Not too long ago, I was out on the Credit for the last couple hours of daylight. The weather was decent and I had hoped to have a run-in with either some Isonychia or some leftover Hexagenia. I encountered a decent hatch of the latter on some Brook Trout water a few days prior, but hadn’t had the luxury of fishing them to Browns yet this year.

A Hexagenia Atrocaudata spinner from a few days prior.

The second half of the season has been far less rewarding than the first half on the bug front, most likely due to the extreme drought and heat. This outing was met with much of the same – a few tiny Blue Winged Olives and the very odd Isonychia fluttering about. I fished upstream without much success, using the only Isonychia I had on-hand: an experiment I tied in a hurry just before leaving. I had the misfortune of catching a couple small Atlantics on it, followed by a slightly more rewarding small Brown Trout.

A small, lonely Isonychia Dun on a mostly bug-free evening.

A simple Isonychia, tied in a hurry with whatever materials I had lying around.

As I approached a nice bend in the river that I hadn’t fished yet this year, I recalled the Pike I had caught in the same spot a couple years prior. It was memorable back then, due to the fact that it was the first Pike I’d actually caught on the Credit and it escaped my buddy’s net before we could remove it. I promptly returned a day or two later and fished it out of there. Ever since that, I’ve associated this pool with the Pike and I believe it explained my previous lackluster fishing there. At any rate, I was excited to see if any nice Browns had moved in since.

I was almost instantly rewarded with a nice fish in the lower section of the pool. It eagerly rose to my Isonychia and gave me high hopes that an even larger fish might be lurking in the deeper section of the pool.

A nice Credit River Brown Trout taken on an Isonychia.

After releasing the fish, I carefully made my way along the edge of the river to a spot above the pool. I fished a couple pockets upstream for a few minutes to rest the pool before getting back into position. Even in the low water, the middle of the pool was deep and dark. My faith in the ability of the Isonychia to bring up a large fish dwindled, especially given the lack of bugs on the water. So, I did what any greedy fly fisherman hoping to catch a big trout would do… I tied on a large articulated streamer: a version of Kelly Galloup’s Sex Dungeon.

I covered the hole carefully, adjusting my retrieves and anticipating the strike of a large trout. Several passes through the fishiest section of the pool (a seam along the deepest section, between a large rock and a back eddy) failed to produce a fish. I rarely expect to catch a fish using these methods, but for some reason I was genuinely perplexed this time. I felt there had to be at least a couple big trout down there that hadn’t been fished to in a while.

At the rear of the back eddy, the water crawled to a stop and it appeared to be quite shallow. Having not covered that water yet, I decided to give it a try. On the first cast, in between strips, I felt something nick my fly. Unsure whether it was a fish or a rock, I stripped again and realized there was no longer any weight at the end of my line. My streamer was gone and all that was left was the cut end of my 2X tippet.

I honestly wasn’t sure what happened… I had barely felt anything, but I was mid-strip when it happened. In the back of my mind I thought Pike, but it seemed like a long shot since I had previously removed a Pike from the same hole and had just caught a nice Brown beforehand. Also, as lucky as I might be, I had yet to have a Pike cut my tippet on the Credit. The few that I caught in the past were all successfully hooked on 4X-0X tippet, with no incidents. So instead, I leaned towards the idea of having cut my line on something under the water, such as a sharp rock or pipe. Or perhaps I was simply careless when I tied on my streamer. Just in case, I cut off my 2X, went down to 0X then tied on another S. Dungeon.

Only a few casts later and I was met with the same fate, in the same spot. Again I barely felt a nick of the line before it was cut. This time however, the cut was not so clean and I was left with a much more jagged end to my tippet. There was no longer any question… this was the work of Jaws and my best guess was that it was very large and very hungry.

Having lost my last articulated streamer and not having any Pike leader material on hand, I remained determined to rid the Credit of the fish. Once again, I cut off more tippet (leaving essentially the butt section of my leader) and tied on a large lead-eyed bugger. As I mentioned, I was lucky enough to have never been broke off by a Pike on the Credit before, so I was highly confident that if I could hook it one more time, odds were with me that I would land it. Except, I did hook into it one more time – and I didn’t land it…

After losing a solid hour’s worth of tied flies, most of my leader and my entire ego, I started walking back to my truck with my tail between my legs. I’d given up for the time being, but I would be back with a vengeance the following night.

The next day was Monday, the Civic Holiday in Canada. Nothing was open and I was still without any Pike leaders or wire bite. After asking around and being unable to locate any, I began scavenging for something (anything) that I could use as a poor man’s Pike leader. I needed to re-tie a few streamers and that’s when it hit me. The flexible wire I use to tie articulated streamers would work just fine. I got to work, tying a couple leaders as well as a couple S. Dungeons to go with them.

