Weather uncooperative for trout opener

   GRAYLING-Believe it or not but it was snowing with mixed rain on the way north to Grayling, yesterday, Thursday.
   Temperatures were in the low 40's to high 30's with strong winds blowing all afternoon. The AuSable and Manistee Rivers had waves on them. Water temperatures in either system was a cold 35-degrees.
   With time to kill before my campmates arrived I drove to nearby Frederic and spent the afternoon with fly tier and river guide Sam Surre.
   "We've already had a good hennie (Hendrickson) hatch, Surre said looking over the top of his glasses from his position at a new version of the fly tying bench he and pal Larry Blan had designed.
   Hendrickson's are the hatch anglers look forward to around the opener. A large bug-size 14-they are easy to tie on a fly line and easy to see floating on the water.
   "I don't know what this cold weather will do later on for fishing," Surre remarked. He was referring to the different insect hatches that normally occur in some sort of sequence. Would cold weather followed by unreasonable warm weather then a return to cold push things right into the hex hatch-the large Michigan mayfly- or perhaps begin the cycle all over again.
   Friday morning during breakfast at Bob Ward's cabin along the Manistee River, the six of us already in camp sipped coffee in a cabin heated with a wood stove while outside temperatures were barely over 30-degrees.
   Ice had formed on the underside of lawn chairs left outdoors. Such is the variances of a northern opener. Some years it's warm enough to wade wet. Then the very next year, it's snow, sleet and high winds.
   Welcome to early trout fishing in Michigan.