36 contributors to RIVERWATCH 56. You made Rusty’s Issue work. Your stories were the pieces of the puzzle which came together to show the picture of the man. It was tough sledding through the first edit. I ended up at the Lodge at eight at night wanting to talk to somebody about what I’d just read.

More recollections and another poem will appear in this issue. I did not get them in time for 56. Rusty’s reach is such that other essays, poems and memories may likely appear in future issues. They are welcome.

* * * *

In addition to contributions in Rusty’s memory, there have also been donations made to Anglers in memory of the following people: Charles Robert Adorjan, Tom Erdmann, Lee Griffith and Garrett Turrall. The mon-ies will be used to preserve and protect the river they loved so much.

* * * *

They’re Baaacccckkkkkkk. The Forest Service has filed a Notice of Intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the South Branch 1-8 well. We knew this was coming since last fall and we are ready. The next step involves comments on the scoping, in essence what will be analyzed. “The comments on this should make it clear what our concerns are,” said Marvin Roberson, Forest Specialist for the Sierra Club. “We need to make sure that the scoping is thorough and on point, and we already know a lot of problem areas because of the prior intent.”

Anglers will have the same team of individuals involved this time as we did before. In that case, we were able to override a poorly implemented Environmental Assessment and get the Courts to agree with us. An EIS is a much finer analysis and if properly conducted should be in concert with our concerns for this well.

Scoping comments are due on April 26th, the Monday after the Opener. Send your comments to Lauri Hogeboom, Interdisciplinary Team Leader, Huron-Manistee National Forests, 1755 Mitchell Street, Cadillac, MI 49601, fax 231-775-5551. Electronic comments can be sent to: com-ments-eastern-huron-manistee@fs.fed.us.

Follow our website for updates.

- Thomas Buhr, Editor

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celebrate ruSty GateS - the State of anGlerS

A CElEbRATIOn Of THE lIfE Of RuSTy gATES

A celebration of the life of our friend and founder and president, Rusty Gates, will be held at Gates Au Sable Lodge on April 25 at 11 a.m.

We’ll have a large tent and a number of chairs for folks to be comfortable in, but good outdoor clothing is recommended. This will likely be a huge event so patience and goodwill is a must!

The formal remembrance will take around an hour. Food and drinks will be served sometime around noon. The food and drink are complimentary, and further food donations will be unnecessary.

After that: relax, converse, go fishing, celebrate the river and Rusty in whatever way seems appropriate.

THE STATE Of THE AnglERS Of THE Au SAblEIt has been almost three months since we lost our leader and dear friend, Rusty Gates. While it has

been a mild winter weather-wise up here, we will be very glad to put it behind us. It is time to move on.

In the months before his death, Rusty put into motion a plan for Anglers to be run through several committees made up of Directors and members. That directive was finalized at the December 2009 Board of Directors meeting and is working efficiently. You will be learning more about these new committees in this issue.

For Bruce and myself, assuming the roles of First Vice President and President, respectively, is a great honor. Yes, we feel the weight, and, no, we can’t fill Rusty’s shoes. But we know his spirit for this group and this river, and that will guide us well.

So it’s a new beginning, one to be excited about. Anglers of the Au Sable is on firm ground, function-ing smoothly, and responding to the issues at hand, be they Gear Restricted Nominations, Kolke Creek Ap-peals or scoping an EIS on the Mason Tract. We’re on it, and that will always be true. We won’t forget our heritage, but will continue to focus on the future and the fulfillment of the vision upon which the Anglers was founded 23 years ago.

Alan Diodore, President Bruce Pregler, First Vice President

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inSide the fiGht

Lee Wulff once said “game fish are too valuable to be caught only once.”

By that standard, anglers could rightfully overlook Michigan’s trout streams for the more protected wa-ters of Pennsylvania or Wisconsin. Or Colorado. Or Montana. Or Wyoming, California, or Idaho.

All of those states offer much more catch-and-release and artificial flies-and-lures-only trout angling than Michigan.

But positive change may be on the way – thanks to the work of the Anglers, Trout Unlimited and other advocates of greater gear restrictions on our state’s best trout rivers.

falling behind Other States

Anglers of the Au Sable can trace the entire roots of the organization to the catch-and-release issue. Twenty-six years ago, attorney Jim Schramm, Rusty Gates, and others fought in court, in Lansing, and probably in their waders to establish the now-famous catch-and-release restrictions for the “Holy Water” stretch of the Au Sable mainstream. Before long, they had a big mailing list, a 501c3 non-profit organization, and a never-end-ing list of conservation fights on their hands.

