The May long weekend saw me taking a last minute trip to the Lake Superior Park interior for four days of paddling and trout fishing. Work had been unusually busy, which both delayed and shortened my spring backcountry trip plans. What’s usually a month of planning for up to ten days in the backcountry was condensed into about two days of rushed planning, packing, and a 9.5-hour drive north to a hastily chosen destination. I forgot some food and gear at home and was very low on sleep, needing to adjust my plans once again at the eleventh hour.

I’ll save the details of this trip for another post, but aside from the horrendous black flies and difficult portages, it was a good time, with some excellent fishing, scenery and solitude.

Green Drake Hatch

Not long after returning from Lake Superior, I was surprised to find out that the Green Drake hatch on the Credit had started extra early this year. It hadn’t even been on my mind, but in retrospect, it makes complete sense with the short (i.e. non-existent) winter we had. This is also why the black flies were so bad on my trip, when I had tripped at the same time last year (further south even) without any bugs.

I spent two nights of the green drake hatch on the river, but only for about an hour before and after dark each night. There were good numbers of drakes, along with a few intermixed grey foxes and a very thick sulphur hatch on the second evening. On both nights, there was a flurry of rising fish, but with my limited time and fly selection (I wasn’t prepared for the hatch to come so early), I failed to bring any large fish to the net. Or, that’s my excuse anyway. I think they were mostly feeding on emerging duns, which I had no suitable presentations for.

Between the two nights, we managed just a few smaller fish. Still, it’s always great to catch the drake hatch, with both the insects and rising fish a wonder to behold. It really gets me fired up to get out there and catch the hatches more often.

Float Trip From Hell

Speaking of drakes, that brings me to last weekend’s events. It was our first float trip of the year on a large southern Ontario river. Running late as usual, I quickly dug my pontoon boat out of winter storage, assembled it and threw it and all my fly fishing gear in the truck before heading out for the roughly 2 hour drive to the river.

After dropping one vehicle off at the take-out point and getting the boats loaded up, we set off from our access point and were instantly reminded of the tranquility that floating down a scenic river in a pontoon boat brings.

We’ve done countless trips in our pontoons and have yet to experience any real mishaps with them. Though, I suppose there was that time I snapped my 6 weight sage rod, after getting it caught up in some weeds while padding a lake a few years ago. But I digress – these drifts are almost always without drama. Still, as innocent and peaceful as they can be, it’s wise to remember that there are still many things that can go wrong – as we were soon to be reminded.

We happily floated down river, stopping to fish some of the nicer pools along the way. Insect activity was fairly low, but it was still early. We saw small numbers of Grey Foxes and Stoneflies, which eventually gave way to a lot of caddis and an absolute smothering of Brown Drakes at the end of the night (more on that later).

Steve (the other Steve I was with, not me) missed a decent fish or two in the first pool. There weren’t any visible rising fish, other than maybe one or two at our last stop for the evening, where we’d fish until just past dark. We split the river here, fishing from opposite banks on a fairly wide section of river with many nice runs and pools in it.

Since the light was fading and there was some fairly turbulent water here, I decided to fish a large stonefly, which we’d seen a few of earlier. I figured, it’d be easier for both me and the fish to see. That turned out to be a good decision, as I hooked into a nice brown within the first couple minutes here. It pulled hard on my 6 weight, leading me to believe it was bigger than it really was. It still turned out to be a nice chunky brown, but not quite the tank I first imagined.

Soon after releasing this fish, I spotted a large beaver swimming upriver towards me. It seemed fairly territorial and had no real fear of me. At one point it disappeared only to re-surface about 6 feet in front of me, without an ounce of hesitation or surprise.

We continued fishing until dark, but insect activity was decreasing rapidly as the temperature plummeted and winds picked up. This is generally the sort of weather that spells the end of good fishing, as it’s usually the warmer evenings that have some hatches going at or slightly after dark. We were sure this wasn’t the case tonight with the change in weather, so headed back to our boats to finish the kilometer or more of river we had left to float, in the dark.

We know this section of river well and we’ve floated it countless times in the dark. The river was higher and more pushy than normal though. We donned our boat lights and started out with an uneventful float. As we approached some slower frog water, we surprisingly started to see a flurry of insect activity. There were lots of caddis, but more surprisingly, there were hordes of giant mayflies, which turned out to be Brown Drakes.

Just like the presence of Green Drakes on the Credit, I wasn’t expecting Brown Drakes so early (or on such a cool evening after dark), but again, all bets are off with this year’s weather patterns. It seems like almost every hatch on the rivers are overlapping at the same time this year. Anyway, there were LOTS of Brown Drakes on the water. If you aren’t familiar with them, they’re also a very large mayfly, close to the size of the Green Drakes (ranging between size 8-10).

