On my first visit, unknowing of what the river would hold, I decided to fish upstream. It was a warm, calm day and the river was fairly wide and shallow here, with some nice riffles and runs and lots of small boulders for fish to hold behind. Overall, the combination of easy wading and fairly easy casting and drifts was a welcome change. The main challenge here was presenting a fly upstream in the clear shallow water, where the fish were spooked extremely easily.

I hooked into two browns almost immediately, the first which I lost after it unexpectedly ran at me and I failed to keep enough tension on the line. The second was gently sipping bugs off the surface under a fallen tree before my yellow stimulator fooled it.

Nice little Brown Trout caught beneath a fallen tree branch

As I worked my way upstream, I caught a few more fish of similar size. Surprisingly, there were a number of very nice looking pockets beside and beneath larger boulders, what you’d call ideal / “A” water. In almost all of these pockets though, I failed to bring fish to the surface. Perhaps going subsurface here would have done the trick, but trying to present a nymph or streamer cast upstream directly below a boulder is pretty tricky, especially in this super clear water. Instead, most of my fish were caught in the shallower “B” water – basically, water you’d expect to hold a few fish but with less depth and structure.

I eventually came to a nice looking run that was below a sharp bend in the river. I began carefully covering the run with my casts, working from the outside in, to prevent fish from seeing the fly line before my fly. I missed a couple decent rises before landing a slender brown at the bottom of the run.

The first fish landed at the bottom end of a nice run

Around the middle of the run, the river narrowed and deepened a bit. If there were larger fish in this section, I figured they’d be here or in the nice looking pool up ahead. I stripped several more feet of line out of my reel, to present as long a cast as possible so not to land my fly directly on top of or behind a fish that might be holding there. I laid out my dry fly at the top of the run and watched in anticipation as it floated drag free towards the prime water. As the long silhouette of a trout rose up slowly from the bottom towards the fly, I recall time slowing down. The fish examined the fly as both it and the fly drifted backwards with the current, until it opened its mouth to inhale the fly and time sped back up.

That’s how I remember the take and although I catch trout regularly on the dry fly, it’s rare indeed that such perfect conditions come together to produce such a memorable rise. The crystal clear water, long cast, perfect drift, anticipation, stalking shadow and visible take.

A nice Brown Trout landed after a very memorable take

In all the excitement, when I stood back up after releasing the fish, I was rewarded with a leg full of water. I was wearing a brand new pair of Dan Bailey hip waders and I’d forgotten that you can’t bend down in the water with them like you can with chest high waders! A bit of water wasn’t going to put a damper on my day though, so after removing my boot and wader leg and emptying out the water, I got back in the water and made my way toward the bend in the river upstream.

The sharp bend produced a deep hole, along with a large foam-filled back eddy. If history had taught me anything, this hole was guaranteed to hold at least a couple large fish. Sadly though and to my surprise, after many unsuccessful casts, darkness was already approaching and I hadn’t seen a fish from the hole yet. Since the wade back downstream was an easy one and the sun was already setting, I figured I’d wait a few more minutes and strip a big Gurgler through the hole a few times after dark. My luck wouldn’t change though and I eventually left the excellent looking hole, puzzled. I certainly wasn’t disappointed though, not after a successful and memorable day on a new stretch of water – I was just, puzzled.

The post More Exploring appeared first on Caffeinated Fly Fisher.

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

Grand River

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

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

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

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

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

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

Credit River

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Stillwaters

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

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

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

CB Stocker: Another simple and effective streamer for trout

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

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

The post Preparations appeared first on Caffeinated Fly Fisher.

I figured I would take the opportunity to get out for some night fishing over the Labour Day weekend, while the water is still warm enough. The weather wasn’t exactly ideal, with rain and thunderstorms on and off the entire weekend. I’m no meteorologist or expert when it comes to weather and its effect on fish, but there are a number of theories about how weather and barometric pressure affects fish activity. While it’s convenient to use lousy weather as an excuse for not catching fish, I can only confirm that fishing was indeed difficult.

Driving into some ominous looking clouds

Saturday, I decided to try a spot that I was relatively unfamiliar with. I’ve fished the section a few times during the day, so I know it had some nice water. However, I had never spent time scoping out exactly which holes would be good to throw flies at after dark, or how exactly to approach those holes. The result was me fumbling around in the dark trying to find a way to get into a favourable casting position when I could barely see. Needless to say, I had no luck Saturday night. Strike one.