Despite the Anglers’ historic vic-tory for those first catch-and-release restrictions, Michigan remains way behind other states in terms of rules to enhance trout fishing.

The Anglers have developed an inventory of 500 stretches of gear-restricted trout streams in Michigan and seven peer states – Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, California, and Idaho. The inventory shows:

• Michigan has 13 total stretches of gear-restricted streams or catch-and-release streams. The seven peer states have 485 combined. Colorado leads the way with 161. Wisconsin has 63. Pennsylvania has 57.

• Michigan has 3 stretches of catch-and-release-only trout angling on the Au Sable and Pere Marquette rivers. The seven peer states have almost 400 catch-and-release stretches combined, including 125 cutthroat protections. Altogether, the average is more than 50 catch-and-release stretches each in those seven peer states!

• Michigan has 97 total miles of gear-restricted trout angling. Ex-act gear-restricted mileage is not available for all peer states, but other states clearly have much more. Pennsylvania, for example, has 177 miles of gear-restricted water – half of it flies-only and al-most all of it catch-and-release.

(You can view the full list of gear restric-tions in Michigan and other states by visiting the Anglers web site. We have posted the gear restriction spreadsheet in the “Reel Skinny” discussion forum. Anglers members John Bebow and Chad “Otis” McCurdy built the database by reviewing each state’s printed fishing guides and logging all 500 gear-restrict-ed stretches by hand. They are both lousy fly tiers, so they didn’t have anything else to do around the cabin fireplace this win-ter.)

An unused Mandate

In 2002, the Michigan Legislature slightly relaxed trout regulations by making it legal for children under 12 years of age to take one fish in no-kill areas like the Holy Waters. In return, the conservation community won leg-

islative approval for up to 212 miles of gear-restricted streams – more than doubling the existing 97 miles.

“Many maintain that having more of Michigan’s trout streams ‘man-aged’ in this way by the (DNR) will promote more tourism opportunities in surrounding areas, and, conse-quently, be beneficial for the state as a whole,” the Legislature wrote at the time.

Eight years later, the additional 115 miles of gear-restricted water re-mains undesignated.

That may change soon – and the Anglers are leading the charge.

Stating our Case

In January, the DNR Fisheries Division asked for public input to re-write trout regulations for Michigan’s rivers. The Anglers, numerous Trout Unlimited and Federation of Fly Fish-ers chapters have jumped on this op-portunity to expand gear restrictions on our best rivers.

A team of Anglers board mem-bers, led by Josh Greenberg and Tom Buhr, submitted a thoroughly re-searched recommendation for the fol-lowing gear restrictions:

au Sable main branch:

Burtons Landing – Wakeley Bridge: Flies only, catch and release, open year round.

Rationale: This stretch -- and its histori-cally unique regulations -- has become the standard of quality among anglers and guides and shouldn’t be changed. It has benefited the area economically and will continue to do so for years to come. It is extremely heavily fished and the trout populations are likely improved by the current regulations.

InSIDE THE fIgHT fOR MORE gEAR RESTRICTIOnS

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inSide the fiGht

Wakeley Bridge – McMasters Bridge: Single-hook artificial-only, 18” brown or rainbow, 7” brook, 2 trout, no more than one 18” or over. Open year round, catch and release from October 1 – last Saturday in April.

Rationale: Another heavily utilized bridge-to-bridge stretch with trophy trout potential. This would be a good compromise stretch where anglers could use a variety of hardware and flies and would have lessened size limits on brook trout, while still encouraging numbers of trophy trout for which this stretch is well-known. This would be one of the few opportunities in our area for year-round angling with hardware, thereby increasing enjoyment for a whole seg-ment of anglers. The use of single-hooks instead of treble hooks has been justified in several studies, including those by Ju-lie Meka (North American Journal of Fisheries Management, 24: 1309-1321, 2004), where it was noted that mortal-ity was higher for fish caught by treble hooks than by single hooks, particularly those fish under seventeen inches, which is the bulk of the Au Sable and Manist-ee’s trout populations. An earlier study by Melvin Reingold found that “single barbless hooks would account for 428 deaths versus 1928 for treble barbless hooks, a difference of 1500 trout [out of 75,000 Cutthroat trout]” (Reingold, Melvin, Idaho Fish and Game, Vol. 047, Article 2, 1979). It is also believed that increasing the amount of year-round water available to “off-season” anglers would reduce the winter pressure on ar-eas such as the Holy Waters and Mason Tract.

McMasters Bridge-Mio Pond/Dam: New Type III.