Steve and I were like two kids in a candy store as we glanced at the water while slowly continuing to drift downriver, paying little attention to the rest of our surroundings. This is when things started to spiral out of control.

Strike One

We were trying to capture some of the drakes on the water – and as I reached forward while sitting on my pontoon seat, I managed to slip off and plunge into a fairly deep section of river. I went in up to my chest, filling my waist-high Patagonia waders and soaking my wallet and other items in my pockets. I scrambled to get back in the boat as I couldn’t really touch ground.

Thankfully, other than getting soaked and cold, no real harm came of this. I shook it off, gathered my composure and still managed to snag a drake from the surface to observe and photograph.

Strike Two

We sort of laughed off my swim and continued downriver. Not shortly after this though, I heard Steve yelling and turned around to see him trying to save his fly rod that had got caught in a tree while drifting too close to it. That’s no joke in the fast moving waters and in the dark, but thankfully, another disaster was averted as he saved the rod. Once again, a close call, but no harm was done.

Strike Three

After waiting for Steve to free his rod and catch back up, he quickly (and unintentionally) passed me. His pontoon is the frameless type – an Outcast Stealth Pro. Dare I say, that boat is his pride and joy. It’s also very fast compared to my steel-framed Outcast Fish Cat XL-IR. So, he tends to ride ahead of me as a result.

I was putting my phone away at this point, after using it to photograph the above brown drake (yes, it has a decent macro camera!). I’d stashed the phone in my top shirt pocket, then quickly grabbed the oars as the boat was turning sideways through some fairly fast moving water. As I rowed to right the boat, I heard a loud “ka-plunk“. It took me a second to register that sound, then began wondering what it could have been. I looked all around, wondering if perhaps I had something on my lap that fell in. My panic increased as I imagined something important (but still unsure what it could be) falling into the dark depths of the river. As I was looking down, I noticed the zipper of my top shirt pocket unzipped – and EMPTY!!

My heart sank, as I realized that my $1500 phone just sank to the bottom of the river, in the pitch dark! I was at least 50 meters downstream of where it would have fallen in already and I began to frantically back paddle, to no avail. The river was very fast in this spot and there was no way to make upstream progress. Not knowing what else to do as more distance continued to add up between me and the point of entry, I foolishly jumped off my boat – thankfully this time, into water that was shallow enough to stand in. I put my headlamp on high beam and began dragging my pontoon back upstream, in the middle of the river. Deep down I knew that I had almost no hope of finding my phone, which was at least 100 meters or more upstream, in some unknown location at the bottom of the river. I could only hope that the river depth would hold and that the phone would be sitting on the bottom in such a way that my headlamp’s light might reveal its reflection.

Miraculously, for the third time this evening, I was thrown a bone. I managed to walk upstream far enough, get lucky enough to have a near perfect lie of my phone and shine my light in just the right location to see it sitting at the bottom of the river in about three feet of water. I reached down to grab it, submerging the rest of my upper body that hadn’t yet been soaked from the previous dump. The phone (Pixel 7 Pro) is waterproof and other than a warning about water in the USB port, was back in hand, unscathed and working!

Three Strikes and You’re Out?

I thought that’s how the saying goes – three strikes and you’re out. Somehow, we were still going though. We certainly weren’t laughing, but we were floored by how many chances we’d been given thus far. The river seemed to be teaching us some real lessons, that’s for sure.

I could only imagine what Steve was thinking at this point. I’d been screaming, but he was way too far downstream to know what was going on. When I finally caught back up to him and explained the situation, he could only share in the disbelief in how we’d been so unlucky (and lucky) tonight.

We were only a couple bends way from our exit point now, which we managed to carefully float back to without any more mishaps. I was freezing and soaked, but had my phone. Steve had his rod. We were in one piece!

We followed our usual routine from here, which is to first carry my (heavier) boat up to my truck and load it in the back. Then we carried Steve’s lighter boat and loaded it on top of my boat, strapping both boats to the truck with some tie down straps. We’ve done this countless times over the last couple of years and have always felt confident about the setup. It’s only a few short, quiet kilometers of travel back to the start point where Steve’s truck is parked.

However, on this particular night, something felt different. That difference was obviously all of the events that transpired earlier, but it was also fairly windy. It felt like a storm was brewing and there was an ominous feeling in the air. So, I was extra careful and made sure the boats were tied down well and that we definitely had all our gear loaded up. I drove slower than usual this time, trying to keep an eye on the back of the truck, to make sure everything stayed put. Again, I don’t usually have a care in the world when doing this.

