By William A. Sodeman, Jr., MD, JD
In the Thrill of the Night
Fishing the Michigan Hexby Dan Catau
Brook Trout Publishing Co., 121 pages, softback, $15.95
ISBN # 0-9669306-0-6
Each summer, June to July, Hexagenia limbata, the Giant Michigan Mayfly has its seasonal emergence on the Au Sable and several other central Michigan rivers. This mayfly is huge and the artificial often looks and casts like a small bird. From the trout’s standpoint it is a cubic mouthful that can regularly induce a rise to a dry fly by trout so large and so wise that they otherwise remain largely indifferent to Ephemeroptera. Fishing the hex hatch is a fly-fishing subspecialty. This book is about those subspecialists.
When I began to read it, I did not find this a comfortable book to read. It is not the style that I am accustomed to find in the current books and magazines for trout fishermen. Then I remembered that Thomas McGuane in Home Waters had said that "like ‘military intelligence’ and ‘airline cuisine,’ ‘sophisticated angler’ is an oxymoron." I was reading a plain talk fishing manual with a sophisticated angler attitude. Do not let your attitude disturb your appreciation of what is a useful and instructive fishing manual.
Mr. Catau is an auto industry health and safety specialist who also owned a fishing lodge on the Manistee. He has fished the hex hatch for forty years which means he has seen a lot of equipment and technology for fly fishing come and go. When you hone down to the hex hatch the equipment and fly selection become relatively simple. You need to use enough rod and there are just duns and spinners. H. limbata has a mud dwelling larva so you need position downstream from a suitable muck bed. These flies are selectively distributed in the river systems. You need water that can be safely waded in the dark. You need patience to wait for the hatch, 9:30 PM plus on average for the dun and after 10:30 for the spinner.
Much of the book is taken up with fishing stories of the me and Joe type but to be sure unless you hire a guide these may be the best preparation you get to fish this hatch. It is not great prose but it is great fishing. After all you locate the fish by the slurp it makes feeding and cast to the sound. In the words of Mr. Catau "...you shouldn’t pass up an opportunity, no matter what the size of the dimple, burp, slurp, gulp, etc. You never know what might lurk behind the smallest sound." Fishing the hex hatch is probably the best chance that any of us will get for a 20+ inch trout in the Au Sable. It is a very specialized book and so is its recommendation. It is a one of a kind, so far, and of interest to the actual or potential hex addict. RWOL
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