Lesson: When night fishing, make sure you have a plan of exactly what water you’re going to fish and how you’re going to fish it.

Sunday, I was going to play it safe and head to a well known spot – where I have plenty of experience night fishing. The weatherman was calling for a small chance of thunder showers, but it didn’t look serious and considering his track record of forecasting weather the past couple weeks, I decided to test my luck. I drove to the Credit after dinner and no sooner than I put my waders and boots on, it started to rain. It was raining lightly at first, so I put my rain jacket on and continued to gear up. Just as I walked away from my car, it began pouring. Assuming it would last only a short while, I got back in my car and waited for it to pass. A few minutes later, my buddy sent me a text saying there was a tornado in Fergus, heading north east (i.e. where I was). Not believing him, I did a quick search on my phone and sure enough, there was a funnel cloud spotted in Fergus. I started the car and drove back home. Strike two.

Lesson: Listen to the weatherman.

Monday, the forecast was looking a bit better, other than the fact that it was cold and windy – typical post storm conditions, not usually associated with good fishing. Nevertheless, I was determined to make up for the last couple nights and headed to the spot I intended to fish the night prior. Other than a light sprinkle later in the evening, the weather participated. After about an hour of casting a Gurgler after dark, I hooked up with a nice sized Brown Trout. Unfortunately, I think I didn’t set the hook well enough and lost him after a small fight.

Lesson: Big flies don’t hook themselves in big trout. Set the hook with some authority!

I no doubt spooked the pool a bit during the previous hook up, but was determined to stay until at least one fish made its way to my net. I tried several sizes and colours of Gurglers and I could not entice another rise in the next hour or so. On top of that, I was beginning to suffer from twisting tippet (after re-tying my leader a couple times already). At about 10:30 pm, just about ready to give up, I decided to try one last fly: a Foam Mouse. A couple casts in produced a violent take and this time I remembered to set the hook. The result was this nice Brown Trout. Third time’s the charm!

Decent Credit River Brown Trout, taken on a large foam mouse

The post Fall is in the Air appeared first on Caffeinated Fly Fisher.

I still remember a few relaxing nights on the deck where we would repeatedly hear huge splashes in that hole – a big brown smashing prey no doubt. It was after this that I realized just how aggressive these fish get when the sun goes down. A couple years later I caught my first 20+” fish in that very hole after dark, on a big mouse pattern. I lost it before I was able to get it to the net, but I still consider it my first real night fishing success.

Night fishing is so popular out there that Gates Au Sable Lodge began hosting an annual Midnight Fly Fishing Derby, where pairs of anglers head out for an evening fishing tournament in hopes of landing the biggest fish.

Since then, I’ve been doing a bit of night fishing back home in Southern Ontario. Last weekend was my first real chance this year and it was no let down. I landed an 18-20″ fish and lost 2 other similarly sized fish in the span of about an hour.

18-20″ Brown caught after dark on a Southern Ontario river

The same rules apply here as they do in Michigan… huge browns come out of hiding about half an hour after the sun completely sets. Here’s are a few things that I’ve found increase my odds when fishing at night for big browns.

1. Use big flashy flies.
I have no doubt that casting a standard dry fly or streamer will catch fish. However I’ve found that consistently catching larger fish is both easier and more fun with a large (up to size 2-4) top water fly like a Gurgler or Mouse. With these flies, not only are they easier to see (or feel), but you generally strip them in and don’t have to worry much about getting that perfect drift or presentation. They also disturb the surface enough to attract predatory fish from all around.

2. Use darker colors.
The smaller the fly, the more important this is. When I fish a Gurgler, I don’t bother with darker colors as I prefer fishing a bright/white fly that is easier to see. A size 2 fly is large enough and disturbs the water enough that the fish are going to see and/or hear it regardless. If you’re fishing smaller dry flies however, you want to be using a preferably black fly which creates a more visible silhouette against the night sky. This seemed counter intuitive to me at first since black is much more difficult for the angler to see. However, we’re looking down from above – a completely different viewpoint than the fish. I’ve heard it described as washing your fly if you try to fish a white dry fly at night.

