That said, there are still plenty of rivers and lakes with more than enough water, even in dry years such as this one – and that’s where I’ve spent most of this season. They aren’t particularly close by for me, so it does mean some extra driving. Sometimes I’ll try to make the most of my trips though and stay a night (or, a week, or more…).

On the longer trips, I’m in the back country with a canoe and tent (or hammock). I’ve got a new trolling setup for the fly rod this year with the new(ish) universal Scotty rod holder, which works well for pretty much any rod type – casting, spinning or fly rod. Of course, I’m not only trolling from the canoe. I’ll also cast (mostly streamers) when I’m not travelling or trying to locate fish – but it’s nice to keep a line in the water even while travelling.

Closer to home, trout fishing has been mostly done while drifting in the pontoon, on rivers with plenty of water and where covering ground is easy and quick.

I’ve got two Scotty fly rod holders on my pontoon (the red XL-IR above), but they’re used only for transporting my rods. I bring two with me, so that I can rig them up with a different setup and easily switch between them. That’s one great thing about pontoon boats – you can load basically everything you would ever need and not have to worry about carrying it on your back or hip.

I haven’t exactly had the most success with the browns this year, especially when it comes to big browns. A combination of timing and losing fish – but that’s how fishing goes, especially when learning new water. It’s about time to start thinking about getting out for some night fishing though – and that will surely change my luck. There’s also the hope of hitting a good late Hex hatch (Hexagenia Autrocaudata).

I’ve had a couple nice browns hooked up, only to be lost on a jump or poor hookup. Still, there have been plenty of 10-14 inchers, which are never a disappointment.

One recent trip float also netted a decent Rainbow Trout that put a nice bend in the 4 weight.

And let’s not forget the numerous brookies. Suffice it to say, while no trophies were caught this season (in the front country), the trout trifecta has been a common occurrence on outings. Can’t complain about that!

For hatches, Stoneflies have been in a great abundance this year. They began showing up earlier than normal and they’re still sticking around in good numbers.

You may have seen the top of these flies (as pictured above), or you’ve seen them fluttering over the river. But there’s a good chance you haven’t seen the bottom side of a golden stone, which is what the fish see from below! If you tie your own flies, that’s a pretty important part of the fly. So, here you are…

The other hatch that has been fairly abundant on some rivers this year (aside from the usual Isonychia) is the Brown Drake. This is a good sized mayfly that can bring some solid fish to the surface. It seemed to stick around for quite a long time this year. At least twice already, a good month after fishing them earlier in the season, we saw some size 10-12 mayflies in the air before dusk and mistakenly thought they were Isonychia. It wasn’t until catching one much later that we realized they were actually Brown Drakes. We thought for sure they’d be done by now. That might explain our snubs from some decent fish those evenings.

Hard to believe it’s the end of July already. There’s only two more months of trout season left, with just a couple major hatches to look forward to. Smallmouth bass will be getting some attention as well, along with at least one more late season backcountry trip for trout.

The post Mid Summer Update appeared first on Caffeinated Fly Fisher.

On our local rivers, we were finally blessed with an abundance of water this spring. Those levels seem to be dropping fairly rapidly, but I have to imagine that there were lots of opportunities to entice some big old browns with big streamers or nymphs in those high waters.

As for myself, brookies are always at the top of my mind in spring, so I explored some small streams for them on opener. The water was cold and the fishing was slow, but a few small fish were caught nonetheless.

I did also manage to get out for steelhead with a couple buddies for the first time in many seasons. We fished a section of river close to home, on a particularly cold and rainy day. All I had to show for it was a small 10″ rainbow trout. I’ll blame it on the high water and wide river with difficult to reach pools (equipped only with my 9′ 6wt) – but, when it comes to steelhead, I’ll always find an excuse. My buddy, who happened to be float fishing, managed a pretty nice steelhead as well as an 18″ brown. Though they didn’t come to my net, it was nice to leave having seen and netted a least a few fish.

With the weather getting warmer and the month of June fast approaching, we’re almost upon some of the biggest and best hatches of the year! It’s time to top off the fly boxes with patterns that should have been tied during the winter months.

The post 2023 Trout Season Opener 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.

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.

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.

In the meantime though, I’ve gotten out for some stillwater trout fishing at my usual spot. On calm days at this time of year, trout are cruising the shallows and stripping small unweighted streamers has been both fun and productive. It’s a nice change from having to fish an indicator setup or a sink tip line to deeper fish in hotter weather.

Stillwater fly fishing in the fall is about as peaceful as it gets.