Rationale: This encourages a multi-tude of different angling opportunities by treating this rightly as a stretch with both warm and coldwater opportunities.

au Sable north branch:

Sheep Ranch – Mouth: Flies only,

18” brown or rainbow, 10” brook, 2 trout, no more than one 18” or over. Open year round, catch and release from October 1 – last Saturday in April.

Rationale: The restrictions on this wa-ter would only change in the increase of brown and rainbow trout size limits and a reduction in the total number of 18” fish in the creel. The idea is to increase the trophy potential of this river with-out changing the total number and size of brook trout allowed to be harvested. This will not be a controversial change in regulations, and would be welcomed among the vast majority of its anglers [For this stretch, and the lower South Branch, please see rationale for Mance-lona Bridge - Cameron Bridge with re-gards to the effects an 18”size limit on browns might have]. Brook trout over 10” are commonly caught in the North Branch and we believe, and studies have shown [see South Branch Highbanks-Mouth rationale below] that more strin-gent regulations in areas of high angling pressure and large brook trout potential will have a positive effect on populations of larger brook trout.

au Sable South branch:

Chase – Highbanks: Flies only, catch and release, open year round.

Rationale: Again, a popular stretch of river that is traditionally catch-and-re-lease and is very popular for both this reason, and the fine fishing enjoyed there.

Highbanks – Mouth: Flies only, 18” brown or rainbow, 10” brook, 2 trout, no more than one 18” or over. Open year round, catch and release from October 1 – last Saturday in April.

Rationale: Like the North Branch, these regulations are only a slightly modified to encourage large wild trout while al-lowing anglers to keep the larger brook trout. With due respect to the opinion that harvesting 7” brook trout will have little or no impact on overall brook trout

populations, we commonly catch larg-er brook trout in both this stretch and the North Branch stretch from Sheep Ranch – Mouth. Moreover, preserving the 10” limit would be overwhelmingly well received by the majority of anglers that enjoy these stretches of river. Set-ting larger size limits on brook trout has been shown to have significant effects on brook trout size on Wisconsin’s streams. Larry Claggett, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Coldwater Fisher-ies Ecologist, notes that in areas where brook trout size limits went from 6 inch-es to 10 inches, the number of brook trout over eight inches improved from 13 percent to 21 percent! (Claggett, Larry, Wisconsin Natural Resources Magazine, Oct. 2007.)

manistee river:

Mancelona Bridge – Cameron Bridge: Single-hook artificial-only, 18” brown or rainbow, 7” brook, 2 trout, no more than one 18” or over. Open year round, catch and release from October 1 – last Saturday in April.

Rationale: The Deward Tract is a spe-cial trout stream for its scenic undevel-oped beauty and wild trout. The new regulations extend the gear-restricted mileage while allowing anglers to pos-sess 7-inch brook trout. With the water being open year-round, this will spread the off-season pressure being imposed on other stretches of river. The use of more restrictive regulations on this stretch mirrors several studies done in our neighbor-state of Wisconsin. On Wisconsin’s Tomorrow River, regulation “had changed from a bag limit of 10 fish over six inches, to a bag of one brook trout at least 10 inches long and a mini-mum size of 18 inches for brown trout. Artificial lures were required to reduce hooking mortality. Surveys were done every year starting in 1988. Population estimates were averaged from 1988-91 before the regulations were put in place and compared to post-regulation years (1995-1997) after waiting a few years

Inside The Fight continued...

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inSide the fiGht

Inside The Fight continued...

for the populations to stabilize. Brown trout showed an increase from 469 fish per mile to 709 fish per mile. Brown trout over 12 inches increased from 5 percent to 20 percent, and brown trout over 18 inches increased tenfold from 0.3 fish per mile to three fish per mile.” Certainly this study could have been influence by habitat improvements, as several studies on the Manistee likely have been. How-ever, Wisconsin tested for this. Over and over again, Wisconsin has used special regulations and habitat improvement to boost their populations of wild fish in highly pressured streams. They have even done comparative studies between areas that had habitat improvement and stricter regulations with those that had no habitat improvement but stricter reg-ulations. In both cases, fish populations and sizes improved (14.3% and 9.4% respectively) (Claggett, 1979). With the upper Manistee, which has the highest trout populations in the Manistee River system, we have the potential to greatly increase productivity, and great care should be given in considering both this suggestion, and the one for the adjacent stretch downstream, explained below.

Cameron Bridge – M-72: Flies only, catch and release, open all year.

