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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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The Grand River was quiet in more ways than one last week

Last week was a reminder of just how mysterious the Grand River can be. It varies between one of the easiest and most difficult rivers to fish at times. I wonder how much of this has to do with it being a stocked river. I was actually watching In The Loop earlier this week and they were fishing stocked rivers and discussing how difficult they can sometimes be due to the different feeding habits and behaviours of stocked fish over wild fish. There are other factors at play on the Grand as well though, not the least of which is the fact that it’s a tailwater fishery and highly susceptible to the will of Shand Dam. At times like this though, I’m not sure whether to call it challenging, or impossible. There are some nearby freestone wild trout rivers that, while having much less dense trout populations and being quite challenging, are certainly more stable and predictable.

One angler that I talked to on the Grand guessed that the problem was a lack of food in the river: that perhaps the high flows had washed everything downstream. However, every rock I picked up was teeming with caddis larva. I couldn’t entice a strike with these nymphs in various styles, sizes and depths, nor with any other nymphs or streamers I had at my disposal.

Caddis Larva like this were abundant, but the fish didn’t seem to be eating them

Thankfully, Brook Trout have been a bit more cooperative than the Browns, which is to be expected for this time of year I suppose. If you fly fish, I’m sure you’ve driven over your share share of bridges, wondering what the tiny streams and ditches below them might contain. Well, I finally decided to stop at one such bridge last week, after driving past it dozens of times prior. My gut feel had always been that this little stream likely wouldn’t contain much and would be a waste of time.

Small stream that I decided to explore after driving past it many times

Before setting up my rod, I walked down to the little body of water to scout it out. It was crystal clear and quite shallow – I figured if there were any fish in there, I should be able to spot them. After a couple minutes of carefully sneaking around and being unable to see any signs of life, I headed back to the car and debated whether to fish. I decided that I aught to at least give it a try, otherwise I’d keep wondering every time I drove past it. I setup my 3 weight, grabbed a box of flies and tippet and headed back down to the stream.

Although it wasn’t dry fly season, I figured shallow water, small stream and brookies were a good enough combination to fish one anyway. Being careful to not spook any fish, I crouched a few feet back from the bank and began casting my trusty red humpy to the top of a decent looking run. There was little flow, so getting a good drift wasn’t a problem. After a number of drifts without any strikes, my hopes were beginning to sink. I moved a few steps downstream, took another cast and was startled when a nice sized fish slammed my dry fly. It’s not that the fish was all that large, but I was expecting at most a 5-6″ brookie, if anything at all. The fish I pulled in on this tiny stream with my 3 weight far exceeded my expectations!

Nice looking Brook Trout to start things off on an unknown small stream

I’d never been so excited to catch a Brook Trout of this size. I spent the next couple hours exploring up and downstream, involving some serious bushwhacking – and hooking into a few more smaller brookies. Looking back, it seems inexplicable that I hadn’t stopped to fish this stream before. I don’t think I’ll be making the same mistake in the future. It’s so rewarding to find these types of little spots and figure them out all on your own. It certainly made up for my lacklustre fishing on the Grand.

The next week is filled with predictions of rain and thunderstorms, so unless the weather man is wrong again, there’s a good chance the Grand will be back in trouble. Might be a good time to hit some more small streams for Brookies, or to try out my new membership to Glen Haffy.

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