3. Shorten your leader and use larger tippet.
I learned this lesson the hard way, more than once. Since you’re casting (almost) blindly, you will be dealing with line tangles from time to time. Having a shorter leader definitely helps here. On top of that, the fish are not shy at night and there’s no need to keep your 10-12 foot leaders and tiny tippet. In fact, when I know there are big fish around, I have been going down as low as 4-6 foot 2x tippet. When a huge brown smashes a top water fly as you’re stripping it in, especially when you don’t see it happen, it’s easy for them to snap off even 4x tippet (I’ve had this happen).

4. Know the water and get into a favorable casting position.
Don’t try to wade a river like you would during the day. Pick a hole that looks like it holds a lot of fish and stay put. If you really know the river well, you might be able to move carefully between a few holes, but often you can spend a lot of time at a single location at night. If you’re stripping top water flies, cast downstream and strip them back upstream. This is a very forgiving way to cast at night and accuracy is not too important. I’ve also had success dead drifting flies, especially mice, though it requires a bit more practice to get a feel of where your fly is landing when you can barely see.

The post Night Fishing Season appeared first on Caffeinated Fly Fisher.

My wife graciously agreed to let me spend way too much time on the water this past weekend, to finish off the trout season. I took Friday off work and managed to get out for three consecutive days, all of which were spent on different sections of my favourite local river. By the way, you’ll notice that I rarely mention river names or locations. This is on purpose, in an effort to avoid random lazy people from typing a couple words into Google and going away with sensitive and hard earned fishing locations. If you really want to know where I fish… well, I probably won’t tell you unless you’re family or friend  But, you’re more than welcome to ask.

Anyway, on with the report!

Friday, September 28th

Friday was supposed to be a full day of fishing, but I slept in a bit more than I would have liked and as usual, I needed to do some last-minute fly tying to top up my box. The main ties included a bunch of Red Humpy dry flies (which are always productive on this river), as well as a number of Simulators and a couple Gartside Gurglers for a bit of night fishing.

Lots of Stimulators in sizes 12-14 would be the main go-to fly during the days

Gartside Gurgler (size 6) for hopefully enticing some hungry Browns at night

I ended up leaving later Friday afternoon and headed to a favourite stretch of river, where I would wade for a few hours and eventually settle into a nice piece of water for some night fishing. This area is very picturesque to begin with, but add to it fall colours and it’s paradise. Driving up was definitely enough to put me in the mood:

Fall colours on the way to the river

The river was virtually empty, as usual. I saw one other angler at the access point and he was headed down another section than I was. I had the river basically all to myself for the remainder of the day.

I fished upstream for a few hours. The day fishing wasn’t overly productive, but it was decent. A number of small browns were caught in the 8-10 inch range. After a while, all the brown trout in this size start looking identical to each other, so I’ve basically stopped taking photos of them. I did manage to hook into a nicer (14-16″) brown that was holding in a small piece of slow moving water behind a fallen tree. It was a somewhat tricky spot to cast to with faster moving water beside and below it, but with a single drag-free cast, he slammed my Red Humpy. Unfortunately, one leap and a headshake later and my barbless hook came loose.

A nice brown was hooked and then lost in the little holding area behind this fallen tree

A couple more small fish were caught (and a couple lost) before dark began to set in. I equipped a headlamp, made my way to the spot I would settle into for a couple hours of night fishing, then waited for it to get dark enough for the big browns to come out. I was stripping Gurglers and foam mice. About an hour of fishing and I had a few mediocre splashes by some bantam weight browns – but they all either missing their target, or change their minds at the last moment. Then I changed two things:

1. Changed from a size 6 Gurgler to a size 2.
2. Started stripping faster.

The first cast that combined these two changes resulted in a tremendous take. I had him on for line for about 15 seconds, then my hook popped out… again a barbless hook, but I have a feeling I simply didn’t set the hook hard enough this time.