It was pitch dark and difficult to see through the back tinted glass. As we drove slowly on the quiet highway back to the access, I thought I heard something from the back. I asked Steve to check if everything looked alright back there. We both looked, but neither of us could really see well enough to verify. I had a bad feeling, so pulled the truck over onto the shoulder. I opened the back sliding window and that bad feeling started to get worse – almost panic again. I quickly got out of the truck to check the truck bed – and Steve’s boat was GONE! It literally was no longer in the back of the truck and we couldn’t see it on the road behind us!

I’m not sure what felt worse for me at this point – seeing my $1500 phone go missing, or seeing Steve’s even more expensive boat disappear from the back of my truck. Both were intense, that’s all I can say, but Steve’s boat probably took the cake. I think we both had visions of a car or truck running it over (which would have been bad for both parties!) or it being completely mangled. I jumped in the truck and quickly made my way back up the road, being careful to not hit it myself! I was pretty far back and we were lucky enough that no vehicles had driven by yet. We spotted the boat sitting almost perfectly on the shoulder of the road, off the road itself – albeit upside down. It looked to be in one piece and upon further inspection, indeed it was. There was a busted GoPro mount and some serious beating done to a Scotty arm mount – which seemed to have absorbed a lot of the impact and lived to tell the tale! One of the front corners of the boat also looked like it hit the road and had a pretty good scuff mark, but nothing through to the inflatable pontoons thankfully.

The strap that I’d tied the boat down with tore right off his boat. I guess a big gust of wind must have lifted the boat like a sail and just snapped it off instantly. Steve was either faking things really well, or just happy to see his boat was not completely trashed. Either way, he was taking it extremely well. We gathered his seat and a couple other things that had gone flying and ended up in the middle of the road. At one point, another truck pulled over after passing by to make sure everything was ok.

This was our fourth mishap of the night and they seemed to be getting progressively worse. Needless to say, we were extremely cautious from this point on. We got ourselves sorted, tied his boat down again (this time much more reliably) and I proceed to crawl the truck back to the access. We unwound and packed everything away before convincing each to be extremely cautious on the long ride home, given all that had unfolded today. Thankfully, we did indeed make it back home safe and sound – me still damp but with my phone – Steve with his boat in one piece but a little more “used”.

They say that the vast majority of car accidents happen within 10 miles of one’s home. I managed to travel 10 hours to the middle of the Lake Superior backcountry, paddle across frigid deep lakes, sleep in a hammock in bear country, portage with 150lb of gear through mud and over hills so large that they could easily be called mountains and come out with far less scrapes than this seemingly routine and simple float down a local southern Ontario river. Other than thanking my lucky stars and being grateful that things turned out the way they did, I’m going to take the lesson mother nature gave us to heart – which is to slow down, think twice (or thrice) and never get too comfortable or complacent.

The post Debacles After Dark 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.

Let me get right to the point:

The proposed Erin Wastewater Treatment Plant is threatening to drastically impact the health of the native Brook Trout populations on the West Credit River.

This is not a new subject, but it is one that is continuing to gain traction and importance. Before attempting to give my own opinion, I highly suggest you check out the Coalition for the West Credit River. This group of concerned organizations, including Trout Unlimited, Izaak Walton Fly Fishing Club, Ontario Streams and more, have put together a wealth of factual information on the subject.

Coalition for the West Credit River: http://cwcr.ca/

If you fish the Credit River at all (and given that you’re reading my blog, I assume you do), then you know that the Credit River contains some of the healthiest remaining Brook Trout populations in southern Ontario. The West Credit River specifically, which begins at its headwaters in Erin and flows downstream to eventually meet the main river at the popular Forks of the Credit, is easily the healthiest among the entire watershed – and a major source of spawning. While this section is fairly small and cannot support a large amount of fishing pressure, I can attest to the abundant and healthy number of Brook Trout that call it home.

I want to be clear here though: while catch and release fly fishing is my ultimate pastime and the subject of this blog, this issue is far greater than simply fishing. Being extremely sensitive to water temperature and quality, Brook Trout serve as a classic indicator of aquatic ecosystem health. Brook Trout have also been wild and native to these waters for generations. The section of river directly below the proposed discharge site is a major spawning area for Brook Trout. The volume and temperature of water that would be discharged from this new plant would push already increasing river temperatures above the safe level, inhibiting successful reproduction and leading the ultimate demise of this fragile Brook Trout population.

Anglers who have fished the river for years have all witnessed the slow degradation of Credit River trout and mayfly populations over the last few decades. Most attribute this decline to poor management practices, but also to natural phenomenon and urban sprawl upstream towards the headwaters of the main branch, near Orangeville. Still, there exist healthy populations of Brook Trout above and below the Cataract that are in dire need of proper management.

