Well, I finally got around to doing this and you can check out the full reference here. It includes some supporting information for each species, such as (fly) size, timing and description. I even linked to these photos from my Credit River Hatch Chart.

Most of the adult insects from the Credit River are present, but this reference will be fairly accurate for the same insects on other rivers throughout Ontario and other eastern provinces and states. The main differences will be timing and some slight colour and size variation. I’ll be adding more adults and nymphs (especially those that don’t occur on the Credit) in the near future.

With trout season just a couple weeks away in Ontario, I hope these will be useful for topping up your fly boxes!

The post Insect Reference Gallery appeared first on Caffeinated Fly Fisher.

Early Season: Brookies & Backcountry

As is typical for me, opening week and most of May was spent pursuing Ontario’s jewel of the north: Brook Trout. This is the time of year when the water is the cold and high – a perfect combination for fishing brook trout. While there’s certainly a group of likeminded anglers out there with the same idea, the vast majority of them are either fishing the tail end of spring steelhead, or off to their favorite Brown Trout rivers.

I fished mostly smaller streams for brookies this year (not including Algonquin). In fact, I may not have made a single trip to the Credit for brookies all season, which I think is a first for me. Regardless what I’m chasing, I always go out of my way to escape the crowds – and I managed to do just that.

These first few small stream outings produced some unusually colorful little brookies for early season, which was a real treat. I especially enjoy the very different coloration from different streams and habitats – brookies, more than any other trout, seem to really adapt their colors to the water they’re living in. Fishing with a 2 or 3 weight, they’re always a joy to catch.

Aside from whetting my appetite with the aforementioned local brook trout outings, the majority of my time leading up to trout opener – and the several weeks after it – were actually taken up from an absurd amount of planning and preparation (and finally, travel) for my first solo Algonquin backcountry trip. This was also focused on Brook Trout, but it included close to 100 km of travel via canoe + portages over a period of 6 days.

I’ve already posted a full separate report on that trip, so check it out here if you’re in the mood for another long read. Below is one of the brookies from that trip.

Early to Mid Season: The Usual

After my mid-May Algonquin trip, I found myself back home just in time for some prime hatches – such as the Green Drakes and Grey Foxes. It’s been a tradition to hit the river almost every day during the green drake hatch. They tend to come and go in cycles – mostly whether and water dependent – so each new season is always a surprise (or potential let down).

The drakes are always intermixed with foxes as well, often quite heavily – so it’s wise to carry a selection of both files. There’s been several occasions where I was overly focused on fishing the larger green drakes (among a fairly thick hatch of them), only to be snubbed by some extremely selective trout. Often, upon switching to a Grey Fox, I’d end up hooking into a trout almost immediately.

The hatch was no bust this year – at least from a bug numbers perspective. They were in good numbers, especially throughout the more upper stretches of the Credit River.

As great as the fishing could be during this hatch, there is typically a very small window when the spinners (Coffin Flies – which are white and black as opposed to the yellow/green color of the duns) are falling – and this is when you want to be on the water.

I managed but a single larger brown during the drake hatches – with the rest of my fish being either smaller browns, or rainbows.

Most of my fish were caught on a new green drake spinner that I experimented with this year (using some materials that have sat almost entirely unused for years). My normal go-to is a foam body fly that floats like a cork – this one is pretty much the exact opposite. It seemed to do the trick, but getting it to float well is something of an accomplishment.

Back to those rainbows though… I’m not sure what’s going on with the Credit, but the number of rainbows is absolutely skyrocketing. I probably caught 2 rainbows for every brown or brookie this year. As my buddy rightly pointed out, there’s no way they’re naturally reproducing here (at least not in any numbers) – because neither of us have ever hooked a smaller / yearling rainbow. They all seem to be around the same size, so they’re likely escaping a fish farm, or being dumped there. The first rainbow below was actually caught on two consecutive nights – on the same fly.

Mid Season: Lots of Travel and Dry Flies

The end of the green drakes and foxes takes us into mid June – which is Isonychia and Stonefly season on many southern Ontario rivers. The Grand doesn’t really fall into the same bucket, being the tailwater that it is – it’s hatches are fairly different (when in doubt, it’s caddis time on the Grand).

With regards to the Isonychia, I came up with a fly pattern a few years ago that I often use to fish the Isonychia hatches (though, I fish it in other scenarios as well). I’m not even sure if it’s a natural/imitation or attractor at this point, as it sort of morphed into something in between. But one thing’s for sure – it’s been a real trophy getter for me. I’ve taken more large browns on this one dry fly than I have any other. My buddies have been asking for the recipe and perhaps I’ll post it up on my blog this year. I don’t consider it much of a secret, because you know how fly patterns go – 80% of their success comes down to your confidence in fishing them!

