May 2022: Lake Lavieille / Dickson Loop
A 5 day trip to Big Crow Lake in the Algonquin backcountry

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There’s no better place to start than the Credit. It is still, after all, where I spend most of my time on the water. In my experience, the river has fished quite well this year (aside from some warm spells that is). The last of the large broodstock Atlantics that were stocked in the upper river a couple years ago seems to have finally cleared out and I’ve been seeing a catching a good number of both brook trout and brown trout on the main branch. Lots of smaller browns and brookies as well, which is nice to see.

Of course, there are still the small Atlantics that continue to be stocked and there are also a curiously high number of rainbows being caught this year. I would say the rainbows are the biggest difference in the river. If the MNR and CVC are concerned about brook trout populations, this is the fish they need to worry about, not the brown trout. I’ve heard they are likely still escaping from ponds in Erin, although I’m pretty sure they’re also reproducing in larger numbers as well. In addition to the usual smaller catches, I have caught a few larger rainbows this year as well, which is quite unusual.

So, unsurprisingly, many of my outings this year have had me catching 3 to 4 different species, sometimes in the same pool.

Most of the major hatches were present and decent throughout the season, including Hendricksons, Drakes, Foxes, Stoneflies, Yellow Sallies and Isonychia (which are still kicking around). I even happened upon a Hex hatch, which is not very common on the upper Credit – though, the only large fish I got out of it was a rainbow. Of these hatches, the Grey Foxes were the most reliable, at least earlier in the summer. They were present in good numbers for about a month and it seemed that every time I hit the river looking for a different hatch, it was the Foxes that ended up stealing the show. Often I was slow to realize this and as a result likely missed some opportunities to land some better fish that refused previous offerings.

I’ve spent far less time this year fishing past dark than previous years. This is due, in part, to a few factors:

1. Not being around during the prime night fishing times
2. An unfortunate accident with a really hot cup of Tim Hortons coffee
3. An encounter with a Bear, which had me spooked for some time

A few trips kept me off the river during the month of July and August, which is prime night fishing season. One of those trips was a family vacation to Florida, which (before some last minute research) had absolutely nothing to do with fishing. I’ve been meaning to dedicate a post to that trip, which was my first venture into saltwater. I’ll try to get to that post after this one.

Regarding the coffee accident… if it wasn’t apparent from the title of my blog, I really like my caffeine and I drink a lot of Tim Hortons. After a couple dozen years drinking hot coffee without issues, I finally managed to spill a HOT black cup of freshly brewed Tims all over my leg while preparing to drive home from my parents’ place in Windsor (yes, it only got my leg). That resulted in a 6 hour venture to the hospital and nearly a month of healing, during which I couldn’t really fish. I’ve suffered a lot of injuries in the past, but those second degree burns were the worst I’ve ever experienced.

Finally, about the Bear… yes, I ran into a Black Bear on the Upper Credit! I was fishing about an hour before dark by myself at a usual spot, when I noticed some bushes/trees moving on the opposite bank. As I looked closer, I saw a large dark animal walking toward the bank. I couldn’t make out the entire animal, because it was covered by a lot of brush. However, it was definitely large and wide – larger than any other animal that exists in southern Ontario – and it was black. As it walked slowly toward the bank, I began to back up. At this point, it seemed to notice me and stopped for a second, then briefly charged in my direction closer to the bank. I again stopped and this time started making a bunch a noise and shouting at it. It remained mostly still, though did inch a little closer a couple times. It managed to hide itself mostly behind some fallen trees near the bank and when I was fairly certain it was safe(r), I again started slowly backing up and left the area.

I had heard of Black Bear sightings in Caledon, though this was my first encounter – and happened to be with a bear that thought it a good choice to threaten charging. Thankfully the river separated us, though that honestly was little relief and likely didn’t add much to my safety. I believe it was a large cub and in fact, not a week later, I saw a news article indicating that there had been three sightings of the same bear cub in Caledon.

Needless to say, fishing alone in the dark freaked me out for a while after that, though I’m slowly re-gaining my courage and venturing out alone later again. Anyway, here are a couple nighttime fish from late June and one from the other night.

I suppose the last update I have is regarding the Grand River. This is the river that introduced me to fly fishing and I have given it very little attention in the past few years. I remember in my teens and early 20’s, spending hours casting to countless rising trout on the Grand and catching stockers at will. That sight of rising fish after rising fish is something I have have rarely seen since those days. The Credit simply is not a dry fly fishery, at least not most of the time (hatches are less reliable and, honestly, the fish are simply smarter on average). I’ve even struggled to find rising fish on the Grand in recent years. Whether that’s due to bad timing, increased fishing pressure or others reason I am not sure.