A homemade Pike leader and a freshly tied Sex Dungeon, ready for revenge.

I arrived at the pool around 6:30 pm. Given the the fact that the Pike had broken off three large streamers the night before, I fully accepted the possibility that it may have completely inhaled at least a couple of those – rendering it either dead, or with a serious lack of appetite. I expected it to come easy, but it took a solid 45 minutes of casting before I finally hooked into a Pike in the same spot I’d been broken off the previous night. My Macgyver’d leader held up perfectly and I succeeded in landing the fish this time.

Vengeance: Yet another trout-eating Pike.

The only problem, or so I felt… this fish was considerably smaller than what I had imagined. I looked for hook marks or any other visible sign of being hooked three times last night, but couldn’t find any. That said, I was using barbless hooks and its entirely possible that they slid out or didn’t hook it in the first place. Or maybe there’s another, bigger Pike, still camping that poor hole. Whatever the case, I’ve decided that this pool will henceforth be known as Pike Pool (not to be confused with the similar sounding Pipe  Pool, as it is referred to by some regulars).

The post Pike Pool appeared first on Caffeinated Fly Fisher.

Of course, I’m referring to mayflies here, the Green Drake specifically. If you fly fish the upper Credit River, you probably know that the Green Drake has been going through a rough time. Once a prolific and highly anticipated mayfly hatch on the Credit, it underwent a rapid decline in the past couple decades and had all but disappeared. Dr. Henry Frania, an entomologist with the Royal Ontario Museum, has been studying the Green Drake issues for many years and rather than reiterate his findings, you’re better off Googling it yourself. Essentially, it had been found likely that the nymphs were dying due to ingestion of a toxic substance (chemical or organic). As a result, very few nymphs were reaching the adult stage, leading to the Green Drake being (for the most part) functionally extinct on most of the Credit River.

Fast forward to 2016 where (as I indicated in my previous post) the season started with some of the heaviest Hendrickson hatches seen in years. Blue Winged Olives were also in good numbers, followed by Sulphurs, Yellow Sallies and Gray Foxes. Next up was the infamous and ever-absent Green Drake. I was told they made a half decent showing in 2015 (relatively speaking), although I managed to miss them entirely. In serious need of a break from work and feeling optimistic with the number of bugs so far this year, I took a few days off in hopes of witnessing some of these giant mayflies. As it turned out, the weather and timing were perfect and I was able to spend three evenings among what was possibly the largest showing of Green Drakes since their decline many years ago.

A slightly beat-up Green Drake Dun from the Upper Credit River

In the 12 years I’ve been living in the area and fly fishing the Credit, it was the first time I was able to truly experience what a real Green Drake hatch is like on this river. Many long-time veterans to the river (who are all too familiar with the careless behavior these big bugs bring about in large trout) were also there to partake in the action, along with a number of others there simply to observe and take notes (Dr. Frania included).

When I arrived Wednesday evening around 5:30 pm, it was clear, sunny and warm, with a few Yellow Sally stoneflies fluttering about. Still too early to expect any major bug activity, I tied on a yellow sally and casually fished upstream, keeping an eye out for signs of Green Drakes. In about an hour and a half of fishing, I caught a couple small browns and a slew of another fish that I imagine many unknowing fishermen believe to be tiny browns: stocked Atlantics. Fishing smaller water for average sized trout has become extremely difficult on the Credit due to these fish… when there’s not a larger trout to chase them away, they simply  take over the river, virtually eliminating any chance of catching a wild brown or brook trout. They’re also twice as aggressive (and dumb) as the wild fish, meaning they’re usually the first to jump at a potential meal.

Around 7:00 pm, I peered up into the trees and noticed a good number of large mayflies fluttering about, still fairly high up but slowly making their way down. They seemed far too large to be Gray Foxes and I was hopeful they were the Drakes I’d been waiting for.

Large mayflies that appeared to be Green Drakes spotted in the trees overhead

Less than 5 minutes later, they began descending rapidly towards the river and I confirmed that they were indeed Green Drakes. They were spinners in fact – and there were lots of them! The duns would have emerged a day or two prior and it meant there was a good chance for some hungry browns to come out from hiding.

Green Drake spinner (a.k.a. Coffin Fly) descending onto the Credit

Thankfully, I opted to skip the Dun imitations and instead tied a few spinners earlier that day. They seemed to be a decent match to the bugs I was seeing.

Green Drake spinner imitation, tied earlier that day

As most fly fishermen know, even when the stars align, the conditions are just right and the fish are rising – it’s still never a free ride. You need to work for your fish and you have a limited time window to do so. The urge to rush should be resisted – it’s best to observe and be patient before making hasty casts. Fooling a large wild brown trout on a dry fly is no simple task, even when they have Green Drake tunnel vision.

