Clinton Valley Trout Unlimited

Every year Clinton Valley Trout Unlimited members spend a weekend at the historic Wa Wa Sum Lodge on the banks of the Main Stream of the Au Sable’s fabled “Holy Waters” just east of Grayling.

This year CVTU’s outing will begin on Thursday, May 17, 2012 and end on Sunday, May 20, 2012.  During the weekend anglers will be able to fish various sections of the Au Sable River while in the company of other CVTU members.

This year we will be joined by Chris Raines aka “Uber” from the Pere Marquette River Lodge.

Chris is a Pere Marquette, Big Man and Muskegon river guide. Chris has lived here and fished all of the local rivers relentlessly over the past 10 years. If your looking for a unique experience on the Pere Marquette he can help you out. Chris has an intimate knowledge of the lower river system. Here you can find large schools of migrating salmon in late summer, early fall. It isn’t uncommon to find holes filled with these fish. After the salmon wind things up, these same stretches can hold phenomenal numbers of fall run steelhead. Targeting these fish with indicators and fat lines is the rule.

Chris will be giving a presentation on Streamer techniques, and hopefully he will share some hints on what he says is his favorite time of year, Gray Drake Season.

Visit the Lodge’s website. click the link below.

http://www.pmlodge.com/index.html

This years fee will be determined next board meeting.

Please contact Chapter President Alan Johnston  for more information on this event.

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Here is some additional information on the Wa Wa Sum Lodge courtesy of MSU:

Wa Wa Sum is a Michigan State University research and conference facility located on the Au Sable River six miles east of Grayling.

The name Wa Wa Sum means “Plain View” in the Ojibwa language and was given to the camp in 1905 by Chief David Shoppenagon, an Au Sable guide and woodsman. At that time, because of the extensive logging of the region’s pine forests, the view from the high bank on which the camp is built was unobstructed for miles to the south. Since then, the forests have regenerated, slowly obscuring the view beyond the river.  Chief Shoppenagon built the first building at the camp, now known as the Dining Room, in 1880. In 1897, Rubin Babbit, an Au Sable woodsman who later becam Michigan’s first wildlife officer, built a second structure, now the Administration Building. These first buildings were constructed of red pine and tamarack logs and used as a fishing camp for a group of Toledo businessmen. Other cabins of various sizes were added in later years: the Bullpen (1907); the Big Camp (1921/22); the Barn and the Guide’s Cabin (early 1930s).

 The buildings and 251 acres of land were deeded to MSU in 1980 by owners Virginia Secor Stranahan and Frank Bell, descendants of two of the camp’s six original owners. Kevin Gardiner, a descendant of Rubin Babbit, is the camp’s present caretaker. He is the third generation of his family to perform these duties.