However, Ryan and I did venture out to the Grand on two back-to-back nights at the beginning of July, for the first time this year. We opted to fish a very heavily trafficked section of the Grand, one that I always tend to bypass in favor of less crowed waters. What I have never understood, is how on earth a small section of river can be so heavily and frequently over-fished and yet continue to produce not only a large number of fish, but big fish. The Grand is weird that way. I guess it’s a combination of a lot of dumb fish (the stockers) and huge concentrations of food in certain sections of the river keeping the bigger fish around. Either way, in the few hours we spent fishing this stretch of water, we cast to more rising fish and had more success than I think we had combined the last three years on the Grand. No huge fish, just a lot of chunky fish and a couple larger ones for me.

I wish more sections of the Grand fished as reliably. I want to believe they do, but in my experience, most don’t. Even when they look like they should and even when they have better water and far less fishing pressure, they just don’t. Some of the more frequent locals and guides will say “the whole upper river fishes just as good”, but almost every time they take a client out or fish by themselves, there’s back to that same spot

Anyway, absolutely nothing against the Grand or those who guide and fish it more than me. They certainly know it better than I. As much as I love the Credit and it’s wild, elusive browns, the Grand is very much a special river in its own right and is definitely a central figure to the sport of fly fishing in Ontario.

To wrap things up, I was out on the Credit the other night for a couple hours and caught a few nice small to mid sized browns. One of the fish was sipping Isonychia at the very back of a pool, tight to a fallen tree. I managed to drift an imitation back there and it exploded on my fly. I wasn’t overly big (maybe 13 or 14 inches), but it was a memorable take and an impressive looking brown to boot. It had a very obvious wild brown signature blue/black patch on its cheek.

Normally you remember catching the same big brown twice. However, while this fish wasn’t big, it resonated with me in a weird way, like I had caught it before. Then, as I was going though my photos for this post yesterday, I realized that I actually had caught it previously this season. In the same pool, feeding on Grey Foxes back at the end of May (it’s in one of the slideshows above).

Here’s the same fish again for a comparison. You can clearly see that the spots are identical and it’s the same fish. Gotta love catch and release!

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To this effect, I decided to try something new this year. The trout ponds at Glen Haffy’s Fly Fishing Club offer some excellent stocked Rainbow Trout fishing for about 8 months out of the year. As an added benefit, they also enjoy a healthy population of native Brook Trout that enter one of the ponds from a small spring creek. The ponds are nestled within hundreds of acres of conservation land and offer excellent fishing in a truly serene atmosphere.

Early morning view from one of Glen Haffy’s trout ponds

Normally, I’m not a fan of pay-to-enjoy outdoor activities, especially when it comes to fishing. To this end, I have to admit that I had certain preconceptions about what my experience would be like at Glen Haffy. I pictured very easy to catch stocked Rainbows, a commercialized feel to the club and a certain attitude from members. To my pleasant surprise though, none of these preconceptions were true. What I found instead was a challenging but rewarding little piece of paradise, with quiet, friendly members who share a common passion.

A couple Deer spotted last weekend while driving back to the ponds

Compared to fishing rivers, a completely different skill set is required and often as much (or more) experimentation is necessary to fool fish. Of course, having a very healthy and well maintained population of fish does improve odds at times.

The price point seems about right, where it’s high enough to keep away the crowds of non-serious anglers, but low enough that it’s affordable to those with a lower budget. Kids fish for free with a member, which of course is nice for someone like me who has three of them. In fact, I think it’s an ideal environment to introduce children to fly fishing, with plenty of fish and wide boats that provide stable casting platforms with unlimited back casting room.

Although there’s still lots of season left at the ponds this year, I’ll admit that I’m unsure how much value I’ll end up getting when it’s all said and done. I anticipate more regular trips after resident trout season closes, though I imagine if I were to calculate the cost per day for my number of visits, it will end up being a lot higher than I care to admit. If I lived a bit closer (it’s about a 40 minute drive right now), I’d likely get more use out of it. Still, it’s difficult to put a dollar amount on the opportunity to catch fish like the one below in such a setting any day of the week.