Such was the case as I fished to a pool of trout rising to these large mayflies. My first fish was easily the largest of the night (and of the season so far). I watched it rise violently under a large overhanging tree branch… the type of continuous rises that I have very rarely seen the likes of. After several such rises in the same location, I carefully placed a cast a couple meters upstream and watched in anticipation as my coffin fly imitation floated over the target zone. The rise was even more violent than the previous ones as it leapt a foot out of the water with my fly. It was a large, dark fish, but sadly it was a short-lived battle that I lost as it thrashed back and forth while performing another aerial acrobatic.

Thankfully, it didn’t take long for another fish in the pool to forget about the alarms and dangers it had just witnessed and it graciously took the same fly. This time a smaller fish, around 12″, but satisfying nonetheless.

My first Brown Trout caught (and landed) on a Green Drake Spinner

The drakes were fairly constant from about 7:00 pm until past dark, along with a fair number of duns that I spotted emerging. The spinners were bouncing all over the water, depositing their eggs on the surface. I became fixated on another large fish that was rising but simply was not interested in my spinner. I’d noticed a few duns coming off in the vicinity and while I didn’t have any dry fly duns, I did have a couple Green Drake wet flies that I decided to try. It was to no avail however as the fish eventually suspected my shenanigans and was put down.

I had another fish snub my fly at the last second and I pulled the hook out of one more before finally hooking into a better fish. It wasn’t as large as the first brown that I lost, but it was a good size and very healthy and strong. It’s hard to beat catching wild browns like this on a dry fly. On that note, someone please remind me why we’re stocking millions of 3-4″ atlantics that will either die or at best make it out to the lake then die (and never contribute to the upper river fishery), when we have wild browns like this in the river?

A nice, clean 16-17″ wild Brown Trout caught on a spinner

This was my last fish of the night, but I stuck around for a while to film some of the drakes and rising fish. With two days of vacation still remaining, I left the river content, having experienced what I hoped to. The drakes were very thick at times, so much so that a few even bounced off my fly rod while I was casting – a feeling that was similar to casting a bead-head streamer and having it clip my rod.

The resurgence of the Green Drakes this year has certainly been encouraging and it makes one wonder whether mother nature has begun sorting out the issues that plagued these insects for years past. As great as it is to see the bugs making a bit of a comeback though, it’s not all silver lining. There are still sections of the river that remain devoid of the Green Drake, where it was once abundant. There’s also other ongoing threats, such as declining native Brook Trout numbers, over saturation of the river with stocked Atlantic Salmon and MNR imposed threats to the remaining wild Brown Trout. For now though, I think this is one win that’s worth celebrating.

The post Return of the Drake appeared first on Caffeinated Fly Fisher.

Details on the working proposal can be found here. Apparently, the MNR will be going public with this at some point for broader feedback. When they do, I sincerely hope they get lots of eyes and feedback on these changes, especially from those with intimate knowledge of the river. My main beef with the plan as it stands is the proposal of removing current catch-and-release regulations for Brown Trout on the upper section of this river. They want to allow (and encourage) harvesting of Browns of any size from this excellent and one-of-a-kind fishery. The thought of even considering this change is painful in so many ways… I simply can’t understand the justification.

Looking downstream on the main branch of the Forks of the Credit River

Obviously, promises of reintroducing fish specifies that were once native to the area and have long been extirpated (Atlantic Salmon) or are currently threatened (Brook Trout) is something that any unknowing conservation-minded person might back. Likewise, it’s probably something many tax payers wouldn’t mind knowing their tax dollars are going towards. However, I wonder if that would be the case if they knew the whole story and the history behind it all.

As far as Brook Trout are concerned, I think everyone is right to be disheartened at the declining numbers in the Credit River over the last decade and more. I’ve only lived in and fished the area for about 10 years and even in that short time I have noticed a fairly considerable decline in their numbers. How much of this is REALLY related to Brown Trout though?

If you aren’t familiar with the Credit, the Cataract falls separate two very distinct sections of river. Below the falls (on the main branch), Brown Trout are the primary species, whereas the section above the falls is a purely Brook Trout fishery. If Brown Trout are largely to blame for the decline of the Brookies, why is it that above Cataract the Brookies have been steadily declining, with no pressure from Brown Trout? Just because some research shows that Brown Trout compete with Brook Trout, why jump to the conclusion that removing the treasured Brown Trout that draws most anglers to this river is the solution? I’ll tell you why… it’s because they don’t want any of their precious stocked Atlantic Salmon parr

As for the Atlantic Salmon, the long and short of it is that they completely disappeared from Lake Ontario in the 1800’s. Since then, efforts have been ongoing to attempt to reintroduce them, more recently with the Credit River receiving millions of stocked Atlantics. As a migratory fish, the success of the project can be measured by tagging and counting the number of fish that mature and re-enter their home rivers to spawn after reaching adulthood. While numbers of returning fish are not generally shared, most of those with inside knowledge suggest the numbers of returning adults to be shockingly low – low as in not even a fraction of a fraction of a percent. I’m certainly not most knowledgeable person to back this information, so I suggest you do some Googling and research of your own. In fact, this forum post is as good a start as any: http://www.spoonpullers.com/forums/index.php?topic=19871.0.