With some acceptable water levels still gracing most of our rivers, I began to diversify where I was fishing. It meant lots of long drives – often driving for hours for the same or less amount of time fishing. This paid off though, as these weeks in June saw some of my best resident brown trout fishing of the season. I wouldn’t call it spectacular, but persistence paid off with some memorable dry fly takes (most with the above mentioned fly).

This is around the time of year that I start night fishing with big mouse or streamers – something I’ve had a lot of success with in years past. This year was a different story though. I found myself hanging around later to cast dry flies and only managed a few real short night fishing stints.

I moved a few fish during these sessions, but failed to bring any large browns to the net this year – at least, from what I can recall. The closest I got was on the AuSable river in Michigan (more on that later).

That said, I did hook up with something quite interesting one evening during the end of June. I was stripping a Gurgler upstream through some faster water. It was pitch dark on this particular night, with no moon to speak of. At once point, my fly began to feel a bit heavy – at first I thought it was simply the faster water pulling the fly under, but eventually I could feel the weight during my casts. Assuming that I had simply hooked some weeds, I swung the fly close to take peek, and it definitely looked like there was a clump of weeds hanging off the fly. When I went to grab it, my hand jumped back as I realized what was really at the end of my leader.

If you fish southern Ontario rivers at or past dark, you’re well aware of just how many bats we have in the area. They come out in numbers, circling the river, munching on bugs. There has been many times when they’ve flown so close to my head that I’ve had to duck.

In this particular case however, I somehow managed to hook one! Not sure if it thought my fly was food while it was gliding through the air, or if it was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. The barbless hook slipped right out and didn’t seem to have done too much damage, but unfortunately I think I drowned the thing. I was most likely dragging it underwater up through the current for at least a few retrieves. Hard to believe I was able to continue casting with this much extra weight at the end of my line… gotta love night fishing!

Early Summer: AuSable River Trip

The main theme for this summer was drought. What started as excellent water levels, quickly diminished down to some of the lowest levels I’ve ever seen in our rivers. As a result, for most of July, I simply took a break from fishing entirely.

At the end of July however, my wife and I took a week long trip to northern Michigan – Grayling specifically – where I’d spend a good amount of timing fishing the holy waters of the AuSable river. I’ve spent a significant amount of time on this river in years past, but hadn’t fished it for quite a while due to COVID restrictions.

I didn’t expect the fishing on the AuSable to be great at this time of year either. The water levels were also much lower than normal and there were no major hatches to speak of (aside from Tricos). Between the water level, tiny bugs and the fact that the holy waters section of the AuSable is extremely technical, hooking into a few small browns would be a real accomplishment.

In addition to the major Trico hatches each morning, there were occasionally some equally small BWO and the odd sporadic white miller hatch in the evening. Of course, small hatches aside, there was still the promise of hooking into a trophy brown after dark. This river is pretty much the birthplace of night fishing for big browns, after all.

The following are most of the flies I tied and fished on this trip (missing is the Tricos, which I already had a plentiful supply of). All caught trout, albeit not large trout – except the gurglers, which produced about a half dozen blow-ups by huge browns at night. Only one of those resulted in a hook-up, which unfortunately ended shortly thereafter when the crafty brown wrapped itself around a log at the bottom of the pool.

The Patriot Skunk was reserved for float days. I brought my Outcast Fish Cat pontoon along on this trip and used it on two separate occasions. It was my first time floating the AuSable and the fine folks at Gates AuSable fly shop gave me some ideas for some floats. Also worth mentioning is the new Douglas Sky G 6 weight I purchased from Gates, which can be seen in the second picture above. This was to replace the Orvis 6 weight that I broke on my Algonquin trip early in the season. I spent a good 30+ minutes casting about 8 different rods at the shop – and it was very obvious that the Sky G was the rod for me. It had the lightest swing weight (feel wise), yet I easily cast the tightest and furthest loops with it.

Anyway, the pontoon floats were an unbelievable amount of fun. I’ve had the boat for years, but had only used it on lakes and ponds up until now. It’s infinitely more enjoyable on moving water though – so much so, that this new way to cover water would continue back home in southern Ontario (more on that in the next section).

Late Summer: Floating to find Water

Back home after my trip, I was faced with the dilemma of dealing with the water levels that were continuing to drop on our home waters. Thankfully, water temperatures remained fairly good on most of the rivers, it was just finding water that was the difficult part.