One of the larger Rainbow Trout I caught at Glen Haffy this year

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I took my two boys out for some pond fishing Saturday morning. The oldest (8) has his own fly rod and waders, but I left them at home since the younger one (4) isn’t quite old enough for the trout streams yet. Fishing for panfish via hook and bobber every once in a while keeps their interest peaked and that’s the most important thing at this age. The fish in this particular pond were absolutely ferocious. As soon as the line hit the water, swarms of sunfish would rush to devour the worm. Unfortunately they’ve become so good at stripping the worm off the hook, that I spent a solid 2-3 hours doing not much more than re-baiting hooks. At least the action was consistent and the kids caught some fish.

My four-year-old son reeling in a sunfish

A friend and I fished the Credit for a few hours Sunday morning. It was pretty cold in the morning and the water temperature was below 60 F. When we arrived at the river, we spotted a large porcupine in the middle of a lawn across the street. He was munching on something and didn’t seem at all concerned about our presence.

We spotted this porcupine in a yard across the street

Once in the river, we met up with another critter: this time a raccoon. Nothing too out of the ordinary here, except that the little fellow was extremely interested in us for some reason. He had a look of desperation on his face, likely due to either hunger or expecting food (perhaps he’s been fed by locals/visitors). Either way, he followed us for a good 20 minutes and at some points tried to walk out into the river towards us. We couldn’t even scare the little guy away, he simply wasn’t giving up. As much as most people despise raccoons, I sort of felt bad for him.

This desperate Raccoon would not leave us be

As for the fishing, not much was happening on the surface until around 10:30 when it warmed up a bit and some sporadic BWO hatches began. I caught just three small trout, which I guess is better than nothing. We also decided to explore some new water, where we spent more time wading and turning over rocks than fishing. I was pleasantly surprised with the quality pools we passed and I think I’ll be back there next weekend to spend a few hours fishing them.

We didn’t see a ton of insects, but what we did see was big. Mainly, a bunch of large Stone Flies (~size 10+) and a Hellgrammite (I think), about size 6. If you aren’t familiar with them, Hellgrammites are the big ugly larval form of Dobsonflies. They’re pretty much the largest insect you’ll find on a river.

Hellgrammite larva found under a rock – or is this the similar looking Fishfly larva?

Bottom view

As a side note, it’s becoming very obvious how much I’m in need of a new camera. My current camera (Canon PowerShot SX210) will not take a picture in low light at all, macro mode is broken and it’s nearly impossible to snap a focused picture.

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With a break from all the rain and cooler temps of late, I figured the river should be back in tip-top condition. So, last Thursday I set out at sunrise with an arsenal of Tricos, expecting to be tossing tiny dry flies to eager fish. When I arrived, the river flows were as expected, but the water was inexplicably murky – as if a huge rainfall had just gone through. Apparently, the heavy rains in weeks past have caused somewhat of a backup of sediment and algae in Belwood Lake, which is still being released from Shand Dam. The river was definitely more slippery than I’ve ever seen it, so blaming it on algae seems logical. Still, I didn’t travel 45 minutes at 6 am to turn around and drive back home.

Other than the water colour, everything seemed normal. Deer on the river, Cranes and the resident Osprey about and a bit of insect activity, hinting at the likely hatches in the coming hours.

It’s becoming a common occurrence to be greeted by a Deer in the morning

For the first half of the morning, I was too stubborn to tie on a nymph or streamer and instead fished wet and dry flies. Tricos were hatching in pretty good numbers but very few fish were rising, most likely due to the poor visibility. Obviously, not a good time to be fishing a dry fly. When I finally gave in and decided to tie a nymph on, things got interesting. Not because of the sudden excellent fishing – it was still difficult. Rather, due to the resident Osprey who is always looking for an easy meal.

Resident Osprey (picture snapped on a previous trip a few weeks ago)

A couple casts with a bead-head nymph and I was into my first fish of the morning: a respectable ~14″ brown. As I fought to bring the fish to the net quickly, it did a couple somersaults and splashed on the surface. All of a sudden, a huge splash directly on top of the fish startled me. A second later, the Osprey emerged from the water with my fish in its claws, hook still set in the fish’s mouth! I had no idea what to do… for a couple moments, I was literally fighting an Osprey trying to fly away with my fish. My hook eventually popped out and the thieving bird flew off with my catch. This was right up there with the strangest thing that’s ever happened to me on the water.

This seemed to set the mood for the rest of the day. Out of only three fish that were hooked (all on either a nymph or streamer), none made it to my net. The first lost to the Osprey, the second lost due to a poor hook set and the last fish spit the hook at my feet while I was fumbling with my landing net.