Here is some interesting background:

1. Brown Trout were initially stocked into Ontario rivers in the early 1900’s for their allure among anglers and their tolerance to the warming and more polluted waters. They were last stocked in the upper Credit River in the early 1960’s and have since been self-sustaining and completely wild.
2. Brown Trout and Brook Trout successfully co-inhabit the same sections of many other similar rivers in North America. A prime example being the Au Sable River in Grayling, MI – where I frequently catch Brown, Brook and Rainbow trout on the same stretch of water.
3. Of the trout species that inhabit Ontario rivers, Brook Trout are the most susceptible to water temperature and quality changes.
4. Water temperatures have been steadily increasing and recent monitoring has shown dangerously warm (for Brook Trout) temps on the Credit River in recent years. See this background reading from CVC.
5. In recent years, previously abundant populations of mayfly species such as the Green Drake and Blue Winged Olive have nearly disappeared from the upper Credit River, suspected to be caused by temperature and/or water pollution (or their combined effects).
6. Despite stocking of millions of young Atlantic Salmon into Lake Ontario tributaries for years (the Credit River receiving the bulk of this), there continues to be little to no success.

I’m sure I’ve missed some important points, but it’s easy to see that there are a lot of factors at work here and killing off the Brown Trout in the limited section of water they current inhabit on the Credit River is not going to solve any problems. On the contrary, I feel it will unnecessarily destroy one of the last blue ribbon wild resident trout fisheries in Southern Ontario.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t try to improve things. Obviously something should be done about water quality and temperature increases on the Credit and I can say first hand that there is not nearly enough restoration going on today. The Au Sable is yet another great example of how much of a difference conservation alone can make in improving water quality. Why not invest more money and start there? Restore Brook Trout populations above the Cataract, in tributaries such as Silver and Black Creek and perhaps on the West Credit before killing the Brown Trout fishery on the main branch.

Finally, I’m no biologist and I couldn’t possibly claim to have the solution to the Atlantic problem. All I can say is: given the success to date, is it really worth sacrificing existing wild and sustainable fisheries for the slim chance that it could make the difference and turn this currently failing program around? Does the Credit River really need to keep being the test tube for Lake Ontario? Give it a break…

The post Credit River Regulations Changes appeared first on Caffeinated Fly Fisher.

This is my favourite time of year to fish. The scenery is at its peak with the fall colours and fish are becoming more aggressive as they beef up for the coming spawning and winter seasons.

I love fishing small, quiet water like this during the fall

Like so many others, I went on somewhat of a fly fishing binge the last several days of the season. I used up my last vacation day on Friday and spent most of 3 full days on the water. I suppose I can’t really blame others for having the same idea as me, but it always shocks me to see just how many fisherman decide to dust off their gear for these final days of the season. Why not just visit the river once or twice during the rest of the season and get the same amount of (much more peaceful) fishing in? I rarely see another fisherman in most of the water I fish, yet that same water is full on closing weekend.

For the most part, I spent my last few days fishing small rivers and streams, often spending as much time hiking into locations as I did fishing. Sure, it would be nice to toss big flies at some of the best holes in hopes of enticing the largest fish in the river, but I value scenery and peace and quiet more than the size of fish. So, while the majority of fly fishermen spent their time battling it out on more popular beats, or fished shoulder-to-shoulder for the largest of Southern Ontario’s salmon and trout, I headed far upstream to stalk the smallest of our native trout: Brook Trout.

I don’t target brookies very often, partly because of their smaller size and partly because they’re more susceptible to angling pressure than other fish. However, early spring and fall are great times to fish them and what they lack in size they more than make up for in beauty and feistiness.

One of the many colourful Brook Trout caught last weekend

Brookies are often willing to eat just about anything they can (or can’t) fit in their mouth!

My friend Ryan and I spent Thursday and Friday almost exclusively fishing for brookies. I took him to a couple locations, one of which very rarely sees any fishing pressure. It was the first time he’d really spent time targeting brook trout and we both had an absolute blast. The first hour saw us land easily 10+ fish, many out of a single nice run. I left the majority of the run to Ryan and he took several 8″+ brookies, small browns and rainbows out of it. As he was setting up I cast a humpy into the tail end of the run and kicked things off with this nice looking fish:

First Brook Trout of closing weekend

Friday morning and early afternoon were less productive than Thursday as we fished some more difficult water – several miles of it I might add. I’d never walked this entire stretch of river before, though I knew of a few holes on it that were usually productive. They lived up to their expectations and most of our fish were caught from them. We waded downstream and without knowing much of the water, we stumbled across (and spooked) a few unexpected nice holes. I have a feeling they would fish very well in the future, if approached carefully.