Equipped with my new found joy of drifting in the pontoon, my buddy Steve and I (yes, the two Steves) decided to start putting our pontoons to use to gain access to some deeper and less fished water.

We got into some very deep and nice water on some of these floats. It took some time to learn the new water, but we found fish – even a few really nice fish. However, while both of us had visible strikes from some huge browns on a few different occasions, neither of us managed to bring the larger browns to the net. Steve lost a really nice brown after a good fight and I botched a couple big takes (or was snubbed at the last second).

We floated many nights during the hex hatch and it was really just that magical time of day (an hour or 30 minutes before dark) when the fishing really picked up. We worked on timing our floats to put is in the better spots at that time, but it means having to float down to the take out in the dark – which wasn’t too bad once we learned the water.

The duns (especially the males) are very dark and I often used the below simple tie to fish them, especially in faster moving water. I have some other patterns that are prettier and more believable when needed, but often this will get the job done, since trout can become fairly unselective when they’re actively feeding on this big bugs.

On one evening when the hexes were active, I had a huge brown blow up on my fly. It jumped clear out of the water and smacked itself down right on top of the fly – but missed or denied me at the last moment. It was a smaller rainbow (again) that took my hex a few casts later in the same pool.

Outside of trout, I once again failed to spend any significant time fishing smallmouth bass this year. It’s totally ironic that, growing up in an area teeming with bass and devoid of trout, I have to drive quite the distance to fishable bass water. I did experiment with a solo bass float on one occasion though – dropping my pontoon off at one access point, then driving to the next access point and biking back up to my boat. It was a bit of a workout in the blistering heat that accompanies summer bass, but it was totally doable.

Unfortunately, I hooked into a total of a single small bass that day – but saw some excellent new water.

Late Season: Back to the Backcountry

With hatches winding down and choices to make on how to spend the end of my trout season, I decided to spend it once again paddling for a week in the back country.

I had once again spent countless hours researching and scouring maps (and considering water levels), trying to make a decision on a late September backcountry brookie trip. I was also in the market for a new canoe and after considering some solo canoes as well as some smaller tandem prospector style canoes – I landed on a new Nova Craft Prospector 15 in Blue Steel. This canoe is not only plenty light for long portages (45 lbs), but much more versatile and stable for fishing than most of the solo boats. Though most of my trips would be solo, it gave me the option of bring along another person.

With new canoe in hand, I pieced together a 7 day trip that would avoid low water and hopefully get me into some brookies for the end of the season. I’ll be posting a separate update on that (to be linked here later) in the coming days.

I think that just about does it for this year’s trout season. Definitely an eventful one, with 13 days spent solo in the backcountry, 7 days in upper Michigan and lots of exploring new water and float trips. All that didn’t really equate to my most successful season of fishing – that is, if you count success by the number and size of trout caught – which I don’t.

There’s still some opportunity for fall Bass and Steelhead – let’s see if I take manage to take advantage of it. In the meantime, I’m already starting to dream up some trips for next year and hoping for a more water in 2023.

The post 2022 Trout Season Recap appeared first on Caffeinated Fly Fisher.

It’s been almost 10 months since our family vacation to Florida last July. It was a trip largely planned around my daughter’s visit to Disney. We’d spend a few days on the Atlantic side, where my kids would enjoy the big waves and breeze of the ocean, followed by a week on the Gulf side, relaxing on the calmer white sandy beaches. Fishing wasn’t even a consideration at the time. I was clueless to saltwater fly fishing… I’d heard about it and seen pictures of it, but being a resident trout purist from Canada, it’s not really something I ever thought about pursuing.

That is, until about a week before our trip, when some last minute reading prompted me to throw my fly rod in the back of the truck, just in case. I also packed a tying vice and a small selection of tying material, again, just in case. What little research I did left me with images of Tarpon and Snook (along with a few other species) ingrained in my mind. Embarrassingly, the only thing I really knew about these species, was that they were often targeted by fly anglers. I was surprised to read that Tarpon were apparently plentiful on the Gulf, in the Tampa area (which was just south of where we would be staying near the end of our trip). In addition to that, our timing seemed to align with the tail end of Tarpon season.

To be honest, the thought of catching any fish on a fly rod in a great big ocean was overwhelming and seemed hopeless – at least without a lot more information than I had thus far found online. So a couple days before leaving and during the drive up (while my wife shared some of the driving), I started emailing some guides in the area, trying to get an idea of what I could expect or where I could start.