Two days later, I returned with a friend for revenge, hoping that the visibility had improved. Unfortunately, it did not improve and we were stuck swinging streamers in the very murky water once more.

Stripping streamers in the murky water

Ryan (above) has been obsessed with catching a certain large brown that has managed to evade him a few times now. The fish didn’t show up on this morning, though I did see a very large brown roll no less than 2 feet in front of me. It was another slow day on the water, with even less fish on than two days prior. I did however manage to bring one fish to net without bird intervention, so that’s something to be thankful of.

This fish took a Muddler Minnow on the swing

September is just around the corner and that should mean much improved fishing conditions on the Grand. In the meantime, I may try my luck at some night fishing there and stick to other rivers for morning and daytime fishing.

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Scenic pocket water on a southern Ontario river

Downstream of a large waterfall, the river narrows, speeds up and is dominated by large boulders. Cliffs tower over both sides of the river and up above the cliffs there are trails with the odd tourist – though you wouldn’t know it. This area is no secret and the small amount of traffic can be directly related to the previously mentioned lack of access.

Wading can be tricky in some of the faster water

Fly fishing here is technical, with lots of leg work and stealth required. The fish in this area aren’t large on average, but what they lack in size they make up for in feistiness. There’s something about them: they’re completely different than the same fish you catch a couple miles up or downstream. Perhaps it’s the higher oxygen levels in the water, or simply the fact that these fish see less flies than in other parts of the river.

This type of water is the perfect place to swing a wet fly. Of course, nymphing and (at times) dry flies also work, but my interest in tying and fishing soft hackles and classic wet flies has peaked recently. So, that’s what I did – I tied a few simple partridge soft hackles, in yellow and red and swung them behind boulders and through some of the more productive looking riffles and runs. River features are generally miniature-sized in water like this, with short drifts required. A few longer stretches of productive water like the one below allow for longer drifts and the opportunity to take several fish.

A rare stretch of productive water amidst the otherwise broken up pocket water

In the span of a few hours, I walked several kilometres and landed about 8-10 brookies and browns. As expected, none of these were very big, but each fish caught felt like an accomplishment.

A small feisty brown trout, about average for this water

Overall a great day and I think the only improvement that could have been made is with my gear. When you’re in the middle of nowhere fishing for several hours, it’s pretty important to bring some water and food. Somehow, I’ve managed to survive this long on half to full day trips with simply a pair of waders and standard fishing vest – packing food and water wherever I could stuff it. This isn’t very practical or comfortable though and I think the next time I venture out I’ll be equipped with a new Fishpond pack/vest. Perhaps overkill for every day outings, but I think it will be invaluable for those (frequent) days with long hikes and a full day of fishing.

One last creepy closing note: I ran into another giant spider on this trip, which I have yet to identify. I think it may be another Fishing Spider, similar to the one I spotted a couple years ago on the same river. You can get a sense of its size from the leaves next to it. Yummy!

Large spider, which I believe to be a fishing spider

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Admittedly, as great a river as the Grand is, I haven’t fished it too much in the past few years. Most of my time has been spent on other less popular rivers. However, the several trips we’ve made so far this year have reminded of a few things I had forgotten:

1. Morning is an amazing time to be on the water

Stepping out onto the water at the crack of dawn is a wonderful experience. The crisp morning air, quiet, calm and undisturbed water instantly makes you forget how difficult it was climbing out of bed. With the entire day ahead of you, your sense of urgency is non-existent. Wildlife is abundant and fish are still a bit more careless than they might be after a day of dealing with anglers. On a morning trip last week, we were greeted by a pair of playful deer as we stepped into the river. They remained for several minutes before finally realizing we were there, after which they calmly walked back to the river bank out of sight.

A couple deer playing in the river

Birds were also plentiful and active. An osprey sat at the top of a tall tree, watching us fish for a good 30 minutes before deciding to show us how to catch a real fish. I heard a huge splash behind me, turned around and saw a splash that I imagined could only be caused by a large boulder falling into the river. A second later, the osprey emerged with a good sized fish in its claws.

Osprey on the lookout for unsuspecting fish in the river below

A lowly seagull also decided to out-fish us and as can be seen below, happily feasting on its fresh catch.

Seagull proudly displaying its morning catch

Unfortunately for this poor gull though, he was not the biggest bird on the water that morning and shortly after his meal was stolen by a great blue heron. Needless to say, he did not seem happy.