These effects have been less apparent on the West Credit River to date, thanks to much more controlled growth (in the past) between Erin and Belfountain. The proposed Erin Wastewater Treatment Plant threatens to irreversibly damage and even wipe out these native fish and lead to massive expansion and growth along this section of river. Without proper planning, control, or simply prevention, the West Credit will become another casualty to the already long list of once thriving native trout rivers in Ontario.

It all sounds very grim – and it is. But don’t just take my word for it, as I am merely echoing the concerns of so many other experts, groups and organizations. Please research the matter yourself, form your own opinion and make your voice heard.

The post Concern for the West Credit River appeared first on Caffeinated Fly Fisher.

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!

The post Summer Updates appeared first on Caffeinated Fly Fisher.

The weather hasn’t exactly been ideal for mayfly hatches this season, though it’s given us some really nice water levels going into the end of spring. We did get a good run of weather in time for the drake hatch though, which started promptly on the first day of June. A number of anglers and “bug watchers” were out eagerly awaiting the beginning of the hatch and all saw good numbers of Green Drake duns that evening.

A Green Drake dun from the beginning of the 2017 hatch on the Credit River.

Compared to last year, the duns seemed fairly small on average, though the trout weren’t overly concerned about it. The pool I was fishing had several Browns interested in the emerging duns, more than can be said for most of the remainder of the hatch.

Typically the spinner (Coffin Fly) is what really gets the fish excited – and although it was too early to expect spinners, I’d tied only a single Green Drake dun for our evening fish. I brought a friend along, hoping to get him into a nice Credit River Brown. We sat for a while and simply observed, until some fish began rising in a foam patch at the back of the pool. When the rises became regular, I tied on the only dun I had and carefully placed several casts across the pool into the foam. It didn’t take long before hooking into a nice mid-sized brown that eagerly inhaled the size 8 extended body fly.

A good looking Credit River Brown Trout taken on a Green Drake Dun at the start of the hatch.

In hindsight, I should have let Ryan take the first casts, as we failed to fool any more trout for the remainder of the night (except on nymphs). Mind you, we only fished a small piece of water and had limited time before the sun went down.

A small Brown that took a Green Drake nymph.

Along with the drakes were a good amount of foxes, increasing in number as the sun faded. It’s possible the trout were more interested in the foxes, but I didn’t have any such flies with enough weight to penetrate the foam where the browns were rising.

Grey Foxes were thick for most of the drake hatch (and beyond).

When the sun did finally set and only the very odd rise could be seen at the back of the pool (and when we gave up trying to convince them to take a drake or fox imitation), I decided to try a large mouse(like) fly before calling it a night. I wasn’t expecting anything, but since there were some trout obviously looking up, I thought I’d give it a try just in case.

Well, a few casts in, as our eyes were still adjusting to the dark, a huge fish came right out of the water in the corner of the pool for my fly. In the light, the shape appeared to be that of a brown… only, it was huge… close to 30 inches was my guess. We both freaked out, thinking it was the biggest brown of our lives.

Unfortunately, if history teaches me anything about this river, it’s that when I think I’ve hooked a 30″ brown, it’s probably a Pike. This held true once again as I managed to land the fish on my 4 weight.

Another unfortunate catch on the upper Credit, briefly mistaken for a huge trout.

The next evening was similar to the first, with a large number of Green Drake duns and a few spinners later on. However, fishing was much tougher, with only a couple smaller fish hooked on a fox dry. Not many risers and much less interest both my duns and spinners. Apparently the peak activity was earlier (before 6:30 pm, which is when I arrived at the river), so perhaps I missed the better window.

A coffin fly (spinner) from the second night of the hatch.

I fished a couple more times over the next week and witnessed a couple fairly thick spinner falls, both of which started extremely late and didn’t bring any large fish to the net. It wasn’t until last Thursday, when only a few straggler spinners were left kicking around, that I hooked two more chunky, colorful browns. I caught the browns back to back blindly fishing a spinner imitation on a nice run. Considering the lack of activity, I was only half-heartedly casting and not expecting the catches – so didn’t have my camera ready. It just goes to show you though: even when trout aren’t actively rising, if there were recently big bugs on the river, short-term memory may very well be enough to trigger a strike from a decent fish.

Although the fishing wasn’t quite up to par with last year, the Green Drakes certainly made another decent appearance and it seems that they have indeed made somewhat of a comeback on the upper Credit. Unfortunately though, this is true for only a small section of the river – with the West branch still almost completely devoid of them. I suppose there’s still hope that other sections of the river may also slowly recover their populations.