Stillwater fly fishing often gets a bad rap around fly fishing purists, especially if stocked trout are involved. I know I’ve been guilty of this, but spending some time with it over the last couple years has changed my opinion. Would I choose it over wading wild rivers for native trout? Not really… Would I prefer if the stillwaters I fished were 100% native trout? Absolutely! However, I don’t have control over these factors and I’ve found stillwater the perfect substitute when neither of the latter are possible. It also helps (a lot) knowing that a healthy population of native Brookies occupy the same water.

As far as I’m concerned, catching any fish is exciting, be it a native Brown Trout, Bass, Carp, Sunfish or stocked Rainbow. There’s certainly no mistaking a five-pound stocked Rainbow for a native Brookie, but there’s a wide range of fish in these waters. The thrill of wondering whether a two+ pound trout at the end of my line is a stocked Rainbow or possibly the biggest southern Ontario native Brook Trout I’ve ever caught is what keeps things exciting.

A chunky stillwater stocked rainbow from a couple weeks ago.

Speaking of Brookies though, I stuck around after dark for a bit the last time I was out (it’s hard not to when the days get so short) and the Brookies became really aggressive. Some above average fish were coming to the surface and I hooked into more twelve to fourteen inch Brookies than I probably ever have in a single outing.

One of several nice Brook Trout caught shortly after dark.

The colours on these fish were stunning, as is to be expected at this time of year. A bit of daylight to add some more interesting background and colour to the photos would have been nice though.

Another beautiful stillwater Brookie caught before calling it a night.

Of course, intermixed with the handful of Brook Trout were a bunch of Rainbows, but as mentioned before, this kept things interesting. I’m positive I lost at least one Brookie that was quite a bit bigger, but I feel like I end most posts with a statement like that…

I plan on getting out for Steelhead this week. Hopefully there will be a fish or two to show for it, but it will beat working either way.

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Now, on to the good stuff. As is customary, I spent the end of the season targeting Brook Trout on small rivers and streams. Even if our Brown Trout rivers had been fishing well (or, at all…), I’d still choose to target Brookies at this time of year. The waters they inhabit are scenic, have very little fishing pressure and the fish are in full pre-spawn colors at this time of year.

A nice, colourful native Brookie from closing day

I would say this was one of the better years I’ve had for Brookies in the last decade. Not necessarily in fish size (although, several in the 12″ range were caught), but in numbers. In fact, until yesterday, I was convinced that Brookies in the area were on the rebound and that the overall health of the systems that contain them were improving. Then I realized, other than a few outings to new rivers for other species, I’d been forced to fish almost exclusively Brook Trout this year due to the aforementioned demise of the Brown Trout. In doing so, I discovered more new water that holds Brookies and I fished for them much harder than in the past.

In reality, these rivers are still only a fraction as healthy as they once were, even the few hidden gems that seem much more productive than the rest. It’s not all negative of course: thankfully we’re still able to find and fish for these excellent fish and for that I’m thankful. It does brings up an interesting argument against removing resident Brown Trout from local rivers though, as it gives anglers no other option but to target the more fragile Brook Trout.

Some small, well populated Brookie water

For some reason, the last hours of trout season always seem to spoil me. I don’t know if it’s the weather, the moon, my state of mind, or luck – but it always treats me better than most other days of the year, leaving me hopelessly awaiting the next time I can get back out and fish for resident trout (i.e. 7 months). This year, in the last few hours of trout fishing, I easily landed two dozen Brook Trout in water that, while productive, almost never provides success on that level. Most of the fish were an average 8″ or so, but colourful and always fun on light fly gear.

A near limitless number Brookies like this were caught in the final hours of trout season

Some bigger Brookies were caught too – those are some mean teeth for a pretty Brook Trout!

It usually happens that, when I’m having the most success on a river, I’ve just tied up a fresh batch of flies that I feel good about. I know other people experience this too – as you fill your fly box with a bunch of good looking new ties (sometimes even brand new patterns you’ve never fished), you just get the feeling they’re going to produce. I fished only two flies on Wednesday: my old time go-to attractor, the Red Humpy and a first for me, a Thunder Creek Streamer.

The Red Humpy, for some reason, has always been a go-to fly of mine on local rivers when nothing else seems to be happening. I hadn’t actually fished one for the entire season, due to a combination of having no stock (and being too lazy to tie some) and more of a focus on fishing naturals and wet flies this year. I tied four on Tuesday evening and when I tied the first one on Wednesday afternoon, it didn’t get removed until a couple dozen fish later and near night time. Maybe any other fly would have also done the trick, I guess I’ll never know. It certainly put a bit of confidence back in that fly for me though!

When temps dropped and as the sun began to set, the dry fly action finally slowed up. I had recently re-watched an old video of the late Ian Colin James fishing Thunder Creek style streamers in low clear water on the Grand. I’d never used these flies before, but I liked the look of them as far as streamers go (I’m not usually a very big streamer fan). Anyway, I tied a couple the night before and decided to give it a whirl after the Red Humpy. Of course, it worked like a charm and was actually very fun to fish. I cast it upstream and twitched it very fast downstream, eliciting strikes on nearly every cast. I’m sure it won’t work for shit when I tie it on next year, but I’ll certainly be thinking about it.

