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.

Unlike the rivers, this season has started off pretty slow for me (due the the winding down part mentioned above). In the time I have found to get out, I’ve stuck close to home – repeating my tradition of avoiding the more overcrowded rivers in favor of small stream brookies.

Fishing small streamers for brookies on a frigid opening day.

Opening day was cold and mostly unproductive, at least for the first couple of hours. We didn’t get out until late afternoon and opted to fish some familiar brookie water, which showed some signs of other anglers having fished it before us. It was cold enough to warrant gloves and toques and we were rewarded with only a couple small brookies.

First brookie of the year. Sometimes you have to take what you can get.

With little to show for our efforts, we got back in the truck and headed to another spot that we frequent less (and seems to receive less fishing pressure as well). The stream here was in excellent condition due to the higher than normal spring water levels and the brookies were more cooperative. We hooked into a few good fish before the day was over… Ryan in particular landed a couple nice brookies in some of the better holes, all of which were quite fond of a tiny black bugger.

A nice small stream Brookie Ryan hooked on opening day.

Fast forward a couple weeks and the weather has taken a turn for the better, with just enough rain and temperatures high enough to kick-start some bug activity. I made a last minute decision to hit up another brookie stream for a couple hours after work, for no other reason than to wind down from a busy day. It turned out to be a wise decision, as I was met with near ideal conditions: perfect water levels and clarity, a flurry of Hendrickson spinners and a lot of hungry brook trout!

Lots of Hendrickson activity had the brookies eager to eat.

I fished the same water a week earlier and had left fairly disappointed – having caught only a single wild brookie and an ugly stocked trout that seemed to have somehow survived the winter. It’s water that typically fished well regardless of conditions and I wondered if the health of the stream had deteriorated.

My worries were put to rest on this day however, with nearly two dozen wild brookies caught in the span of an hour and a half. I fished a beaten up Hendrickson from last year, with a yellow egg sac to match the naturals. It was good enough to fool them, as I quickly hooked into my nicest brookie of the season so far.

An excellent small stream brookie, unusually chunky and colorful for this time of year.

In addition to the bigger brookies, I was happy to have also caught a number of tiny overzealous brookies. Along with the many I caught, I missed countless others that thrashed carelessly at my fly – which was far too large for them to take on. Seeing these fish in such numbers is a great sign that the stream is still in very good health.

One of many small brookies learning valuable life lessons via catch and release.

As the evening progressed and the sunlight dwindled, I switched out my now beaten up and difficult to see Hendrickson for a bushier Red Humpy. I tend to have a lot of luck with this fly, especially during Hendrickson or Isonychia hatches. It has brought up some large brook and brown trout for me, when other flies were less productive. To be honest, it probably has a lot more to do with confidence than it does the fly.

A pretty brook trout (aren’t they all?) taken on a Red Humpy later in the evening.

One more good sized brookie that went bonkers for a Red Humpy.

It’s nice to see bug season in full swing now. With the long weekend approaching (and some free time to spare), I’ll likely get out a couple times for Brookies in the coming days. I’ll also finally be spending some much-needed time chasing Brown Trout as well.

The post Early Season Brookies 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Green Drake spinner imitation, tied earlier that day

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Trout season kicked off a couple weeks ago and I’ve been uncharacteristically slow to take advantage of it. I injured my knee over the winter (torn ACL) and thanks to our great free healthcare system, I’ve made little to no progress in getting it treated or even looked at yet. I’m sure those who know me are sick of hearing me complain about it. Anyway, it’s had me sidelined and will no doubt continue to affect the type of fishing I’m able to do this season. That said, I’m pretty stubborn and have already found myself scaling beaver dams and hiking terrain much more rugged than I should have been.

My few outings so far have once again been dedicated to brook trout on small streams, something I just never get tired of. For me, the allure of these fish lies in their diversity and in the environments they inhabit. Small, cold, clean headwaters streams that are often overgrown and difficult to present a fly to provide a constant challenge. Every fish is a treat as no two are alike and while the smaller fish are usually eager to take a fly, the largest southern Ontario brookies are truly elusive.

I fished the last couple evenings and at times the Hendrickson hatches were very thick. In fact, they seem to be the thickest I can recall in the last several years. Unfortunately, I haven’t been on the water for a really good spinner fall yet, but the fish are keying in on them nonetheless.

Hendrickson from a fairly thick hatch on a small stream.

Each evening has produced a dozen or so trout, with many missed rises and brook trout juveniles attacking my fly with reckless abandon. At times the abundance of smaller fish can be detrimental to catching a larger fish that is holding in the same water, since the smaller fish will dart to your fly without a second thought. The result is the larger fish being put down after hooking the smaller one. This has certainly been the case a few times already this season for me.

An average, colorful small stream brookie from the weekend.