Rationale: This bridge-to-bridge stretch is heavily utilized. With its excellent populations of wild trout, the addition of this as flies-only, catch and release wa-ter would make this a more popular and productive stretch. Without belaboring some of the points made above, consider the effect catch and release angling had on the South Platte River in Idaho in the 1980s: “catch rates averaged 48% great-er in the catch-and-release area than in the standard-regulation section that had the benefit of catchable-trout stocking. The catch rate of trophy-sized trout was 28 times greater in the catch-and-release area than in the harvest area” (Ander-son and Nehring, Effects of Catch-and-Release Regulation on Wild Trout Popu-lation in Colorado, 1984). Clearly, there is great potential in adding restrictions

to angling methods in areas of extremely high pressure. There is also another fac-tor that few if any studies seem to take into account: the effect that large takes of trout during the spring has on the an-gling experience throughout the rest of the season. On rivers such as the Man-istee and the Au Sable, where most of the fish growth occurs in the spring and early summer, the removal of large num-ber of adult fish early clearly affects the quality of the fishing later in the sum-mer and fall. This stretch, according to guides and anglers alike, would be such a stretch negatively impacted by intense angling pressure coupled with liberal re-strictions on angling methods and creel limits.

M-72 to CCC Bridge: Flies-only, 18” brown or rainbow, 7” brook, 2 trout, no more than one 18” or over. Open year round, catch and release from October 1 – last Saturday in April.

Rationale: Another heavily utilized bridge-to-bridge stretch with trophy trout potential, this area is already flies-only and popular for this reason. How-ever, in the interest of compromise, we propose reducing the size limits on brook trout from 10” to 7”. This will not be an unpopular change in this area, and con-sidering the diversity of water n this long stretch, allowing a smaller size limit on brook trout seems a prudent -- and fair --recommendation.

DnR Reaction & next Steps

DNR Fisheries Chief Kelley Smith responded immediately to the Anglers recommendation submitted in early February. “I would like to ex-press my appreciation to you and the Anglers for the excellent recommen-dation letter,” Smith wrote in an email to Anglers board member Karen Har-rison. “I truly appreciate the time and thoughtful review you have put into your submission.”

Now DNR fisheries biologists are sifting through statewide trout recom-mendations with a “coldwater com-mittee” of angling interest groups, in-cluding Trout Unlimited, the Anglers, the Au Sable Big Water Preservation Association, and the Federation of Fly Fishers. The DNR’s goal is to draft final regulation changes, hold public meetings, and institute new regula-tions for the 2011 trout fishing season.

Negotiations for exact regulation changes are really just beginning. But two things are already clear…

First, there is strong statewide support for additional gear restric-tions. The DNR has received 500 email comments on gear restrictions since publishing the request for feed-back in early January. More than 440 of those emails were in support of gear restrictions. Only 61 were against, ac-cording to DNR records. So public comment is running seven-to-one in favor of additional gear restrictions.

Second, the battle is far from over. The help of every Anglers member is needed to win this one. Already, doz-ens of Anglers members have submit-ted emails of support. Later this year, we’ll need you to take off the wad-ers long enough to stand up at public meetings, show strength in numbers, and convince skittish DNR officials to stay strong and resist political pres-sure against gear restrictions. You can do it for the trout, do it for your own future angling success, or do it for the two river gods who died in this coldest of winters. What better way to honor the legacies of Rusty Gates and Joe Kutkuhn, our heroic Au Sable and Manistee river keepers, than to continue the conservation work they performed so well for so long?

- John Bebow, Anglers Board Member

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the maniStee

Sand traps aren’t sexy: they don’t have the publicity appeal of large woody debris, or battles over fish reg-ulations, or huge court victories over greedy corporate interests. What they do offer is an effective method for removing tons of sand from our too-sandy rivers.

Over the last year, Anglers has been largely responsible for the emp-tying of all the major active sand traps on the upper Au Sable and Manistee Rivers. This is good news. The bad news: we’re going to have to do it again. And again. And....

With little or no money in the state coffers for the mun-dane task of piling sand, the onus falls upon conserva-tion groups to do what needs to be done. The benefits of doing this can be huge. According to Joe Tonello, Fish-eries Biologist for the Manistee River watershed, observer data, most notably from recently deceased biologist and advocate Joe Kutkuhn, indicated that the Manistee River sand traps had a huge impact.

“In 1988 they started emptying the traps and Joe [ Kutkuhn] said within a year he saw improvements,” Tonello said.

This sentiment is echoed by Ma-son-Griffith Trout Unlimited presi-dent Mark Hendricks, who lives on the Manistee downstream of M-72.

“It gets better every year around here,” he said. Hendricks noted that his wife, an infrequent angler, noticed

the change as well.