Size does matter, as this great blue heron proved by stealing its breakfast

2. There are a lot of big fish in this river

Wildlife was not the only excitement we witnessed on the river. Caddis hatches and undisturbed pools reminded me of just how many browns are in this river. One nice thing about the Grand is that a tiny fish here is generally 8-10″ due to the decent size of stockers. Average fish are a bit bigger and fish in the high 20’s are taken often. While we had a few nice fish roll on us, most of the fish we caught were in the 10-14″ range. I’m not complaining, I’ll take those fish any day. I’ve always found the larger fish on the Grand quite picky, no doubt due in large part to the sheer number of flies they have seen in their long lives. In clear water conditions, especially when fishing a dry fly, it seems even a 6x tippet or the slightest of water disturbance can alert them.

Many average sized fish like this were caught, with a few larger

The fly of the month for us has been the Bubble Caddis Emerger. I just started tying and fishing this fly and I have to say, so far it hands down beats fishing a more typical elk hair caddis. The fish here seem to prefer it and it’s nice that it can be fished both as a dry or an emerger.

3. At least some of the stories about clowns on this river are true

Ah yes and then there’s the clowns. I’ll start by saying that in the countless times I’ve fished the Grand in the past, I’ve been lucky enough to avoid them. I’m sure it’s not as bad as people say, certainly nothing like the real circus found on the lower sections of some rivers during a good steelhead run. Nevertheless, a couple hours into fishing one morning, we ran across one such person.

We were fishing a productive stretch of water and started working the water directly in front of us. We were carefully covering all of the water, working out towards the other (deeper) side of the pool which seemed to be holding some better fish. We noticed a person enter the river downstream, dressed entirely in black. He stood around for a minute or two after which he crossed to the other side of the river and began stomping upstream with rod in hand. We weren’t quite sure what to make of him – it was hard to see from a distance, but he certainly wasn’t wearing your typical fishing gear. It was a cold morning and he was dressed in long, plain black cloth. He literally walked right into the pool we were so anxiously working towards, no more than 40 feet away from us and began casting across the river directly into the water we were fishing.

It’s a good thing I was in too good of a mood (and am generally too nice a person) to say anything, because I have honestly never seen anyone be so rude or bold on a river in my life. He made casts that were no more than a few feet from our drifts. Eventually he moved on upstream, while we were left to ponder what just happened and deal with the fact that he just spooked every fish in the river.

Thankfully, you shouldn’t expect to see this stuff too often and it was already later in the morning. One more plus for early mornings on the river though: increased chance of avoiding situations like this one.

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June 2013: Back to Big Crow Lake
A 3 day return trip to Big Crow Lake Algonquin Park

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I absolutely loving fishing in the fall.  Cool crisp temperatures and colours galore, on both the trees and the fish. Yesterday was full of walking and roller coasters, as I took my son to Canada’s Wonderland, but today I managed to get out for a few hours of fishing. Normally I would choose to fish my favourite brown trout water this time of year, but seeing as how I failed to catch any fish during my Algonquin trip, I thought I’d try to make amends and head to some brookie water today.

Fishing was pretty slow for most of the day. Rain was off and on and temps were quite cold, but overall it was great to be out. I managed to catch a few small brookies in the first couple hours – nothing to brag about, but better than nothing.  I also took a break to watch a beaver that lives in this section of the river (I’ve seen him here for several years now).

Resident Beaver chilling out on a rock in the middle of the river

I started out casting dry flies and eventually switched to a small streamer since there wasn’t anything happening on the surface. The streamer provided 2 hits, but no fish landed.  As daylight faded, I approached a nice stretch of water and decided to go back to dries. I tied on a size 12 stimulator and the second cast produced a nice brookie.

Nice colourful resident Brook Trout caught on a Stimulator

I had hiked in quite a way from my car and it would be a long walk back. Since I packed my headlamp, I figured I’d push my luck and stay a while longer and hike back in the dark. Then it hit me… I had put my headlamp in my fishing net in the car… and now I was wearing my fishing net on my back. Unfortunately, the lamp was no longer in the net. It had obviously fallen out somewhere along my trek today, which took me through a lot of heavy brush. Not only did this mean I just lost my new $50 headlamp, but it also meant I had to stop fishing if I wanted to avoid stumbling back the 30 minute hike in dark without a light. Doh!

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Fishing Spider encountered on the Credit River.

Unfortunately the picture quality is not too great as the camera I was carrying at the time was pretty bad.  It’s hard to get a sense of the size of this thing, but it was resting on a huge boulder in the middle of the river and was probably about the size of a child’s hand.  Apparently it’s called a Fishing Spider (genus Dolomedes).

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