I grew up a small town near Windsor Ontario: a part of the province rich with lakes and warm water rivers but devoid of both trout and fly fishing. I’ve been fishing my entire life, but it wasn’t until many years later, during a camping trip with my girlfriend (now wife) to a park located on the banks of the Grand River that I discovered fly fishing.
What began as a curiosity has turned into a lifelong passion. Fly fishing has become my escape from the hectic rat race of everyday life and in some ways it has taught me how to slow down. Now living on the perimeter of the Greater Toronto Area, within minutes of that river and easy driving distance to a number of blue ribbon trout rivers, I spend as much free time as possible with a fly rod in hand.
As a university graduate, software developer and competitive sports player, I’ve had my share of learning challenges. Fly fishing truly is humbling in this respect as it’s easy to learn but takes a lifetime to master. For this reason, I make no claims about my own skill as a fly fisher; only that it’s something I will continue to learn and improve upon and hopefully share some of my experiences and knowledge with others along the way.
My pursuit of chasing wild trout with a fly rod has also reinforced my love of wild places. This in turn has ignited yet another growing passion of mine, which is exploring the Ontario wilderness with a canoe. Although I always travel to these places with a fly rod and the goal of finding and catching native trout on one, it’s also reconnected me to my childhood roots of conventional fishing/spinning gear – which is especially useful for trolling in a canoe and fishing deeper lakes for trout.
Whether it’s improving my casting ability, learning to tie more realistic or difficult fly patterns, experiencing new species on a fly rod, or pushing myself to explorer further and longer in the Ontario backcountry, there certainly is no shortage of challenges!