Tonello said that the traps don’t fill up as fast as they used to, a testa-ment, he said, to the effectiveness of the erosion work done by Kuhtkun and others upstream.

“What we’re finding is that a lot of our sand traps are not that efficient. Most of our traps are too small. The nice thing about Deward is that we have four traps quite close together. That, plus the erosion work, seems to be have been effective,” Tonello said.

But, Tonello added, further emp-tying of the traps will have to occur on an ad-hoc basis. At $5,000 a pop, conservation groups find themselves behind the eight-ball. Here is an un-glamorous pit that must be emptied every one to three years in order to be effective. Take that and multiply it by the five traps on the Manistee alone, and you have $25,000 just on the one river in order to be maximally effec-tive. Add in the Au Sable, and you’re looking at a real chunk of change, even if the traps are emptied only ev-ery three years.

Sand traps work as follows: sand, being heavier than water, sinks to the

bottom of the slowest, deepest areas of the river. A sand trap, then, is de-signed to be the slowest, deepest part of the river. For most of the sand traps around here, this means being 4-6’ deep and over 100’ long in stretches that would otherwise be 3’ or less in depth. These areas are often marked with signs from both up and down-stream warning of deep water ahead.

The average capacity is 300 cu-bic yards of sand. The river below the sand trap naturally flushes out the rest of the sand and moves it down-

stream, leaving long gravel stretches that benefit bugs and fish, and fish reproduc-tion as well. Where the traps have been effective, it’s easy to forget they exist, or have worked. To that end, it’s hard to secure funding for future emptying. And that’s where we could lose a valuable tool.

Sand traps are preventative. And like any preventa-

tive measure, it’s hard to account for their effectiveness. The person who takes a low dose of aspirin every day to prevent a heart attack doesn’t know which, if any, heart attacks were pre-vented.

What we do know is that sand does not equal bugs; gravel does. We’ll always have sand in our rivers -- we do, after all, fish the River of Sands -- but continued maintenance of the sand traps will result in less sand and more gravel, and to do noth-ing would result in the opposite.

- Josh Greenberg,Mainstream Correspondent

SAnD TRApS AgAIn: THE MAnISTEE

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anGlerS moveS to committeeS

What had once been the unthink-able came to pass in the winter of 2009. Anglers had to consider a future without Rusty in charge. It had been discussed for years at various times in several forms, but there had never been a sense of urgency. Rusty’s can-cer diagnosis changed that; it became prudent to look at how the organiza-tion would run without the man who’d been at the center from the start.

Suggestions by the Gator led to discussions by the Board and, ul-timately, a plan designed by Bruce Pregler and others to turn Anglers into a group of committees responsible for the many functions involved in both conservation policy and management of the organization. At the quarterly Board Meeting on December 12, 2009 – a week before Rusty died – the Board passed a resolution to create several executive committees.

A total of seven committees were created: Habitat Restoration & Envi-ronment; Oil & Gas; DNRE; Com-munication & Education; Finance & Accounting; Legal; and Events & Membership. The titles offer a fair description for each, but, briefly, here are the committee directives from the resolution:

Habitat Restoration & Environ-ment Committee shall be charged with reviewing, proposing and imple-menting habitat restoration projects within the Au Sable River System wa-tershed as well as monitoring existing and future environmentally sensitive sites. Oil & Gas Committee shall be charged with monitoring the oil and gas industries activities in and around the watershed and proposing responses to industry activities which they believe to be unlawful, environ-mentally harmful or objectionable. DNRE Committee shall be charged

with reviewing and monitoring said agency activities as well as serving as Anglers contact to said agencies. Communication & Education Com-mittee shall be charged with manag-ing, organizing and operating the Website, Anglers’ promotions, The RIVERWATCH, and the Anglers’ writ-ing contest. Finance & Accounting Committee shall be charged with the task of accounting and reporting to the Board all revenue and donations, received or disbursed. They shall also monitor and review investments, plan and implement capital cam-paigns and make recommendations to the Board regarding future and cur-rent investments. Legal Committee shall be charged with monitoring and reviewing pending litigation which Anglers may be party to or which An-glers find relevant. They shall also make recommendations to the Board regarding: initiating litigation, ten-dering financial support to other liti-gants, review legal fees/ expenses and contracts presented to Anglers and retaining counsel on behalf of the or-ganization. Events & Membership Committee shall be charged with the planning and implementation of spe-cial & annual events the board elects to participate in or promote, includ-ing but not limited to: September Riv-er Clean Up; Fly Shows; merchandiz-ing; Book Promotions; Anniversary Meetings and Award Presentations. This Committee shall also be charged with maintaining and expanding An-glers’ membership.