I also had a run-in with yet another Pike in a large slow hole on one of my favorite local streams. I was casting to brookies when I noticed something very large swaying back and forth at the bottom of the pool. From its long slender body, it was immediately obvious that it was a Pike: around 5-6 lbs. In an attempt to remove it from the stream, I cut the tippet off my leader and managed to sink a large streamer in front of the pike’s nose and hook it. It wasted no time in abusing my flimsy 3 weight and excess fly line slack and wrapped my line around a sunken tree. Needless to say, it’s still terrorizing the brookies in that hole.

I’m hoping to get some Hendrickson spinners tied in the next day or so and get back out while the hatches are still good. I may need to pack a heavier rod as well and pay that pike another visit.

The post Happy Hendrickson Day appeared first on Caffeinated Fly Fisher.

Abnormally clear, low water on the Grand River.

Unlike me, I kicked off the season with a steelhead trip to the Beaver river.  We brought along local guide Nick Groves to show us the ropes on this unfamiliar river and share some of his steelhead knowledge and tactics.  Nick, being a Winston pro staffer, also brought along a couple Boron III switch rods for us to use.  I’m completely new to the world of two handed rods and these were a lot of fun to fish.  When I think of two handed rods, I immediately think of swinging streamers or wet flies.  However, Nick is a nymph fisherman through and through and as such, that’s what we stuck to for most of the day.  It was interesting to experience how much easier (once you get the hang of it) it is to cast these rods compared to 10′ single handers.  On top of that, mending line and controlling a drift at much longer distances becomes a lot easier with the added length.

Ryan drifting nymphs, searching for steelhead on the Beaver River opening weekend.

After waking pre-5 am, driving for nearly two hours and stopping for an early Timmies breakfast, we were on the river shortly after 7 am.  I was thankful for bringing along my gloves as it was cold (both air and water).  We covered a lot of water on a few different sections throughout the day, but the combination of colder than normal temps and general lack of fish made things difficult.  I was the only one to hook into a fish, but proceeded to lose it from both lack of readiness and also from fumbling around with my (heavier than I’m used to) 11′ rod.  We met a couple guys that did get into a fish or two, but most people seemed to be sharing our limited success.  This wasn’t a disappointment by any means however, as we had very realistic expectations going into this.  We had a good time, explored a lot of really nice looking water throughout the day and I personally felt that I left with an increased confidence level for my future steelhead excursions.

A couple days after our Beaver River trip, I decided to head to the lower Credit to put my new found confidence to the test.  I wasn’t able to fish the morning and opted instead to go the more difficult route of fishing the low waters throughout the sunny afternoon.  When I arrived, there were a couple cars parked at the access point – and within an hour or so, they had all left.  You know the fishing is slow when there’s nobody fishing the lower Credit for steelhead during opening week!

A wide section of the unusually quiet lower Credit River on a sunny afternoon.

Slow or not, I know that decent numbers of steelhead had come up into this section of river days before and there had to be the odd fish kicking around. I geared up with a rig similar to what we’d used on the Beaver and patiently drifted what little productive looking water still existed in these low flows.  My patience paid off as I hooked into my first Credit River steelhead an hour or two in.  She took a Hare’s Ear nymph in a deep run and considering I was fishing an 8 weight rod, gave it a pretty serious workout!

A hard earned Steelhead from the Credit River during opening week.

I spent a few more hours on the river but failed to get into any more steelhead. I did however hook an unexpected 18-20″ brown trout while working my way back upstream.  It took a pheasant tail nymph and also put up a very good fight.  As is typical when I’m fishing by myself and dealing with big fish, it managed to wriggle itself free before I could snap a picture (yeah… sounds like a fish story, I know).

In what’s slightly more my style, I also spent a large part of the week scouting smaller streams for native brookies.  I typically choose to target these fish early in the season, while the water is still cold and high enough for them.  Unfortunately, the high enough part didn’t really hold true this year as water levels were also very low in these small streams.  This made finding fish more difficult than normal and also made stealth much more important on these small streams.  Still, I had a good amount of success swinging bead head soft hackles and skating dry flies on the surface.  The net result was a lot of quiet water and plenty of colourful Brook Trout.

My 3 weight experienced lots of small colourful Brook Trout like this throughout the week.

Despite a decent amount of bug activity this past week, there were little to no fish rising.  On the brook trout waters I fished, there were a lot of small black stoneflies. When sub-surface patterns weren’t doing the trick, I tried a couple basic imitations, but dead drifting dries (unsurprisingly) didn’t seem to entice any strikes. Once I tried skating dries across the surface though, it really drove the brookies crazy and I got into a lot more fish!

Lots of small black stoneflies were seen on many of the brookie streams.