Later Friday afternoon, when Ryan had to head home, I decided to drive back to the location we fished on Thursday. The weather was absolutely perfect, there were some nice hatches of Blue Winged Olives and Isonychia and the fishing was even better than the day before. Despite the hatching insects, the money fly was a size 12 Stimulator. One particular small pool yielded well over a dozen brook trout in 30 minutes! I’ve never pulled so many fish out of a single hole… it was surreal!

A small pool here (hard to see in this picture) produced well over a dozen fish

Here are a few of the nice looking fish that came to my net Friday evening:

The remainder of the weekend was filled with brown trout fishing. Saturday evening was the only time I spent on a more popular stretch of water and although I know the fishing can be good there, I regretted it afterwards. I shared the river with several other anglers and fished pools that had been largely overfished that day and more recently had an absolutely massive streamer ripped through them by a fisherman ahead of me.

Sunday I drove to a more remote stretch of river, where very long hikes and difficult to navigate terrain ensured I would be the only angler on the river for the day. It’s not really big fish water, for the most part. Narrow, fast moving water, a few scattered pools and lots of riffles. I made my decision to fish this water minutes before leaving the house and my fly inventory was somewhat lacking for this type of fishing. What I really wanted to do was swing soft hackles, so I quickly browsed some fly patterns to find something quick and easy to tie. I settled on a bead head soft hackle pheasant tail. I tied 2 of them, hoped they would last the better part of the day and left for the river.

Two hours later, after finding a parking spot and completing a long hike, I sat down on a rock in the middle of the river and tied a new leader from scratch (more on this later). I put on one of my two pheasant tail soft hackles and began carefully working productive looking water. Either my choice of fly was good, or the fish were just not picky. Whatever the reason, fishing was excellent. I caught a few browns from the first small run.

Pockets of water like the one in the upper-middle area of this photo produced lots of fish

As expected, the fish weren’t big, but it was very rewarding and often technical fishing.

Lots of small browns like this in riffles and pockets behind rocks

I worked my way downstream for a few hours until I eventually lost my only two soft hackles. By this time, it was about 6:45 and the sun was beginning to set. I was moving into an area with some slower moving water and I knew of a couple deeper pools up ahead, so I decided to tie on a streamer to try my chances at landing my last big fish of the year.

I swung and stripped my streamer through the occasional fishy looking water. Not paying much attention (I was looking forward a a certain pool down river), a 16-18″ brown with a big yellow belly leaped out at my streamer as I raised it at the end of a drift. Due to a poor hookset, he was only on for a couple seconds before escaping back to structure he came from.

A bit discouraged, I continued heading towards the final pool of the night. When I arrived, it seemed to have changed since I’d last been there. Structure had shifted, it looked smaller and there was some debris that looked as though it was carefully placed to snag flies. Still, it looked fishy enough, if not somewhat tricky to pull a big fish out of. I stripped my streamer through the pool many times without any sign of fish. After several casts, I got hung up on some underwater structure. Not wanting to wade in and spook the pool, I broke it off. After re-tying my tippet, I stood around for a bit wondering if I should tie on another fly or call it quits. It was almost dark now and I had a very long hike back.

As I was staring at my fly box, I heard a MASSIVE splash. I looked up and saw a big wake of water at the back of the pool. Startled, I wondered if that could possibly be a fish. The splash was so big, I didn’t think it could possibly be a brown. I knew beavers frequent this area, so perhaps that was the cause? I’ve fished after dark many times in the past and I’ve heard my share of large browns smashing the surface, but they have never sounded remotely as big as this. My next thought was clear: Gurgler, size 2! Let’s do this, one last shot at a trophy fish for 2013!

I cut off my smaller tippet, tied my size 2 Gurgler to some 2X and began stripping and popping it through the pool. After dozens of casts and no sign of the big fish, I again stopped to think. Suddenly, another huge splash and this time I saw it! It was now dark and although I couldn’t get a good look at it, I could easily tell this was a BIG brown.

With the reduced visibility at this time of night, I decided to cut off all my tippet and only use a few feet of leader, tying my Gurgler directly to the thick mono on the mid section of my leader. I continued casting and stripping, but after many more attempts the fish was still refusing. I assumed that I must have spooked it by now, since a size 2 fly on such a short, thick leader isn’t exactly a delicate presentation. The brown gave one more big splash, letting me know it still wasn’t done feeding. Half a dozen casts later, it slammed my Gurgler!