These Committees report to the overall Board at each quarterly meet-ing. In between, they hold their own meetings, report to Anglers Executive Committee as needed (sometimes the overall Board), and take action when necessary. The recent case with the Gear Restriction Nomination dem-

onstrates how these entities are sup-posed to operate. The DNRE Com-mittee held meetings, decided on the nomination proposal, ran it by the Ex. Comm. and the full Board respec-tively, coordinated with other local groups such as Headwaters TU, and submitted the nomination to Fisheries Division. Chief Kelley Smith called it the best of all the nominations. Look for more of this type of quality effort from every committee going forward.

Some committees such as Habi-tat Restoration & Environment have even adopted a mission statement and are inviting pertinent guests (Huron Pines, Steve Sendek) to their meet-ings. Others, like Communication & Education, just keep functioning without skipping a beat. (You are reading this after all.) Yet others are still taking shape or have just received their first assignment; Oil & Gas has scoping comments on well 1-8 due by April 26th. Finance & Accounting is wading through Anglers financials to get everything up to par.

A nice wrinkle is that non-board members can be on Committees. Any Angler member can inquire through the website. In time, each Commit-tee will have their own webpage and message board. In the long run things are going to function very well.

No, it’s not the same as a tap on the shoulder or a cup of coffee in the pro-shop with Rusty to discuss a pressing need. Change happens, and it’s important to remember that it had his blessing from the start.

- Bruce Pregler, Vice President; Thomas Buhr, Editor

AnglERS MOVES TO COMMITTEE-bASED OpERATIOnS

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ruSty GateS, 1955-2009

I guess I somehow thought Rusty was going to pull through his diagno-sis. Not sure how I came to that con-clusion other than blind faith and not wanting to deal with the reality that we might lose him. I’ve been trying to contemplate over the past week what he meant to me. I doubt I can articu-late it very well, but I feel I should try. I bet hundreds of people had relation-ships with Rusty that only they could appreciate and fully know the extent of – I feel like I was lucky enough to be one of those people.

From the time my dad started tak-ing me to the shop when I was a little kid, Rusty always seemed like a leg-end to me - like meeting a famous ball player or something. After college I started fishing the Au Sable more fre-quently and usually by myself. I al-ways figured my friends down state wouldn’t have the patience needed to learn this sport – or maybe I didn’t have the patience to teach them (Rusty wouldn’t have been proud of the lat-ter). As much as I enjoy fishing alone, it was great to stop by the lodge for some camaraderie with Rusty and his staff. Rusty always made me feel wel-come at the lodge (even if I was just loitering around not spending any money). In my opinion, his criteria for extending you respect in the shop had more to do with your passion and genuineness than your bank account or even your fishing skill. Dropping by to share the previous nights expe-riences on the water was as enjoyable as the fishing itself. Gator asking if you want a cup of coffee and then ask-ing you how your experience was the night before. Does it get any better than that – a legend asking some kid for his insight on the previous nights fishing? It made me feel special and was something I always appreciated very much. My favorite thing was tell-ing Rusty about a good night of fish-ing. He gave you that grin that seemed to say, “You bet your ass it was good

– I was in the thick of that hatch too.” I was never sure if he thought of me as a friend or a customer or a little of both, but he always treated me with kindness and respect (even though I didn’t know squat compared to him). As far as I was concerned, he was a friend and one I will miss very much.

It’s pretty amazing that someone I only saw a few times a year could make such a big impact on my life, but Rusty sure did with me. My dad intro-duced me to the sport, but it was people like Rusty and his staff who inspired me to make it a pas-sion. I figured if people who are that cool love this sport, then it was a something I would probably enjoy. It’s now one of the most enjoyable things in my life thanks to him. Hard to believe Rusty is gone now – it’s a huge (a Rusty-ism) loss for all of us.

H o p e f u l l y my generation (I’m now 37) will have the fore-sight to fight for the things Gator believed in and be as effective (at least try to be) at winning those battles. I know we owe Rusty and this sport our best effort. It’s hard to believe one person could

make such a difference in so many other lives. It makes one contemplate how much impact they are making in their own lives. To date, my love of fly fishing has focused strictly on the fishing and traveling to interesting des-tinations to fish. That isn’t going to be enough anymore. It’s time to start giv-ing something back to this great sport - like Rusty has taught us all.

- Eric Summers, Member

A few thoughts about the Gator:

I am lost on this road, the road to nowhere. I won’t go there. Time drifts by in the wink of an eye. Different time and space, we’ll meet at our favorite place.

