Au Sable River

Review: Au Sable River

Au Sable River

By Bob Linsenman
Frank Amato Publications, Inc., $15.95, 48 pages

It looks like a magazine because it is part of a serial set, the River Journal series. In the hardback version it looks, and I wager behaves in some homes, like a coffee table book. The photographs, most by Bob, are lush, accurate depictions of our river in full color except for historical photos. For the fly fisher who has not fished the Au Sable it is an introduction. For most of us in the Anglers of the Au Sable it is a guide’s guide book. That is a rare treat in angling literature. I have fished the Au Sable for 30 years. Bob Linsenman has put in 40 years. I know others, natives of Grayling, that have put in a lifetime. All of us are still learning about the river. It is a living, evolving ecosystem.
This book will help bring you to the river’s present state.
Several things it is not. It is not a pool by pool streamside guide. Trout Unlimited has a good one and others are available including, but not limited to, one written by the author (Michigan Trout Streams , by Linsenman & Nevala, 1993). It is not a comprehensive history of our river, although there are historical notes. For history try The Old Au Sable by Hazen Miller (1963 but now reprinted). It is not a pattern book although its plates of flies are elegant. There is a hatch chart, but again TU sells one that is substantially more complete. I mention this to stave off carping by critics over elements that are in fact not missing because they were not intended.
What is there is best characterized as a ruttier. Ruttiers were journals compiled by 16 th century pilot navigators. They were personal guides to finding ones way at sea. They supplemented Mercator’s charts and sea captains’ logs and made the difference between commercial success and ships and cargos lost at sea. Ruttiers were treasured and guarded personal documents and the gift that Bob Linsenman has given to us is permitting us a look into his. You can learn about one stretch on one day by hiring a guide or visiting a fly shop, but here the gift is all of the river through its seasons.
On the South Branch: Most anglers give up too early on hot evenings. “It’s too hot. No hatch tonight,” they say. They are almost always wrong. Wait it out. Believe me, a brown drake spinner fall under the soft glow of moonlight is worth it.
Below Foote Dam: Deep winter at the end of my favorite river is magical… If the sun is shining and the air is cold enough, we will see water vapor crystallize and shoot into the air, then bend back towards us and the surface of the river. Tens of thousands of infinitesimal jewels weave a tenuous shine of light. It is called “diamond dust,” and on a beautiful river, is reward enough. As is this book. RWOL

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