Now’s where this starts sounding like your typical fish story. The sad part is, a fish story and a broken leader is all I have to show for what was the most chaotic and mind blowing battle I’ve ever had with a fish. There was no knot in the leader where it broke (though it may appear so). The line is curled at the break purely from the tension it took to pull and snap mono this thick.

Broken .014″ mono, snapped by the biggest brown I’ve ever hooked into

Suffice it to say, this was easily the largest brown I’ve ever experienced, by a pretty big margin. I’ve caught several 20″+ fish in the past (~3-4lb), but none have compared to the weight and power of this fish. My best guess is that this fish was well over 6lb, possibly over 7lb. Other than the odd brookie and very small resident rainbow, there are basically no other fish species in this part of the river, so it most certainly was a brown.

Wild head shakes and thrashing ensued as it tried to shake the hook free. For a few minutes he ran to an undercut bank and was nearly unmovable. I tried to disorient him by applying pressure in different directions, but pulling too hard felt almost as though my 4wt Hardy Zenith was going to snap. It moved back and forth along the bank, staying as deep as possible. I was afraid it was going to run into some nearby structure that would surely put a quick end to the fight.

I turned my headlamp on full brightness and walked a bit closer, prompting the fish to bolt to the other side of the pool where it proceed to wrap itself around an underwater log. My heart was racing: I wanted to land this fish so bad and I was afraid I may have lost it. I quickly waded over to the log and tried to free the line. I reached underwater and grabbed the line and all the sudden he darted out from under the log back to the undercut bank: he was still on!

At this point, a good 10 minutes (or so it felt) into fighting the fish, there was still no sign of fatigue. It was pulling harder than before and moving closer to some underwater structure. Again, afraid it would run into this structure, I applied enough pressure to keep him in the pool. And then… snap!

My leader came flying back at me, a foot shorter, with a section of the mono snapped clean. I couldn’t believe it… my heart sank. I felt like an idiot for applying so much pressure, but it seemed like I had little choice. I’d just lost the fish of a lifetime and to make matters worse, my size 2 Gurgler was broke off in this trophy brown’s mouth, with a foot of mono attached to it. Thankfully I was using a barbless hook, but it doesn’t make me rest much easier. I can only hope it will work itself free and that the fish will go back to regular feeding (and perhaps give me a second chance next year).

I was both an extremely exhilarating and disappointing finish to the 2013 season. I stood still in the river for a good 15 minutes pondering what had just happened. All I had to look forward to was a 45 minute hike back to my car in the pitch dark and 7 months of trout-less days. It was certainly a memorable end to the trout season.

In addition to losing that fish, I also managed to lose my $200 pair of Smith Polarchromic sunglasses. My buddy lost his $100 landing net and tore a large hole in the neoprene socks of his breathable waders. Good times.

The post 2013 Trout Closing Weekend appeared first on Caffeinated Fly Fisher.

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.

The post Panfish and Critters appeared first on Caffeinated Fly Fisher.

I got out again Friday morning before work. There weren’t many bugs early morning, so I started fishing wet flies. When that was unproductive, I moved on to nymphs and later tried streamers. Fishing was slow, with little more than a couple missed hits on the wet flies.

As the sun came up and the temperature began rising, I started seeing a bunch of these:

Lots of Tricos were hatching an hour or so past sunrise

The water was very clear, but I wasn’t really seeing any rises. Since the sub-surface patterns weren’t doing particularly well for me, I figured I may as well try some Trico dry flies. A couple refusals (from some very small fish) was about all the action I had with these. Despite the hatches, fish simply weren’t feeding on Tricos, at least not on the surface.

I went back to wet flies, again with no real success. Mind you, my supply of wets was less than ideal, with only a couple unweighted patterns tied on standard dry fly hooks. I don’t think I was getting the fly down far enough. I could have added some weight to my line, but I just didn’t have much confidence in these flies.

There was still no surface activity, but I decided to tie on another (larger) dry fly: one of my historically most successful attractor patterns for this river, a Red Humpy. I had only one left and on top of being a pretty bad tie, it was also quite beat up. A few casts in and I caught my first fish of the morning: a tiny brown trout. Shortly after, I caught a couple more small browns.

The first few fish were all 6″ or less, so assuming that my Humpy was only managing to fool the young dumb fish, I switched back to a Trico. I figured, maybe the dry fly action was just now picking up and matching the hatch would get me into some better fish now. Well, it didn’t… the Trico continued to be ineffective.

Before switching back to my Humpy, I tried a few other flies to rule out the possibility of the Humpy not being the reason for my previous luck: a Stimulator, Caddis, BWO and a Partidge and Red.  I caught nothing on these flies, but after tying the Humpy back on, I was into more fish almost immediately.