The hours we’ll spend, our souls on the mend. Dogs on the run, the day’s just begun. The moon and the stars twinkle afar, we fix our gaze through the fire pit haze.

This is where we’ll always be. On the ridge you planted a seed. Generations some to see, generations come to be.

Sunday is transition day, sending anglers on their way. Peace pervades the hallowed grounds, gone are all the barking hounds.

It will always be the same, another season of the game. You preached the religion of the river, you are the eternal giver.

Every year another reason, another excuse to share the season. You taught us to revere the river, you are the eternal giver.

Rest in peace my friend, your mission will not end. The mission is alive, your river, your fabric of friends will survive and thrive.

In spring each year, many friends will shed a tear. The hex will come, you taught us that the night is young.

Am I lost on the road to no where, you ensure I do not go there.

- Skip DeWall, Member

10

hemminG on hex

Major June Events: Summer Sol-stice, the 53rd wedding anniversary of my parents and…drum roll please: the hex hatch.

The hex hatch is big on the main stream of the Au Sable, excuse the un-derstatement. It’s actually somewhat miraculous – you have to be at the right place at just the right time, which generally is in the middle of the night. Sometimes the miracle occurs and the hex spring from seemingly nowhere, luring trout to feed, and sometimes not.

Our little camp is on a part of the river renown for hex, thanks to a fair amount of mud, (not conducive to wad-ing, by the way) and the sludgy river’s edge. Mud, in the fly-fishing context, is good, apparently. Because rumor has it, where there’s mud, there’s hex and where there’s hex, there’s trout. Big trout. This is where the monsters are.

I found myself on our little dock, smack dab in the middle of hex hatch last summer, on a very beautiful June evening. The fireflies were already blinking away, much earlier than I remembered from past years, but in keeping with the evening. The fly fish-ermen were out in spades, spread out along this lovely space of the river. I heard someone say: “There are hex here.” That’s a very important state-ment, one not to be taken lightly.

Hex. What a strange word. I’m told that the hex is to mayflies as a Spike’s burger is to the world of hamburgers, revered for their ability to lure trout. Downstate, we have fish flies, also part of the mayfly family, which are often cursed by those who don’t fish simply because they have to drive through or step on thousands of writhing flies that are just trying to make THE best use of the roughly 48 hours they have on this planet as flies. I guess it’s all a matter of perspective.

As I sat on the dock, I felt like I

was at the theatre and the river was a stage. The curtain rose. The perform-ers, dressed in full fishing regalia, lined up across the stage, rods in hand. They reminded me a bit of the Chinese terra cotta warriors from my youngest daughter’s native China. Theatre light-ing was comprised of very small beams of light coming from fishing hats that all reference some really great river fished in the past. The sound techni-cians had provided the howling of coy-otes in the distance. I’m not sure if this was a dramatic play or a musical, but it probably doesn’t matter; the quality of the production was superb. These fine actors knew their lines – both the fish-ing credos often waxed along the river, and those cast into pockets of quiet wa-ter hopefully occupied by the hex. Be-cause then, if all goes well, the real ac-tors will emerge: The trout, of course.

The verbal lines are said quietly but with manly urgency. Let me em-phasize that I did not make these up:

Fisher dude #1: “Did you hear that.”

Fisher dude #2: “I can’t see my fly.”

Fisher dude #3: “What was that?”

Fisher dude #4 (my husband): “Betsy, come here!” said with a slight-ly changed tone, signaling that some-thing big was going on in his little fish-ing world.

So I reluctantly left my private box seat and made my way upstream a tad. I couldn’t see a darn thing, which makes me wonder what joy there is in fishing when you can’t see what you catch. But as usual, I digress. After rapping my shins on various branches and shrubs, I heard a lot of commotion in the water of the splashing variety.

He had caught a trout of enormous proportions, though frankly, now that I think about it, I really didn’t see it. So I guess I’ll have to take his word for it.

But judging from the amount of splash-ing and the pitch of his voice, it must have been a humdinger.

I called it a night at this point, but certainly the fisher people did not. The show must go on. After a few hours, they did exit the river, having mastered as many trout as they could. I was sor-ry not to be there to applaud, but I did catch the second act, a few hours later.

So then what happens? Well, the campfire gets stoked, the wine bottle opened, and the stories of great valor get told. There are lots of stories of great valor. It’s interesting: Rarely do fishermen sit around the fire and tell stories of long periods of absolutely no action whatsoever. It’s all about the drama of bringing in a big one, the tragedy of the one that got away, and the comedy of one of the actors who inadvertently took a dip in the river. I will mention no names.