I ended up having a conversation with a fly guide out of St. Petersburg: Captain Russ Shirley. He was a pretty open and honest guy. He gave me some ideas of what I might expect both going out on a day trip with him, as well as casting from the beaches near my resort. He had reservations about going for Tarpon, considering I’d never fished saltwater before, nor had I fished for anything even close to as  large as the Tarpon in the area (around 100 lbs!). He was also upfront with the fact that there was no guarantee of even seeing and/or casting to a Tarpon at this time of year, never mind hooking up with or landing one.

Fast forward a week and a half and I’m enjoying the hot sun and gulf beaches with my wife and kids. I ended up booking a half day with Captain Russ and we agreed to start off casting for smaller species with an 8 weight. If that went well, we would try my hand at Tarpon for a bit. I didn’t tell my guide, but I was seriously intimidated by the idea of casting an accurate tight loop double haul with a 12 weight rod for Tarpon! Sure, I thought I was a pretty good caster back home, with 2-6 weight rods for trout. But casting a 12 weight for 100 lb fish was something entirely different. I was half hoping that the first part of the day would convince my guide that I wasn’t up to the task, so I could spare myself the embarrassment and instead be content catching some Sea Trout, Redfish and other small(er) species.

Weather forecasts were spotty for most of the week and there was a tropical-storm-turning-hurricane threat to boot. The weather held off though and I was able to wet my line in the salt for the first time from the beaches in front of my resort. The evening before venturing out, I tied up a few simple flies on the kitchen table of our condo: some DT Specials, Deceivers and Crystal Schminnows.

My first day casting from shore was pleasant. I was out super early, which I thought would be best both from a fishing standpoint and also to avoid the beach goers. I walked slowly barefoot along the sand, searching for a spot to cast my fly. What I found though, was that I had absolutely no idea where to start. Everything looked the same. So eventually I stepped into the surf and began casting aimlessly out into the gulf, stripping my fly back with varying retrieves. I was sort of surprised at how little I could see… I was expecting crystal clear water, but I couldn’t see a single fish and found it difficult to even see my fly. Somehow, I still managed to land a couple fish that morning.

My very first fish caught in the salt, was barely a fish at all. It was a tiny mutant-like fish, apparently called a Lizardfish. I was almost scared to touch the ugly little thing.

About half an hour later, I felt a real tug and ended up landing a second unfamiliar (at the time) fish, this one larger in size – both body and teeth. This time I landed a more respectable Spanish Mackerel. I’ve caught lots of Pike back home and they have teeth too… but the fact that the only two fish I’d caught so far had what looked like razor sharp teeth, was kinda freaking me out.

It was still before 9 am and I thought… wow… I’m actually not bad at this. I must be doing something right. So I kept doing what I was doing: casting aimlessly out into the gulf and hoping something would eat my fly on the way back. After another ten minutes, I landed my last fish of the day. Another small unfamiliar fish, one that seemed refreshingly harmless compared to the last two.

Well, I could be wrong in identifying this fish – but I’m pretty sure it’s a leather jack. Turns out, I was dead wrong about this little guy being more innocent than the previous two fish. Apparently they have spines on top that are capable of producing an extremely painful sting. As one website describes it: “Many who’ve been stung report that the pain far exceeds a sting from a catfish or even a stingray“. Alright, now I’m really freaked out to touch anything I catch in the gulf…

I continued casting for a couple more hours without as much as another bite. I called it a day once the beach traffic picked up and figured the sun was too high in the sky. Given my overall lack of strategy and feeling of cluelessness, I was quite sure that my earlier catches were pure luck. I’d come out hoping to be sight fishing to Snook, but instead I was casting aimlessly with nothing but a wish. Still, I was happy and proud to have caught that Mackerel.

The next morning I met my guide at a marina in St. Petersburg. It was a perfect morning and as we left the docks and discussed the day to come, we were greeted by an Egret looking to hitch a ride.

Captain Russ wanted to know my goals for the day – which I responded were simply to learn a little and catch a couple fish. He ensured me that the catching part was going to happen and the learning part definitely happened as well! Our first stop in the gulf looked just like every other part of the gulf, that is until we were on top of it and I realized why so many fish would look for food and refuge there: a nice weed bed and some shallower water. On our way, I had discussed my successes and failures of the prior morning and he shared some useful knowledge and tips that might help me the next time I was out.

I was set up with a 8 weight rod, 12-15 lb tippet (from what I remember) and a Clouser in about size 2. We had some discussions about my prior fly fishing experience, and given his past guiding experience with trout anglers, he seemed slightly concerned about my abilities to cast a tight loop with a heavier rod at distance – which would be necessary if we were to try for Tarpon later. After a couple casts, he was surprisingly happy with my casting ability and declared that we would have no problems. He then instructed me where to cast and to begin stripping. Before I could get the fly back to the boat (on my first real cast), I hooked up with my first fish of the day: a small Sea Trout.