As I waded downstream (further from the access point), the fish began increasing in size. A couple more 6″ fish, then some in the 8-10″ range.

I started to catch some better fish as I moved further downstream

It was getting late and the sun was now high in the sky. I was pretty happy with the outcome of the morning and the fact that I managed to figure things out and land a few decent trout. I started to wade a bit more quickly down river towards the next exit point, still drifting my fly through some of the better looking water. That’s when this good looking brown trout gulped up my Humpy:

A nice brown trout caught mid day on a Red Humpy.

I caught this fish midstream in some pretty shallow riffles, full sun and no cover nearby. Needless to say, I was not expecting it! I had 6x tippet on and he got into some pretty fast water, but I managed to get him to the net to wrap up another great trip.

So, why a Red Humpy? I remember my reason for deciding to start tying and fishing it on this river many years ago. My dad’s friend PJ introduced me to the Humpy and I liked how durable the fly was and how well it floated. My theory was that since the Isonychia Bicolor (Slate/Mahogany Dun) is so common on the this river almost all season long, a Humpy tied in red around size 12 might work as a rough imitation. I can’t really say whether this is the key to its success here, but I guess it’s a theory. Or, it might simply come down confidence. Everyone has their favourite go-to fly for a particular river and for me, this is it.

The post When Matching the Hatch Fails appeared first on Caffeinated Fly Fisher.

The weekend was a combination of fishing and partying, as it was the big Au Sable Canoe Marathon weekend. Visitors from all across North America come to Grayling for this weekend to watch the race, making it the busiest time of year for both Grayling and the Au Sable River. Because of this, it’s not exactly the ideal time to be fishing the area – at least not the main branch. However, quality fishing can still be had on the Manistee, the North and South branches of the Au Sable and (to my surprise) even on the main branch the very morning after the race.

If you’ve read some of my past trip logs, you’d realize that my trips don’t usually go quite as planned – this trip was no exception. I missed out on fishing the first two mornings and evenings of my trip: a late start Friday morning, helping my buddy pack up camp Saturday morning and parties Friday and Saturday night. Most of this was not unexpected though and thankfully, there’s more to life than fishing. Evenings were spent enjoying excellent food, drink and company with a large group of friends who have started a tradition of throwing a party each year during canoe weekend. In honesty, I was the youngest person there and most of them are friends of my parents, who also attended. Some of them helped get me started fly fishing many years ago and I’ve gotten to know others over the years. Their friendliness and appreciation for the outdoors, fishing and the simpler things in life means there’s always an interesting story to hear or conversation to have.

Due to the above, the first two days were restricted to afternoon fishing, which isn’t usually the most productive at this time of year. Both days were spent on the North Branch of the Au Sable, on sections of the river I have never fished before. Friday was warm, sunny and windy, with no visible bugs on the surface – ideal conditions for terrestrials. However, other than one nice overzealous trout that leaped a foot into the air for my friend’s hopper (and missed), the only fish caught that day were by him, on smaller olives and patriots. Saturday afternoon was spent fishing a different stretch of the North Branch that I learned about the night before. I left with a couple small brookies, a missed larger fish and a bunch of nice trout that I spooked by almost stepping on some hidden structure that I didn’t see.

Something I’ve come to realize over the years is that familiarity builds confidence, which is about the most important thing you can bring to a river. In my opinion, confidence is more important even than fly selection or presentation. We’ve all experienced that feeling of knowing that if you drift a fly perfectly through a certain piece of water, you’re going to hook up with a fish. Not matter how experienced you are, there’s something very humbling about fishing an unfamiliar river where you don’t really know what you’re getting into.

Sunday was time to go home, but I wasn’t going to leave without one good morning of fishing. I drove out to a more familiar stretch of river on the Holy Waters section of the Au Sable and was in the water by 6:15 am. This is the same water the canoe racers tore through the night before and a local fly shop warned me that the fishing might still be a little slow due to this. What I planned to be a quick few hours of fishing turned into nearly 8 hours on the water. I suppose the other fishermen were turned off by the fact that the race just ended the night before, because I didn’t see another angler all day.

Morning on the Au Sable Holy Waters

It was a beautiful morning with mist rising from the water surface, not another person to be seen and the promise of Trico and Blue Winged Olive hatches to come. My thoughts on fishing familiar waters and confidence proved partially correct as I hooked into over a dozen trout. I fished comfortably through a few heavy downpours later in the day, enjoying my recently purchased Simms rain jacket. No huge fish were caught, but plenty of average sized browns with nice vivid colouring, along with some smaller rainbow and brook trout. Not surprisingly, my nicest fish came from a hole directly in front of the house my wife and I commonly rent.