Over the course of the hatch, in addition to the regular folks, I met a few new people on the river as well, including a couple friendly guys (Simon and Paul) who recognized me from the blog. It’s always great meeting like-minded anglers on the river and putting faces to names. Simon was fishing a pretty sweet setup too (the same rod and reel as me, up one weight)

From here on out, we have Isonychia and Stoneflies to look forward too, as well as some night fishing as the weather continues to warm into the summer.

The post Green Drake Hatch, 2017 appeared first on Caffeinated Fly Fisher.

Early spring was largely spent pursuing brook trout on small, quiet streams. The MNR dumped an undisclosed number of adult/broodstock Atlantic Salmon into the upper Credit this year, including some previously brook trout only sections of river. This drew an unprecedented number of new anglers to the river – some with good intentions and others, not so much. The fact that these fish were dumped into some of the smaller brookie-only waters (which were already sensitive to over-fishing and predation) had me pretty unhappy about the state of things on the Credit, so I stayed clear of that area for a while.

A small stream brook trout from early season.

I never get sick of the colors on these fish.

When I did return to fish the brookie-only section of the Credit where the Atlantics were dumped, what I found were far less brookies and instead, a bunch of atlantics and a few rainbows. The rainbows were quite unexpected as I had rarely seen them in this section of river before. I’m not sure how to explain that. My normal fish catches in this section of river from years past were something like: brookies 96%, rainbows 2%, browns 2%. This year’s visit yielded me more atlantics and rainbows than brookies. I hope I was just unlucky…

One of a couple unexpected catches in primarily brookie-only water on the Credit

There’s been no lack of rain this spring and it’s kept our rivers in a constant struggle to stabilize themselves. Whenever it seemed they were just about ready to settle down, we’d get dumped on again and start all over. This is to be expected in spring, but it did have an impact on the early insect hatches. Hendricksons in particular were not nearly as successful (from a fishing standpoint) as last year due to all the rain and corresponding temperature fluctuations.

Water level graph for the upper Credit River this spring.

As you can see by the graph above, water levels on the upper Credit have been all over the place (the blue dotted line is the average). There have been some opportunities for dry fly fishing amidst this, but there’s also been lots of opportunities for throwing big streamers. This is something that can be both a blessing and a curse.

On the plus side, big streamers catch big fish. But on the negative side, well… big streamers only catch big fish. Actually, there are rare cases where this isn’t true, but for the most part we can ignore that.

A large articulated streamer that was lost to a log jam shortly after being tied

High, off-colored water is a perfect excuse to fish big streamers and if you cover enough quality water, you’re more than likely to move some huge trout. This was the case for me, as I elicited strikes from at least a dozen large trout over several days of streamer fishing – some subtle and some extremely violent and rod bending. Unfortunately though, in all cases, I failed to hook up with the fish. One particular strike that occurred just as the fly hit the water at the back of a very big pool still haunts me daily. That fish moved more water than any I can ever recall.

My failure to hook up with fish was a stark difference from last season when I missed very few strikes on big streamers. I’ve been toying with which hook to cut off on my articulated streamers this year, leaning more towards keeping the front hook (whereas last year I was fishing the back hook). I’m not sure if this played a part, or if it was bad luck or my own error, but I accepted it as part of the challenge and risk of this type of fishing.

When the rivers were tame and fishing normally, I was back to my old ways, stalking wild trout with more delicacy and matching the hatch. Despite being ashamed that the biggest fish I caught this season so far was a hatchery-raised atlantic, I’ve certainly also caught a few memorable brown trout.

One in particular was during a recent Grey Fox hatch while fishing with a friend. There was a single trout rising in a pool we were fishing, in a slow pocket at the back of the pool. In between us and the pocket was a lot of very fast moving water, which made presenting a dry fly nearly impossible (for more than a split second). I decided to move a good distance up above the pool, putting several other pockets and an overhanging tree in between me and the fish. There was a current seam from this position, that, with some patience and many mends, could deliver my fly along the insect escalator, under the tree to the feeding fish. I managed to deliver a perfect drift over the fish and it inhaled the fly with a convincing take.

Not very big, but a beautiful Credit River brown trout and a memorable one nonetheless.

A nice Credit River brown taken on a technical Grey Fox drift.

Grey Foxes have been fairly prevalent this year on the Credit.

When the fish and bugs were inactive, going sub-surface with nymphs also yielded a few decent browns.

An otherwise handsome Credit River brown with some battle wounds.

Another medium sized plump brown taken on a nymph.

It’s good to see the river in relatively good health as of late and somewhat refreshing to be catching smaller fish and seeing lots of insect activity. The Grey Foxes are still going strong. They seem to be quite prolific this year, more so than I remember in past years (but perhaps I just missed them). Even more exciting though is the insect that overlaps the foxes and has been underway for a few days now on the Credit… the Green Drake. I’ll post more on these when the hatch is complete –  and hopefully they’ll stick around for a bit longer. With all the rain and storms we’re expected to get in the coming days, I’d hate that to result in a short-lived (and barely fished) Green Drake hatch.