Finally, my opener wouldn’t be complete without a trip to the Grand River. After walking my kids to school and making a few stops along the way (including Rob Heal and gang’s new fly shop, Grand River Outfitting), I didn’t get on the river until after noon again. With flows approaching 4 cms, which is quit a bit lower than the Grand’s average summertime lows, lack of water once again made things difficult. I certainly have myself to blame for bypassing the morning fish again, which was apparently pretty decent.  There were some pretty thick Hendrickson hatches in the middle river – the water was literally lined with them – but I didn’t see even a single fish rise to take advantage of it. One of the bugs I caught during this hatch looked an awful lot like a Grey Fox… but I was not aware they hatched this early in the season. Perhaps I’m mistaken in my bug identification though.

What seems to be a very unexpectedly early Grey Fox Dun during a fairly heavy hatch on the middle Grand River last week.

I fished the mid and upper sections and very nearly got skunked before getting a decent drift through a very difficult to cast to (and control) piece of bank-side water with my secret nymph.  A big brown eagerly snatched it up and after a difficult fight, including trying to force it out of some sunken structure on 5X tippet, I got my first taste of big Grand River browns for the 2015 season!

A hard earned 21″ Grand River Brown Trout.

In all the excitement, after snapping a couple photos and releasing the fish, I waded quite far downstream and fished for another hour or so before realizing that I no longer had my net.  I’d left it exactly where it appears in the picture above, floating in some shallow water on the side of the river.  This was a Christmas present from my wife and I wasn’t looking forward to telling her I’d lost it.  I headed back to the spot I landed the fish, only to find the net missing.  I then walked downstream from that spot again and luckily found the net hung up on a rock in the middle of the river!

I’m back to work tomorrow and next weekend is both Mother’s Day and my wife’s Birthday, so I have a feeling there won’t be much fishing to be had in the next week or so.  Hopefully we get some rain by then to normalize the river conditions a bit.

The post 2015 Trout Opening Week appeared first on Caffeinated Fly Fisher.

My camera has been acting up every since I dropped it last year, especially when trying to use macro mode or taking pictures in low light. Excuses aside, here are a couple pics:

Tried to capture the thick hendrickson hatch coming off

Hendrickson Mayfly

Most of the Hendricksons had the typical yellow egg sac, though it fell off the one above before I snapped the picture. Apparently I haven’t fished this hatch in a while, because my supply of Hendrickson flies was abysmal – I only had a few spinner imitations which were too small. So instead, I tied on my goto Red Humpy and managed to hook up with a few small browns. Nothing spectacular, but it was a start.

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Opening weekend can get pretty busy on the popular rivers, so as usual I spent it close to home on a small local stream. It just so happened that my son had a grade 2 project to finish over the weekend for their class’ NOBODY doll, which he was given for the week. If you haven’t heard of this thing, it’s basically a (very expensive) plain denim doll called NOBODY which is used as a learning tool. The idea is that each child is given the doll for a week and they are tasked with teaching it something, basically showing it how to be a good person and become somebody. My son had chose fishing as his topic (specifically, fishing conservation and regulations). In addition to his report, he needed some photos, so I took them both along to the stream and I explained the need for fishing seasons, special regulations, fishing licenses and a bunch of other topics. Here’s a shot of NOBODY taking a break after a learning session:

NOBODY, learning to fly fish

We did a little fishing, managed to hook into a few small browns and spotted couple big steelhead. The trout fishing isn’t spectacular on this stream, but it’s close to home, very picturesque in spots and virtually devoid other anglers.

I took the entire week off work, hoping to both do some fishing and also finish up some work around the house. As it turned out, the work part took more time than expected, leaving less time for fishing.

I did manage a trip to the Grand with a neighbour of mine who recently took up fly fishing. We arrived at the river around 5:15 pm: weather about as perfect as you could hope for. The chance of an excellent evening of fishing seemed quite good, though we fully expected to be fishing streamers and nymphs since the river is still cold at this time of year with little to nothing happening on the surface. As luck would have it, the Grand was both colder and lower than normal.

The water level on the Grand is generally dependent on Shand Dam at Belwood Lake, rather than on natural factors like most other rivers. We fished the upper river for about an hour and half without any action at all… no hits and no sign of fish. We decided to drive down to a lower stretch of the river where the water was usually a bit warmer and we were met with the same results. Between the two of us and countless fly patterns, we fished for 3.5 hours without as much as a hit – very strange indeed, especially for the Grand which is teeming with browns. We talked to few locals who all suffered the same fate. In fact, one of them had fished the Grand on three separate days that week without a single fish. Basically, the fish were completely shut down. My only guess is that the low temps and low (relatively clear) water levels were making the fish extremely spooky and unwilling to take a fly. What I do know is that this was the toughest fishing conditions I’ve probably ever seen on the Grand.

Apparently, some other rivers in the area (which we’d considered, but settled on the normally higher percentage Grand), had seen much better fishing conditions with warmer water and some hendricksons already starting to come off. Oh well, that’s the joy and uncertainty of early season fishing here. Still, an outing with no fish is better than no outing at all.

Until next time.

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