Brookies of all sizes liked this little Thunder Creek Streamer

Now, it’s great that I was catching all these Brook Trout and in all honesty, I’d be perfectly happy if that was it. However, to make things even more interesting, I ended up with a Trout Trifecta. In the midst of the insanity that was non stop Brookie action, a surprise rainbow decided to show up. Quite rare for the water I was fishing, although known to exist. I believe they’re left over from a short time when rainbows were planted here years ago.

This surprise Rainbow Trout chipped in to help me achieve the venerable Trout Trifecta

In fairness, the Brown Trout part of my trout trifecta was not taken in the same water. Instead, I stopped off at the newly unproductive upper Credit River on the way home to throw some mouse patterns after dark. Yes, the Credit is fishing horribly for Brown Trout this year thanks to the river being taken over by a gazillion stocked Atlantic Salmon juvies and who knows what else (reports of some shady removals of Browns from certain sections of the river, etc).  However, there are still some big browns to be had and there’s no better time to find them than after dark. Figuring it may well be the last time I ever set eyes on on a treasured wild Credit River brown, I had to at least give it a go.

The temperature had dropped substantially by the time I got on the river. Definitely not ideal for night fishing, however the sky was clear and it was just days after the Super Blood Moon, so perhaps there was hope. Add to this my luck for the previous couple hours and I was pretty confident a big brown would find its way to my net.

Without exaggeration, I tied on a #2 mouse pattern when I arrived, waited for my eyes to adjust to the darkness, then got into position to begin fishing. I placed my first cast to the back of the pool and bam! With a huge splash I set the hook and the fight was on. As I turned on my headlamp to shed some light on things, I saw a huge brown bolt downstream. It was in the general vicinity of my fly line and it’s pretty easy to be a bit disoriented in the dark, so I thought it was actually the fish I had hooked until it continued downstream and out of sight. Turns out, it was another huge brown in the same pool that I spooked by turning on the headlamp. My catch was no slouch, but it also wasn’t quite the hog I watched swim away while fighting it.

A big Credit River brown, my last resident trout of 2015 – hopefully not my last Credit brown.

A productive 4 hours of fishing and as usual, enough to keep me dreaming of next year’s trout season. In the meantime, I still have some Steelhead, Bass and stillwater Trout to look forward to.

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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.

Stillwater fly fishing is still relatively new to me, as is fall fly fishing for trout since I’ve usually packed up my trout gear by now. Consequently, I’ve been doing a lot of learning and experimenting lately. Most days have been productive, albeit tough at times while trying to adapt to stillwater techniques and break my normal river fishing habits. It’s certainly been a relaxing time of year to be out on the water, with the fall colours and quiet cool days.

A nice looking rainbow trout caught on a sunny fall day

One of the more interesting discoveries for me has been the change in feeding habits of the trout at this time of year. Most of my success in the spring and summer was had via sinking lines and bead head streamers, with the odd fish taken near the surface (usually in the evenings). Nymphs and chironomids were also successful, but fished at similar depths. I’d see the odd fish rising, but fish were definitely deeper and spotting cruising fish was a fairly rare occurrence.

In contrast, most of my success this fall has been in much shallower water – usually 2-4 feet deep and often on the surface itself. When the water is clear (i.e. when it hasn’t rained for a couple days), it’s been a lot of sight fishing, which is always fun. A bushy dry fly such as a Stimulator, cast ahead of cruising fish has been one of my more successful approaches.

Even more reliable has been unweighted, beadless Woolly Buggers. These most basic of flies have finally found their forte for me, as they’re something I’d all but given up on many years ago. I still fish the weighted bead head versions with some frequency in rivers, as they can get down to the larger fish faster and have a much more life-like action to them. However, when it comes to fishing super slow in the top couple feet of the water column, I’ve found the classic beadless versions are perfect. As an added bonus, they can be fished as dry flies with a few false casts and/or stripped in the surface film. Smaller sizes, in the range of 6-12 seem to work best in the fall.

A large rainbow caught while sight fishing dry flies

The above fish was one of many fish taken on a dry fly. It wasn’t the biggest fish of the day though: I caught a much larger rainbow (also on a dry fly) that wouldn’t fit in my net. A fellow angler watched in laughter as I unsuccessfully tried to net it 4 times, before giving up and quickly unhooking and releasing it in the water. Apparently a larger net is going to be on the Christmas list this year.

The post Fall Rainbows appeared first on Caffeinated Fly Fisher.

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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