The post Catching Up appeared first on Caffeinated Fly Fisher.

For the last week, I’ve been confined to a couch in my living room where I’ve relocated my computer and enough conveniences to keep me entertained. The first couple weeks of post-op will be mainly resting and icing my knee in between physiotherapy, leaving a lot of time to waste watching Netflix and messing around on my computer. It’s a long healing process, but if all goes well, I hope to be back on the water for trout opener next May, not missing a beat.

With lots of time to waste, I’ve been going through and organizing some of my old photos. As I browsed through my mess of fishing pictures, I realized how much we favor celebrating larger fish, with the smaller ones rarely making it into the spotlight. It’s understandable how we’re all drawn pictures of large fish, but it’s the rest that keep us entertained on slow days. In fact, we spend the vast majority of our time on the water catching small fish, helping us learn and fine-tune our fly fishing skills so that perhaps one day we’ll come back to catch grown-up versions of the very same fish we release.

So this post is dedicated to this season’s smaller, often overlooked unsung heroes of fly fishing. Without these little guys, fly fishing would a whole lot more dull. As it happens, these fish by and large inhabit the most picturesque environments that can be found. In Southern Ontario, our Brook Trout are the real gems of our cold water rivers and it’s no surprise that most of the fish here are Brookies.

Colorful small stream brook trout caught on a new budget Echo Carbon 2wt rod.

I picked up a new Echo Carbon 7’3″ 2wt rod this year specifically for Brook Trout on small streams. Given the budget price, it was a no-brainer purchase. As you would imagine, it’s super light and ultra fun for small Brookies, but it’s also very well constructed for the cost. At the other end of the price spectrum, I purchased a new 2016 Chevy Silverado this year, making my trips to the river much more roomy and enjoyable. It’s still begging for a drift boat to be towed behind it and/or a pontoon to be tossed in the back though.

My new toys: an Echo Carbon 2wt on my new Chevy Silverado.

I put a good number of fishing kilometers on the truck this season, although most of my Brookie fishing happened earlier in the year when the water levels were higher. Most smaller brookie rivers and tributaries were unfishable from mid-season all the way to closer due to the abysmal water levels. Thankfully though, much of the the Brook Trout waters of the upper Credit maintained a fishable amount of water and I was able to sample some of its excellent fall brookie fishing before the season ended.

Another colorful September Brook Trout, this one from the Credit River.

As for the smaller streams which were absolutely teeming with native brookies in the early season, they were largely overrun with Atlantic Salmon after the MNR dumped tens of thousands into them. When the water level drops out, the hatchery raised Atlantics seem to very aggressively hold in the best spots on these streams, likely driving Brookies into less ideal water. On the rare occasion that I visited these streams later in the season, I was hard-pressed to find Brook Trout.

Stocked Atlantic Salmon dominating a once pure native Brookie Southern Ontario stream.

In addition the the Atlantics overrunning these small Brook Trout streams, it’s no secret that they are also very abundant in the wild Brown Trout waters of the upper Credit. It’s become more common to catch larger (16″+) Brown Trout than small ones, which is definitely not what you would expect. Water that is typical for small Brown Trout is similarly overrun with stocked Atlantics and it’s become exceedingly difficult to find and catch small browns. This season I managed to catch a few however, which was an improvement from the previous season. I’d heard similar reports from other anglers as well, so hopefully my experience was not just a fluke.

A small Credit River Brown Trout, always good to see.

Going back to the Brook Trout… something I have noticed that is very interesting about them is how distinctive Brookies from different streams will often look. They seem to adapt to the water and bottom color of the streams they live in. I suppose it’s just a form of natural selection that is common among all trout, but it’s especially noticeable and beautiful in brookies. If you browse the brookie photos on my site (or even just in this post), it’s fairly easy to pick out which fish were caught in the same streams.

I spend the majority of each season fishing small streams for Brookies and in the process catch hundreds of fish, so it’s impractical to take pictures of all of them. While I’d love to have a collection of 16″+ Brook Trout pics that rivals my 20″+ Brown Trout, I’m very far from accomplishing that goal. We still have healthy populations here in Southern Ontario, but our Brookie rivers and streams are simply not taken care of like they need to be. Most streams still allow anglers to keep fish and those that are catch & release are poached heavily. Add to this heavy stocking of hatchery fish and global warming – and catching a couple 12″ Brookies in a season has become a real accomplishment. Rarely a Brookie pushing 14″ may be caught and I know for a fact that there are still Brookies equaling or exceeding 16″ in our local streams (I have seen them!), but they are extremely rare and nearly impossible to fool. I equate catching such a fish on a fly equal to catching a 30″ resident brown trout by today’s standards.