Hours pass as the stories are told. I happened to venture out at about 4 a.m., to find two men peering at a bounty of hex gathered under the porch lights. They guiltily sprang away when I emerged and judged that it was time to call it a night.

The next morning finds us retell-ing the stories of the night before, over coffee and camp breakfast. The story-telling concludes with a wry comment from one seasoned professional re-membering his early fishing days and his wonderment on why the fishermen seemed so camp-bound and out of it during the middle of the day. Because they were just waiting for the night, of course, and another round of perfor-mances to begin.

As another year arrives, I fully ex-pect more high-quality river theatre. Fish on.

- Betsy Hemming, Member

A TRIp DOWn MEMORy lAnE: HEx HATCH 2009

11

ruSty GateS, 1955-2009

Wishing you a few of these on Opening Weekend.

The passing of Rusty has brought back many memories for me. Rusty gave me a job at the fly-shop when I was 15. I lived in East Lansing at the time and without a driver’s license it made it hard to get to the Au Sable and Rusty knew that. The job was a dream job. I spent my first year up there liv-ing at the Gates’ house, catching a ride with Rusty to the shop when I could; usually he got up early and left me to fend for myself. I learned the secret route through the woods to Stephan Bridge Road or I took the river, fly rod in hand and work shoes in my vest. I would fish down from his house to the lodge – imagine fishing your way to work! I remember the look he used to give me when I walked in the door and it was always followed by, “Well, how was it?” I usually didn’t have much to report: a couple small ones if anything at all. When I was lucky he’d be up for an evening fish. The first of which I will never forget.

It was early in June, the 8th or 9th I believe. He had gotten the word first thing that morning, before I had made it to the shop, that Hex were on the south. After we closed up that evening we loaded everything in his suburban and I couldn’t believe I was going fishing with Rusty. We got to our spot and sat. It was still early when the first fish rose. I couldn’t believe he wasn’t going to fish for it. I could barely con-tain myself and wanted to jump up and start fishing. He said “No, no, no, you’ve got to wait for them.” Them being the big fish. So we sat.

We talked about everything: he was my employer and mentor but he was also the father I always wanted. He talked to me about women, drink-ing and fishing; three things I had no idea about at the time and I’m pretty sure I still don’t. As the witching hour approached he told me to scoot down river to the pinch, still within sight of

him. Moment’s later fish were rising. I caught three and called them eigh-teen, nineteen and twenty-one (in retrospect, I think they were all 15 to 18). Very confident in how I had done I asked him how he had faired. I nev-er heard him make a noise upstream from me while fishing and didn’t even know if he had fish rising by him. He quietly responded, “I got four,” then an extended pause “…over twenty.”

Fishing wasn’t the only thing I learned about from him. He taught me how the river heals the brain and the heart. The importance of sitting on the bank and watching the river pass by as it cleanses our souls. And why some-times a game of nods with a close friend is more important than the size of our quarry. Because of Rusty, my life is now intertwined with fly-fish-ing and the Au Sable and for that I will forever be grateful.

- Alex Lafkas, Member

lESSOnS fROM THE gATOR

Editorial Offices

The RIVERWATCH P.O. Box 300 Luzerne, MI 48636

Email: tombuhr@prodigy.net

Editorial Staff

Thomas Buhr, Editor

Mercy Huizar, Graphic Designer Email: oppllc@gmail.com

Calendar, Spring 2010

April 24, 2010 – Opening Day!(New Years Day north of M-55)

April 25, 2010 – A Celebration!Gates Au Sable Lodge 11 am

June 5, 2010 – Anglers Board Meeting, Board Room, 10 am

September 11, 2010 - Cleanup,Gates Lodge, 10 am

September 12, 2010 – Anglers Annual Meet-ing & Board Meeting, Board Room, 10 am

Anglers of the Au Sable403 Black Bear DriveGrayling, MI 49738

NonProfit OrganizationUS Postage

PAIDLUZERNE, MI

Permit No. 4

Our organization is officiallyaffiliated with the Federation of Fly

Fishers (FFF). We stronglyencourage you to join the FFF.

Since 1965, FFF and its Councilshave been and continue to be the

only organized national andregional advocates for fly-fishing.

Five dollars of your FFF duesare returned to the FFF Great

Lakes Council (GLC)to be used for local efforts.

COnTRIbuTORS

John Bebow, Director

Thomas Buhr, Editor

Skip DeWall, Member

Alan Diodore, President

Josh Greenberg, Mainstream Correspondent

Karen Harrison, Secretary (cover photo)

Betsy Hemming, Member

Alex Lafkas, Member

Bruce Pregler, First Vice President

Eric Summers, Member