New film showcases Michigan’s Au Sable River

To Chicago-based filmmaker Robert Thompson, Michigan’s Au Sable River is “not just a river that people show up and fish on.”

Though the Au Sable’s fly-fishing is a popular draw, it is also rich in logging history dating to the 1860’s, has had turbulent and extensive fishing conservation and river restoration efforts and is the angling livelihood and tradition of many who live in the area or come from across the Midwest to visit it.

“If you look at the Au Sable River, there is no river in the country that has as much history as that river system,” said Thompson, who grew up Alpena, Mich., and is an avid Au Sable angler.

This richness inspired Thompson to create and produce The River, a film that tells the Au Sable’s angling, health and historic story. It’s a story he tells with the help of guides, local residents, historians, conservationists, authors and lifetime anglers of Crawford County, Mich.

The two-hour film was well-received at its April 26 premiere in Grayling, Mich. at the Rialto Theater, said Bruce Pregler, president of the Anglers of the Au Sable, who attended the show. There was a lot of “hooting and hollering” from the audience of anglers, who understood “the celebration of landing a big fish and the disappointment of losing the big fish,” he said.

The River trailer from RT on Vimeo.

The Anglers of the Au Sable, an environmental conservation association, is a partial sponsor of the film. Other funders include Orvis, a retail fly-fishing and sporting goods business, and Thompson himself. Some proceeds from the premiere were donated to Anglers of the Au Sable and Thompson said he hopes to earn some of his investment back via sales.

The film will not appear in theaters, but is distributed by DVD with  two shorter films, The Brothers Brown and Summers. The full DVD can be purchased on Thompson’s website, thirdyearflyfisher.com, and at numerous fly-fishing shops in Michigan, Thompson said. It costs $33 for a standard DVD and $38 for a Blu-Ray Disc.

Thompson had wanted to create a film to accompany the late “legendary” Au Sable fisherman Rusty Gates’ book Seasons on the Au Sable, which covers the fly-fishing season from when it starts in April to when it ends in October, he said. But the final product is more extensive, covering the river’s history and its anglers’ personal stories in addition to showing it throughout the winter, spring, summer and fall.

The Au Sable River is in the central, northern area of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula. The main stream begins about 20 miles north of the small city of Grayling where it then turns east before traveling around 100 miles to empty into Lake Huron. The river is 138 miles long when you consider all of its twists and turns.

In the film, Glen Eberly, an Au Sable historian, said the river’s watershed is one of a very few of its kind in the world that is a “glacial outwash plain” composed of sand, gravel and clay. That kind of soil allows the water to sink into the ground and feeds the river by springs, keeping it level throughout the seasons.

The springs keep the stream’s flow constant and the water cold and clear. These conditions can also result in low production and a “unique” biological community because of the water’s lack of nutrients, Steve Sendek, a retired state fisheries biologist, said in the film.

Andy Partlo of the Old Au Sable Fly Shop in Grayling notes in the film that there are about 120 miles of trout stream in the Au Sable. Despite its ample fishing promise, the river’s frustrations make it a challenge for even seasoned anglers.

Because of the Au Sable’s on and off days, Bob Linsenman, co-author of Modern Streamers for Trophy Trout, refers to it as a “mistress.”

“She can be spectacular and lavish or extremely hateful, and that’s this river,” he said in the film.

The film describes the river’s logging history, which dates to the 1860’s when the rivers were the area’s early railroads. Eberly said the entire area was originally a native forest; loggers would purchase the land, set up logging camps and harvest white pine. They would then float the logs on the river out to Lake Huron.

The River also explains the ebb and flow of fish populations and species, which have had some tough times thanks to overfishing. The river’s once abundant grayling fish were overfished and attacked by trout to extinction, Eberly explains. Today, the river is mostly inhabited by trout, an introduced species.

The picture captures the river’s scenic beauty in the winter, spring, summer and fall while following fly fishermen out on their excursions. That created filming challenges,  said Thompson, who began shooting in March 2012 and finished in October 2013.

“Mother nature – you can’t control her and there’s nothing you can do about her. Unfortunately in the fishing world in general, some of the best fishing days are in the worst of conditions,” he said. “If it were a nice sunny day where it was nice to be out shooting, the fishing would be bad, but if it’s cold and rainy, those are the best days. You just have to deal with it.”

The film’s theme of conserving and preserving the Au Sable River was a reason the Anglers of the Au Sable supported it, Pregler said. Ensuring the river is clean and pure for future generations is one of the association’s goals.

It is important to continue to actively conserve and educate people, as threats to the river’s well-being continually surface, he said. A current threat mentioned in the film is hydraulic fracturing operations, which have the potential to pollute or take water from the river.

Many anglers feel a sense of belonging to the river and seek to see it bountiful and lively; Pregler is among them.

The Au Sable is a spiritual place, he said. “When I’m out in the water I personally feel closest to God.

“If that’s not worth preserving, I don’t know what is.”