While not in any way related to the trout I’m used to catching, it somehow felt appropriate. I instantly felt some relief and with a shot of confidence, I was feeling good about the day ahead. Fortunately, AND unfortunately, this would actually be the last fish I landed. On my very next cast, which was only my second of the day, as I stripped the small clouser with confidence, the gulf water boiled and disappeared around my fly – almost as if it had been sucked down in some kind of vortex or whirlpool. It was a Tarpon… and a big ass Tarpon at that!! I hooked a damn 100 lb Tarpon on my second cast, with an 8 weight, 15 lb leader and size 2 clouser…

I wasn’t the only one surprised… my guide couldn’t believe it. He pulled up anchor, rushed behind the wheel and turned on the engine. He expected it would be a quick fight, as the gear I was using was wildly under powered (not to mention, he didn’t yet have a chance to brief me on how to fight or land a Tarpon). What was about to ensue was by far the most intense and exhausting fight that I’m sure I’ll ever experience.

It didn’t take long for the sliver king to begin its acrobatics. Somehow, to both my guide’s and my own surprise, I survived the first leap with leader and rod intact. I can’t recall how many times the fish leaped after that, but in was in the realm of 10 to 12. And somehow, I kept the fish on for every one of those.

To make things even more interesting, after the first couple jumps, a second Tarpon began following the one on the end of my line. Every time my fish came up for air, its “friend” also came up for air beside it. It was very bizarre and exciting at the same time. My guide, in all the years he’s been doing this, said he’s never seen anything like it.

Quite literally, the fish dragged us around for over 2 hours. In retrospect, any normal Tarpon fight should not last anywhere near this long. However, I simply didn’t have the power to horse the beast to the boat. We got close a couple times, but it used its size and strength to keep its distance and I could do nothing to prevent it from continuing to come up for air – and to continue to find the energy to leap afterwards.

My forearms and hands were numb, I gulped back water for quick breaks to keep hydrated. But I didn’t care, I wanted nothing more than to land this fish.

In kindness to me and seeing that the fish was still healthy, we tried our best to land the it, or at least to get a leader touch. Near the end of the fight, Captain Russ was on his knees at the front of the boat and mere inches away from grabbing the leader, when it turned for yet another run. At that point, I realized it was now or never and applied as much force as I could to try and turn it back around. Finally, the leader gave up and snapped.

As sad as it was to lose the fish, I was more than ready to let it go. While getting to touch it would have been an added benefit, we got to see it up close and it was an experience I’ll never forget. If I’m ever to land one of these (as big) on an 8 weight again, I’ll most certainly just break it off. Hopefully though, if I land another, it will be on a 12 weight.

The next morning, with my arms still sore, I got up early again to stalk the beaches and hope to continue my success. Captain Russ had mentioned that sight fishing for Snook was easiest when the sun was high, since it would shine down into the water making the bottom (and fish on it) much more visible. He mentioned I may not even see the fish either, but that I’d be looking for subtle moving shadows.

Despite his advice, I still wanted to get out early and make the most of my time. Try as I might, I could not see anything early in the morning, other than a few schools of fish swimming close to the surface every once in a while. I managed to hook another small Jack species this way, which I think is a Blue runner. From what I read, this one actually was harmless for once.

Again, I headed in once the beach got busy. Which meant, I didn’t really get a chance to test out the “high sun” strategy. Later that day though, while at the beach swimming with my kids, I finally did manage to see a few fish – swimming surprisingly close to us. For some of them, I could make out the fish itself, but for others I was only alerted of them by their shadow – just as my guide had told me.

On our last day at the resort, I went out to give it a final try. As usual, early morning was slow and I couldn’t make anything out, so I had to resort to blind casting. Again, as the sun got higher, the beach got busier. However, this time I decided to stick it out and continued searching for whatever empty beach I could find between the sun bathers and swimmers. Instead of focusing on casting and fishing, I instead focused on trying to spot fish. I tried to focus on what I had read – a small ridge of sand very close to shore and another ridge a bit further back than that one.

I was fairly sure I was starting to see fish. As I walked along the shore, most of the time I thought I saw a shadow, it would quickly disappear as I walked closer to it. Eventually I found a strip of beach, about 100 feet wide almost directly across my from the resort, which was almost devoid of people. Aside from swimmers on both sides of this strip, and beach walkers strolling by, I was able to walk this section back and forth for a good hour or two during the busiest part of the day. With rod in hand and a DT Special tied on, I located my first shadow on this stretch, approached stealthily, crouched down and cast in front of it. A couple strips later, smash!