At any rate, these fish are still fairly plentiful in Southern Ontario and they are as wild and beautiful as ever. Each one is as diverse and colorful as trout come and they are always a pleasure to catch. Below is a small slideshow of some of my Brook Trout fishing from the beginning and end of the 2016 season.

Click to view slideshow.

The post The Unsung Heroes of Fly Fishing appeared first on Caffeinated Fly Fisher.

Still, on the upper Credit River, solid numbers of both large and small trout were being caught throughout the season. Cool evenings and the many cold springs that feed the Credit kept temperatures safe for much of the season. Of course, in extremely low, clear water with little bug activity, fishing becomes difficult during daylight hours. More often than not, the fish are completely inactive – hiding in undercut banks, vegetation and under logs, waiting for the cover of dark. This is especially true for Brown Trout and it happens to be ideal conditions for night fishing.

Fishing past dark on a brighter than normal evening, thanks to a near-full harvest moon.

For the most part, my night fishing has become less intentional than in years past. Aside from a few planned late-night outings with friends, most of my night fishing has simply been the result of fishing a couple hours before dark, then refusing to leave after that magic half-hour window when the action just starts to pick up. Some years are better than others and I can recall a couple seasons ago spending a significant amount of time fishing past dark with little to no results. This has been no such year.

A large Brown Trout caught after dark on the closing day of trout season.

The above fish was a fitting close to the 2016 trout season, caught shortly past dark in a pool that an hour earlier failed to show any sign of life. I’d spent at least 30 minutes fishing the pool before dark, with a variety of flies at different depths, using both floating and sinking lines. On the way back to my truck, I stopped at the pool again and hooked into this brute almost immediately. This was probably my largest fish of the season – too large to fit in my net. I estimated it to be about 24 inches.

I’ve probably caught more large Browns this season than I have in the previous few years combined, despite spending less time fishing at night. I attribute this to the increased confidence of knowing where big trout live, a better understanding of how they behave, and as usual, an ounce of luck. After a small bout of success when I first began night fishing a few years ago, I naively made the assumption that simply showing up past dark with big flies would put me into big fish. I won’t lie, it definitely helps stack the odds in your favor, but there are lots of other things that have to go right for you to hook into a big wily Brown Trout at night.

This became all too clear to me this season, after taking some friends out past dark a handful of times in an attempt to get them into some big fish. At first, I’d take them to my favorite holes and give them absolute guarantees that they would hook into some 20+ inch fish. When we left empty-handed, I’d blame it on timing or simple bad luck. However, when our next few outings produced the same results (yet I consistently caught fish by myself in-between our trips), I began questioning the real reasons for our lack of success.

I suppose it’s possible that they just didn’t have the skills required to catch those fish. But I was there telling them what to use, when and where to cast and how to retrieve. So if that were the case, I guess that’d make me a pretty bad guide. I do believe that they contributed to the difficulty, but not due to any lack of skill. When we fished together, I also did significantly worse, usually leaving with at most a single fish.

A hard-earned Brown Trout caught after a couple hours of night fishing with my friend Ryan.

Something that too many anglers take for granted is the need for extreme stealth when in the presence of big trout. When Ryan and I were out fishing past dark, we may not have realized it, but together we were making our presence all too known to those smart old browns. They may become voracious feeding machines at night, but they still have all the built-in defense mechanisms that granted them the long life they now have. Two silhouettes instead of one, the increased noise from our chitter-chatter, a few extra false casts and splashes on the water and extra light from two peoples’ headlamps while tying on new flies or navigating in the dark… these all create significant disadvantages.

To increase my chances of success, I make sure to arrive quietly and take some time to let the pool settle before attempting to fish (in case my arrival alerted any fish). My first casts, especially when the sun hasn’t completely set or when the moon is bright, are from behind cover or at the very least on my knees. I prefer a few extra false casts over letting the fly hit the water and then lifting it up to cast again due to a short cast. In fact, one of the worst mistakes I see is making a cast that is too short, then picking it back up immediately to fix the cast. You’re far better simply fishing out the short cast than trying to fix it after it lands. Also, keeping the lights off for as long as possible and ensuring they are pointed away from the water for the few times you may need to change a fly is paramount. The last point also helps your eyes to adjust to the darkness, greatly increasing your ability to cast accurately.

Put all these things together, along with a good selection of flies that will bring out the worst in big trout and you have a recipe for getting into some truly huge fish. Below are a few more of the fish that I got into after dark this season:

Click to view slideshow.

