I was hoping to do some stillwater fishing for a change and when I arrived there was only a single person on the water. The winds had picked up again and the sky was still looking grim. By the time I geared up, the sole angler had paddled in and was headed home. He mentioned the fishing was slow and considering the current weather conditions, I was headed out with fairly low expectations. I paddled to the far side of the pond, set the anchor and tied on a tandem rig: a leech pattern and nymph. When I looked up, ready to take my first cast, I realized the wind had dislodged the anchor and pushed me to the opposite side of the pond. This happened twice more in the next few minutes, before my luck changed for the better.

With 3.5 hours left to fish, the skies started to open up and the winds calmed. Fish were starting to become active and it wasn’t long before I hooked into my first Rainbow of the night.

My first Rainbow Trout of the evening, took a good old Pheasant Tail nymph.

I’d forgotten how much of a bend these fish put in a 6 weight rod. This large acrobatic trout put up quite a fight before finally giving in. The action was fairly steady for the rest of the night, with several fish lost and several more caught. Either I was having a really good night, or the fish are bigger this year, because I didn’t catch many fish under 18″.

Another thick bodied rainbow trout that fell victim to the Pheasant Tail.

As the daylight grew shorter, surface activity picked up and despite my success I decided to try my luck with dries.  I noticed a few of these on the water, so I tied on a basic imitation:

Fish seemed to be picking off a bunch of Callibaetis mayflies like this on the surface.

Aside from Rainbows, there are also Brook Trout in this pond which I believe were mainly feeding on the mayflies. After a few minutes and several missed hits on the dry fly, I figured I’d double my chances and change to a Dry Dropper. When fishing dries on stillwater, I tend to have more confidence in something that floats extremely well and lets me twitch it without having to worry about it constantly drowning. I had tied a fairly humongous extended foam bodied mayfly a couple weeks ago and figured it might entice some of the larger rainbows to hit, while targeting the Brookies with a wet fly dropper.

The first Rainbow Trout taken on the indicator portion of my rig: a large foam dry fly.

This worked as planned and several hungry Rainbows made short work of the large dry fly as it twitched on the surface. I snapped the following underwater shot with my new camera as I was releasing one:

Underwater shot taken before releasing a Rainbow Trout.

It was difficult to pull myself off the water as the surface action continued to pick up with the fading light. The Brook Trout were especially active at the end of the night and I hooked a few on the trailing Leadwing Coachman while making my way in. I also managed to lose a couple much larger Brookies as my hook popped out while horsing them in.

One of a few Brookies caught before calling it a night.

Overall, it turned out to be an unexpectedly great few hours on the water.

The post Stillwater Sweetness 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.

As expected, the sections of rivers experiencing steelhead runs were completely packed with fishermen of all types: men, women, children, fly fishers, spin fishers, worm and bobber fishers, poachers and just plain troublemakers. Basically, the type of conditions best described as asshattery.  Needless to say, I stayed clear of that mess and as usual headed for more remote waters in search of hungry resident trout.

The only other angler I encountered on opener was my fishing partner (seen in distance)

Several hours were spent Saturday fishing the clear, fast, high waters of my usual stomping grounds. We drove two cars, parked one several kilometres downstream of our starting location and spent a good number of hours enjoying a rather surprising amount of solitude on the river. Conditions were tough and we went nearly fish-less for a bulk of the day trying to adjust to the changed river.

Normally a mere trickle, this tiny feeder stream had a good constant flow

Downed trees and branches from the winter (thanks largely to the big ice storm) had changed several holes. In fact, the very hole I lost the biggest fish of my life from on closing day last season has been completely destroyed by a couple downed trees. Thankfully, slow fishing aside, it was great to be out on the river and a nice Brown Trout finished off the day. The fish below slammed a size 2 rabbit strip fish skull streamer I had tied the night before, while stripping it downstream through a pool.

An excellent Brown Trout to finish off the opening day of trout season

I went out solo on Sunday for a few hours in search of Brookies. The weather was slightly better than the previous day and once again I had the river to myself. I got off to a slow start with some small streamers and nymphs, but finally found my stride when I switched to a trusty Bead Head Pheasant Tail Soft Hackle. I fished it on the swing and hooked up with a good number of fish before calling it a day. They were all on the small side – most in the 5-8″ range, but Brookies are always a pleasure to catch so I certainly had nothing to complain about.

Small but pretty, it’s always a pleasure to catch colourful Brook Trout like this

When I got back to the car, I ran into a pair of fishermen who turned out to be two of the nicest people I’ve met on the river in years. Strangers to each other with a fairly large age gap (I’m guessing 20-30 years), they met about 20 years ago on the river and have been fishing together ever since. We chatted about our experiences opening weekend, years past, the state of the river and exchanged a few stories. This river, the one the MNR are planning to destroy, always seems to produce excellent stories and the most mannered of fly fishermen.

The Upper Grand was running at about 25 cms on Saturday, which is unsafe for fishing. It didn’t really affect my plans as I generally stay clear of the Grand on opening day (again, crowds), but I’m sure it spoiled the plans of countless other fly fishermen who bet on kicking off their season on this excellent river. Luckily, they did drop the river level down to about 5 cms Sunday afternoon, so it likely saw a huge surge of activity thereafter.

Unfortunately, this week has again been filled with more near-record-breaking rainfall, so the Grand is back to unfishable again. There’s more rain in the forecast for the remainder of the week, but I’m hopeful that it will slow down and give the rivers a bit of a break for the weekend. My wife is taking the kids to her parents’ place this weekend and leaving me behind to fish, so I want to take full advantage of this rare opportunity!

The post Happy Trout Opener appeared first on Caffeinated Fly Fisher.