Snook on, landed and released! It was super rewarding and I felt like I may have finally figured it out. Over the next couple hours I was able to reproduce that success and spot and hook into several more. None were exceptionally large (for Snook, I guess), although they put up an excellent fight on my 8 weight.

Those couple hours were some of the most fun I’ve had fly fishing. It was very comparable for me to casting dry flies to big rising trout – which, let’s face it… is not exactly a regular opportunity, even if it’s what comes to mind first when we think of fly fishing. The weirdest part about it was being able to do it on a busy beach, full of tourists, sometimes with kids swimming and splashing only a few meters away.

I consider myself extremely lucky to have experienced so much luck and success my first time fly fishing saltwater, especially considering this was really just a Florida family vacation and fishing was not intended to be part of it. I owe my wife and kids much of the thanks, since they had to put up with me sneaking out those mornings and sometimes not coming back until almost lunch time!

The post Humbled by the Silver King appeared first on Caffeinated Fly Fisher.

I won’t say it’s been a record season for me though, as I had an especially difficult time keeping big fish on the line earlier in the season. I’m not sure if I’ve finally shaken the dust off my streamer fishing skills, or if the trout have had a change in attitude (or both), but hook-ups with big fish have picked up somewhat over the last month for me. I suppose I can also attribute this to the arrival of warmer weather and the corresponding increase in night fishing success.

A big wild brown from last week, caught just past dark.

The above fish was caught just past dark on a last-minute trip to the river after work. I had tied a couple realistic stonefly patterns using some newly ordered Hemingway wings and I was hoping to give them a try. However, forgetting about the rain we had the day before, I was greeted by a chocolate colored river when I arrived.

A day in the life of a river this season – high and dirty.

The stoneflies were definitely out, but the fish were too busy dealing with the low visibility to care much. I haven’t been finding a lot of time to tie flies this year, so I’ve been keeping a vice and box of tying supplies in my truck for emergencies. My supply of articulated streamers was in shambles, so I decided to tie one in the back of the truck before hitting the river. I went with a bright color given the water conditions.

A last minute tie in the back of my truck before hitting the river.

The result was four big fish in a couple hours, although only two were landed.

Another slightly smaller wild brown from the same night.

As is usual for me, big streamers and mouse patterns have been moving most of my larger fish. I’ve had a couple nice fish on stoneflies as well on the clearer days and I know for a fact that nymphs have also been catching a lot of big fish for people this year – in pretty much all water conditions.

Most of my trout (but not all) have also been caught past dark this month, largely because my weekends have been a write-off and fishing after work often doesn’t get me to the river until 7 or 8 o’clock. The fish below was another memorable one that smashed a streamer early evening in some more off-colored water.

A good looking brown caught on an articulated streamer on a mid-July early evening.

This fish was followed up by yet another decent brown shortly past dark on the same night – and it was preceded by a slightly larger one a week earlier.

The first brown of the season caught on a mouse pattern.

Needless to say, it’s been a pretty good season this year if you’ve been willing to put away the dry flies and emergers and fish meatier flies. I don’t expect this to let up any time soon, but hopefully we’ll be treated to some good dry fly days as well.

We still have lots to look forward to in August… terrestrials, late Isonychia, the understated White Miller, perhaps some straggler stoneflies and of course, even better night fishing. If you’re a masochist, there’s also the Trico hatches.

The post Big Water, Big Flies, Big Fish appeared first on Caffeinated Fly Fisher.

I meant to post these earlier, but never got around to it.  I was experimenting with a few Christmas flies last month.  Here are a couple first attempts that we hung on the tree.  The deer hair snowman was especially fun to tie.

A couple Christmas flies I made with my daughter to hang on the tree

The post Happy New Year appeared first on Caffeinated Fly Fisher.

This is the time of year where our fly boxes need to be the most diverse. Depending on the time of day, river and hatches, you might be casting streamers, nymphs, wet flies, emergers, tiny dries, large dries, or even huge topwater patterns. Consequently, I’ve been hitting the tying bench a lot lately, trying to cover all my bases. In what has been an increasing trend of mine, I’ve concentrated more on sub-surface patterns this season to up my odds when fish are either not rising, or when they’re rising but refusing dry flies. Below are some flies I’ve been tying and fishing on some of my local waters.

Grand River

If you fish the Grand River, you know how frustrating it can be if you rely on dry flies to match the hatch. Although I don’t spend as much time on the Grand as I do other rivers, I’ve come to realize that it’s a largely sub surface and emerger river. In response to this, I tied a bunch of the following emerger patters in various sizes, mainly for caddis and blue winged olive hatches. I’m sure that by simply swapping out different colors and materials, these could be used to imitate a much wider variety of caddis and mayflies.