I thought I had the fish on long enough to spook the pool, but a couple casts later proved me wrong. I made sure to set the hook this time and it seemed like I was in for a good fight. This was a much bigger fish than the last one, likely 20″+. Unfortunately, my clumsiness would be my downfall yet again. I had too much line out and as I fumbled around in the dark trying to get the line out from under my feet and onto my reel, he leapt with a fierce head shake and snapped off my 4x tippet

Again, I quickly learned from my mistakes and decided to make two final changes:

1. Changed from 4x tippet to 3x flourocarbon tippet: These big trout, in this light, are obviously not too picky about tippet size, or fly size for that matter. In fact, I’m sure I could get away with 2x.
2. Made sure not to trim my knots too close (I had a feeling this caused my leader to tippet knot to break).

I missed a bunch more fish that night, or more likely, they missed (or dodged) my fly. I did manage to hook into and land one good fish, though not as large as the one lost before it.

Decent brown trout landed after several botched hook-ups before it

Saturday, September 29th

On Saturday, I decided to hunt Brook Trout as my trip the week prior served to wet my appetite with some nice looking brookies in full fall colours. I managed to get out at a much more respectable time (before noon), although I would have to skip the night fishing due to some unexpected rain and lack of proper rain gear.

Fishing was unexpectedly tough and I had to really work for the fish. I don’t mind though, as time on the water is rewarding even without catching fish. In fact, I probably walked more than I fished on Saturday, deciding to venture further downstream than I ever have in the past, where there are no access points and very infrequently fished water. This part of the river is slightly smaller than the brown trout water and is also a bit prettier.

Narrow stretch of brookie water

Brookie water: a bend in the river with some nice holding areas for trout

In total just a handful of fish were caught, mostly on Stimulators and a few on an Isonychia nymph – most were in the 7-8″ range. I actually experimented with a size 6 Gurgler for a couple minutes just before leaving… it was still light out and I had absolutely no expectation for it to work, especially on this brook trout water where the average fish size is much smaller. I was shocked however when a nice brookie slashed at my Gurgler only a few casts in! Not sure exactly how big it was, but by the size of the splash and sound it made, I’m guessing it was well over 12″. Fish missing this fly seems to be an extremely common occurrence, that’s for sure…

Several Brook Trout like this in the 8″ range were caught Saturday

Another brookie: small, but always fun on a light rod

Sunday, September 30th

Truthfully, I wasn’t supposed to fish on Sunday. My wife had planned to go to a cooking show in Toronto and I was staying home to spend some well deserved time with the kids. I was completely fine with this, especially since I was able to put in so many hours the previous two days and the forecast was originally showing rain Sunday.

The plan was for my wife to be gone most of the day – coming home at dinner time or later. So, I was surprised when she opened the door at 3:00 pm, which was much earlier than we had expected her back. At this point I had spent several hours with the kids and was feeling a little less guilty about my fishing the previous two days, so I got the idea in my head that I might get a chance to sneak out for one final try at evening fishing. Surprisingly, my amazingly understanding wife was OK with this.

Even better, the weatherman lied, again… it was sunny with a few clouds all day. Although I had clearance to leave, I wasn’t in much of a rush and decided to spend 2.5 more hours at home with the kids. Finally, when playtime was done and everyone was heading inside for the night, I left for a few more hours of alone time on my favourite river.

Last wade down the river for 2012

By the time I arrived, suited up and walked in, it was about 6:30 pm – so I had under 1 hour before dark. Needless to say, I spent only a short amount of time casting some dry flies in some runs and riffles, where I had a few rises from some browns. But it was the night fishing I was really here for – I felt like I had finally put the pieces together Friday night and was ready to land some big browns.

While the theme of fish slashing at my fly and missing definitely kept up, I managed to lose a single fish and land two others that I hooked into. They were both caught on a size 2 Gurgler and one of the fish was most likely my largest Brown to date. I haven’t figured out exactly how big he was yet, but it should be easy when I get around to it since I have a shot of him next to my fly rod. He was definitely over 20″ and in fact, he was much too big for my net, so I had to land him by hand.

A respectable smaller brown trout landed Sunday night.

Big brown trout: last fish of trout season 2012 and probably my new record trout!

Releasing the big fish of the night.

2012 definitely went out on a positive note and left me itching for 2013, which is 7 long months away… One last shot of the hero Gurgler that took so much abuse over the last few days and lived to tell the tale.

The hero Gurgler that was chewed on by many a trout this past weekend

The post 2012 Trout Closing Weekend 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…

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