One of many nice looking Au Sable Brown Trout caught during a BWO hatch.

Another fine looking trout. I never get tired of catching these.

One of many small Rainbows caught rising to Tricos in some riffle water.

Brown Trout resting by my foot after being released.

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but perhaps my favourite part of fishing the Holy Waters is the fact that you’re likely to catch Brown, Rainbow and Brook Trout on the same piece of water – in addition to the possibility of fooling one of the wise trophy Browns that inhabit this area.

After a total of eight hours of fishing with lots of wading involved, I was faced with a daunting 6 hour drive (turned into 8 with traffic and stops). Needless to say, it was not an easy drive and it probably was not wise to spend so much time on the water before having to make such a long drive alone. I hit some nasty traffic on I-75 and ended up having to pull over and rest for 45 minutes to avoid getting too sleepy. After crossing the Blue Water Bridge into Sarnia, I was greeted with one of the nicer rainbows I have seen (the kind in the sky, not the kind you catch). Actually, it was a double rainbow, though the second is barely visible in the picture below.

Nice looking rainbow after a break in rain on the way home.

It could be argued that this was both one of my least and most eventful Au Sable trips to date, if that makes any sense. I’m sure one of these days, I’m going to have a boring trip that goes exactly as planned where I catch more fish than I can handle.

The post Annual Au Sable River Trip appeared first on Caffeinated Fly Fisher.

Grayling is a fly fishing paradise.  I won’t go into detail on why this is such a great fly fishing town, but suffice it to say that it’s surrounded by several blue ribbon trout rivers, it’s host to river stretches with nicknames like the “Holy Water”, it’s got more fly shops than most towns have gas stations and it’s the birthplace of Trout Unlimited… you get the idea.

I made an effort not to spend too much time on the water this trip, since my wife doesn’t fish and we had other things planned for the week.  Most of the time I didn’t stray too far from the place we were staying.  Located on the Holy Water, one of (if not the) best stretches of trout water on the entire Au Sable, it’s just too convenient.

The main hatches for the week included Tricos in the mornings, terrestrials (mostly ants) in the afternoons and some sporadic BWO hatches in the evenings.  No overly large trout were had during this trip, but a nice assortment of brown, rainbow and brook trout were caught.  That’s one of the things I love about the Au Sable in this stretch… all three trout species are very plentiful and on any given day it’s entirely possible to hook up with trophy sizes in all of these fish.

Au Sable Brown Trout

Au Sable Brook Trout

Au Sable Rainbow Trout

And then there’s the night fishing…

This is somewhat of a craze in the area.  So much so that Gates Au Sable Lodge, a local lodge and fly shop in the area, hosted a midnight derby this year.  It just so happened that this was prime night fishing time on the Au Sable. I’d done a bit of night fishing in the past on this river, with one unforgettable night where I was stalked by an angry Bobcat on shore for about 30 minutes.  This year though, I wanted to target BIG browns… something I hadn’t previously focused on while night fishing.  A bit of poking around revealed a couple flies that have landed numerous trophy browns after dark on this river:  Gartside Gurglers and Mice.  Unfortunately, I didn’t bring exactly the materials needed to tie these, but I did manage to tie a couple make-shift versions:

A quick and dirty Gurgler tie for some night fishing.

A simple variation on a foam mouse that I was quite happy with.

I spent two nights tossing big flies like this blindly in the dark.  Both of the above patterns worked quite well, but sadly I didn’t land the monster I was after.  I had several vicious hits on the gurgler, but missed all of them.  As for the mouse pattern above, I tied this only for the second night, which I fished for a total of about 10 minutes before hooking up with a big brown which somehow managed to snap it off with 4x tippet!  That was a sad time indeed as I felt I might have caught my new record brown trout.  I must say though, from the few minutes I fished this, I absolutely loved it.  It pushes water amazingly… which is good for getting the attention of those big predatory browns at night.  It’s very simple to tie as well, so I might just post some tying instructions for it later.

I also spent a few hours at Wakeley Lake, a non-motorized, catch-and-release only lake that is only accessible via a 1/4 mile hike.  Because of the restrictions and the fact that it’s not easily accessible to more casual anglers, it’s a super lake to fly fish from either a float tube, pontoon boat or canoe.  I brought my float tube and in the few hours I spent there, I hooked up with a bunch of decent pike and bass.

Wakeley Lake Bass

Wakeley Lake Northern Pike

Another Wakeley Lake Pike

Oh and lastly (and perhaps least importantly), they have lots of big ugly spiders in Grayling.  Maybe only slightly more than I’m used to in the GTA, but for some reason they tend to sneak up on me more up there.  This one crawled out of my waders onto my arm when I put them on one morning, after leaving them outside to dry overnight.

This spider surprised me by crawling out of my waders onto my arm one morning…

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