Caddis or BWO emerger, loosely based off a Snowshoe Emerger pattern

A variation of the above fly, tied with slightly different materials and colors

A sparkle caddis pupa emerger, which (in various styles) has done well on the Grand

Caddis pupa nymph: one of the simplest, yet most effective sub-surface flies on the Grand

As a reminder of just how versatile you need to be, I set out to the Grand River last Saturday with a friend and a bunch of the above flies. The weather was perfect, flows were low and there had been no rain for many days prior. Our expectations were high: clear conditions, lots of bugs and rising trout. We spent a total of about 12 hours on the water that day and what we were met with instead was very murky, low-visibility water and not a single witnessed fish rise for the entire day (on the upper and mid stretches). We fished during one of the thickest caddis hatches I’d seen in quite some time, with loads of large caddis floating down the river and fluttering helplessly on the surface – yet we didn’t see a single fish come up. It wasn’t until we drove several kilometers downstream to the lower river (which usually has less visibility than the upper) that the water cleared up and we got into some rising fish. I later learned that the water clarity issues were caused by the first big algae bloom of the year.

Credit River

I was on the Credit after work a couple weeks ago and managed to hit a smorgasbord of hatch activity, with Sulphurs, Isonychia and Caddis all in good numbers. Despite the impressive hatches, fish activity was surprisingly average that evening. I saw and caught a few small fish that were rising, but nothing out of the ordinary. The point is, it takes more than nice weather and lots of bugs to reliably bring up larger trout. I’ve fished many smaller hatches on the Credit in the recent past, with much more (and bigger) fish. I specifically remember an evening a couple years ago at the busiest access point on the river (normally the least-productive fishing) where an Isonychia hatch brought numerous 12-16″ browns to the surface in a feeding frenzy.

For the Credit, I find matching the hatch is generally less of a factor than the Grand. More important on the Credit is presentation and stealth. This isn’t surprising considering the greater angling pressure on the Grand and much smaller, technical water of the Credit. If you’re fishing dry flies, you can usually pick a common food source such as an Isonychia, Stonefly or simply use an attractor. Personally, I like bushy dry flies here, unless there’s a prolific hatch going on: a Stimulator or Humpy are two of my favorites. My only gripe with the humpy is that it can be annoyingly difficult to tie.

Stimulator: One of my favorite and most productive dry flies for the Credit River

Bead Head Soft Hackle Pheasant Tail: One of my favorite sub-surface flies, especially for pocket water and small streams

A simple Isonychia Parachute pattern, effective for imitating this abundant mayfly

A Sulphur soft hackle, effective when sulphurs are out or as a searching pattern

Gurgler: One of my go-to night patterns that I tie in various styles and colors

If I had to fish the Credit with only two flies, the Stimulator and Bead Head Soft Hackle Pheasant Tail would probably be my choices. As mentioned though, I think fly choice is more a matter of personal preference here. I have no doubt that a good Isonychia nymph or simple Walt’s Worm would do equally as well (if not better).

Stillwaters

My experience with stillwater fly fishing is laregly limitted to local stocked water, with the exception of some native brookies and warm water species. Still, I’ve done some experimenting and found a few options that work well for me. I highly recommend checking out the various videos and articles by fellow Canadians Phil Rowley and Brian Chan, who are highly regarded as experts in this area. They’ll tell you that fly selection is much less important than tactics and this has definitely held true for me. Still, its nice to have a few patterns that have proven to be effective.

Slow retrieved nymphs and chironomids are known to be some of the most productive flies, but I’ve found more actively retrieved streamers to be a good all around choice as well – not just for trout, but also for bass and other species.

Redneck Bugger (as I call it): A crystal bugger with a red hackle neck

CB Stocker: Another simple and effective streamer for trout

The above streamers are easy to tie and have worked well for me for both stocked rainbows and smallmouth bass (for the latter, especially the bugger). On days when fish are rising and sometimes even when there are no visible rises, such as warm days when the water is extremely calm, I’ve had a lot of success with a Stimulator. This versatile fly (shown above) can represent a host of different insects: from stoneflies to caddis to hoppers. It also floats extremely well and can be twitched on the surface to entice a strike.

I dont know if it’s just me though, but it seems that irregardlesss of preparations and fly boxes full of favourite patterns, more often than not I end up on the river feeling as though I’m missing some critical fly. This keeps my vise busy and shopping cart full with new tying materials.