I’ve mentioned it before, but photographing fish in the dark is also a challenge. Having a friend makes this easier, but even then, the camera and lighting need to be setup properly and ready to go when you need them. It’s very difficult to fuss around with this stuff in the dark, not to mention after landing a fish. The absolute worst thing you can do is spend time messing around with cameras at the expense of a quick release. Below is just one of many examples I have of what happens when your setup isn’t perfect.

Yikes… an example of how to take a really bad fish photo at night!

Most of my night shots are still quite poor, but I’m slowly figuring things out. When I plan to take photos fishing alone, I now have a mini-tripod setup next to me ready to go with a custom timer of about 5 seconds. To snap a photo, all I need to do is turn it on and press a button, without having to take the fish out of the water. Even then though, forgetting to turn off the flash or a headlamp often results in disaster.

I suppose I should mention one last fish that I caught at night this season. This one was actually caught on the same night as my previous post (Pike Pool). As mentioned there, I’d been hunting a Pike that broke me off three times the day prior. I eventually caught the fish before moving to a different pool to cast for browns after dark. In between two big browns from the slideshow above, I was broke off yet again by what seemed to be another Pike. I put my wire leader on, cast to the same spot and pulled my second Pike of the evening out of the Credit.

The second Pike caught on the same night; and my third Pike caught on the Credit this year.

The post The Night Bite appeared first on Caffeinated Fly Fisher.

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).

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Since the Green Drakes in early June, I’ve been back to the Credit just a handful of times to fish for browns. I went into lots of detail about the Green Drake hatches in my last post, so I won’t reiterate that here. However, I did manage to fool one more nice brown on a Green Drake spinner during the tail end of that hatch. It was a stronger, heavier and more colorful fish than the previous ones I’d caught during the hatch – and it put a nice bend in my 4 weight.

A large Brown Trout from the tail end of the Green Drake hatches on the Credit River

Speaking of my 4 weight… I managed to break it last month while fishing the Credit. I was never particularly gentle with the rod (Hardy Zenith #4) and I suspect it may have suffered some prior damage where it broke. It’s been sent back to Hardy for repairs and I’m hoping it won’t take too long to return, as I’m left to fish with a 7′ #3 and 9′ #6, neither of which I’m overly fond of for brown trout on the medium sized rivers I fish.

When I caught the above fish, the Drakes had thinned out considerably. There were a few still kicking around that evening and some big fish (like the one above) were still keying in on them, but it was the last I would see of the Drakes for 2016.

A Coffin Fly from the end of the Green Drake hatch

Gray Foxes provided some opportunities when the Drakes were less active. During one such window of heavy Gray Fox activity intermixed with some of the larger insects, I tied on a very old Gray Fox dry fly that a friend of my Dad tied for me back when I first started fly fishing. It had barely been fished and was still in great shape – and while the hook seemed sharp after all those years, I managed to pull it out of the jaws of another large trout that it fooled and momentarily hooked.

A Gray Fox Dun, from a short-lived but thick hatch that brought up a few fish

By mid-June, temperatures had risen and there was much less insect activity on the water. We were in between hatches on the Credit and although I was hoping for Isonychia, a small to moderate number of large stoneflies were the main morsels that were now providing opportunity for feeding trout.

A large stonefly from the Credit River

On the evening I broke my 4 weight, after walking back to my car to exchange the broken rod with my 3 weight, I fished back down through some water that failed to produce even a sign of fish earlier. In typical fashion, as daylight faded, water that was seemingly devoid of trout hours before suddenly gave way to rising fish. The brown below took a size 8 stonefly dry from such a spot just before calling it a night – giving me at least one memory other than a broken rod to leave the river with.

A Brown Trout taken on a size 8 stonefly dry just before dark

A few days later, I returned to the same location with my trusty 3 weight and had a similarly quiet evening of fishing with little bug activity. In an attempt to salvage the outing, I decided to chuck some large streamers (because, that’s what 3 weights are made for, right?) through a big pool that failed to produce any fish on the previous trip. After casting downstream and across didn’t work, I switched to casting upstream and stripping down to fish the streamer deeper. The result was another hefty Credit River brown with a heavily damaged jaw – but otherwise beautiful.

Credit River Brown Trout with damaged jaw

I haven’t been back to the Credit since the heat wave and severe lack of rain moved in, though I did night fish the Grand for the first time a couple weeks ago with a friend, where I caught an unexpected Walleye (apparently they are quite common on the Upper Grand) and a 17″ Brown. I’m planning to head to the Credit tomorrow for a night fish as well, which I imagine should be fairly productive given the warm days we’ve been having.

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