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Interestingly, my two youngest kids have suddenly become fascinated with fly tying. This isn’t surprising I guess, since they are at that age (junior kindergarten and grade 1) where crafts occupy a large part of their time at home and school. They’re constantly asking to tie flies with me, so I’ve started letting them participate. I always make sure I de-barb my hooks at the vice when tying flies, but de-barbing isn’t quite enough when a 4 and 5 year old are carrying them around the house. So, I completely remove the hook bend, making them safe decorations but pretty awful fish catchers!

My son tells me his favourite fly is the “Wuggy Bugger”. He helped me tie this one and he liked it so much that he’s been taking it to bed with him. It’s not a real Wolly Bugger of course, as it has no hook or hackle, so I hereby declare this new pattern the Wuggy Bugger, as named by my 4 year old son.

My 4 year old son, snug in bed with his “Wuggy Bugger”

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The design I ended up using was based off this one. I used pine for the base and all of the other wood. It’s still pretty bare bones since I have only incorporated my main tools so far. As you can see, there’s lots of room for additional tools and containers, but it’s already much more functional than what I was working with before.

Initial version of my portable fly tying station

Features so far include:

• Metal rods to hold spools: thread, silk, tinsel, wire, etc
• Slots to hold main tying tools: scissors, whip finish tool, bodkin, thread bobbin, hair stacker, wax, etc
• Larger holes for containers
• Hangers for larger more awkward tools, such as hackle pliers
• Hole to hold my magnifying lamp
• Enough table space to hold my vice, a tying book and some materials
• Space under the rear ledge to store materials or containers

Possible additions/modifications I’m considering:

• Pull-out drawers under the ledge at the back to store hooks, bead heads and the like
• Additional metal rods to hold more spools
• Additional holes and hangers for more tools and containers
• Possibly a different finish for the base

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I’ve grown to appreciate the nymph and streamer for what they are and I certainly fish them more now than I did in the past: but still, I don’t enjoy them as much as I do fishing closer to the surface. Most trout fisherman generally consider these 3 types of flies: dries, nymphs and streamers. There’s also the more recent hybrid emerger, which is fished just under the surface flim, but these are what you’ll find predominantly in most fly shops and fly boxes. Yet, the sport of fly fishing grew up exclusively on another type of fly, one that is largely ignored by most anglers today: the wet fly.

I’m not stating anything ground breaking here. This subject has been brought up by lots of others, on the internet, in books and elsewhere. Speaking of which, I just received a copy of a new book, which is why this subject is fresh on my mind:

Wet Flies by Dave Hughes

This is a ~200 page hardcover book with a nice blend of stories, techniques and wet fly recipies. I’m only a little ways into the book, but so far it’s a great read.

Last season I had a bit of a revelation, which is why I ordered this book and began tying and fishing more wet flies as the season progressed. On many of the rivers I fish, dry fly action is often limited to very specific times of day (if you’re lucky). Streamers are not the most effective in certain water or during the warmer days of summer and as mentioned, I’d just rather not tie on a nymph unless I must.

I happened to get lazy last season and let my fly box run near empty. While out on the river for an afternoon, I lost a couple flies in some tight tree cover and a few more flies were starting to look pretty beat up. As I searched my pathetic looking fly box for another fly to tie on, a royal coachman wet fly turned out to be the best looking fly in my box. This fly was given to me by my father-in-law years before as a nice gesture, inside one of those bargain fly combo containers. I’d never really used them, but since I was so low on flies I decided to bring them along just in case.

I was fishing downstream of a waterfall, in a narrow section of pocket water with very large boulders. I dangled my fly over a boulder into a small pool and to my surprise, I immediately pulled a trout out of it. I worked my way downstream and caught several more fish on that royal coachman wet, followed by a good number of fish on a black gnat wet (after the coachman had taken a good beating). It didn’t take me long to realize that I had been missing out on a really fun and effective way to catch trout, for far too long.

Long story short, I’ve made sure to carry wet flies with me on every outing since and my interest in fishing them has been growing. To me, they are the ultimate versatile fly. You can catch fish on them almost any time, regardless of where the fish are feeding and certainly when there are no fish rising. An added bonus is that fishing wet flies is a good option for young fly fisherman just getting introduced to the sport (i.e. my kids), since the “perfect drift” is not quite as important with them as it is with dry flies or nymphs.

I’m looking forward to reading the rest of this book and building my collection of wet flies up for the coming trout season, which is less than two months away now in southern Ontario!

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While searching the infinite database that is the internet, I came across a couple fun tying ideas that I think I will use as inspiration next year. Enjoy!

Christmas Bugger (source)

Fly Ornaments (source)

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