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.

The post No Water? Stillwater! appeared first on Caffeinated Fly Fisher.

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.

I left early (5:30 am) to ensure I’d have access to one of the few boats that are available for use. I was pretty surprised to find a couple others already on the water when I arrived at 6:15. I headed to a second pond that was still quiet and empty. It was as perfect a morning as they come and the water was like glass. It was refreshing to be out fishing without having to wear bulky waders and a vest/pack for once.

A quiet and peaceful morning on a trout pond.

I picked up a new 6 weight Sage VXP this season (which I got a great deal on) and decided to give it a try with some recently purchased sinking leaders. I’m new to the sinking leader thing and I’ve got to say, I’m in love with them. I picked up a couple 7ft 12lb RIO VersiLeaders @ 3.9 and 7 inches per second (ips), as well as a 10ft 24lb Airflo PolyLeader @ 6.1ips. Attaching these leaders via a looped connection to your floating line is an excellent way to fish deep with streamers, without needing a second spool of sinking line or having to add split shot. I found it extremely easy to fish streamers anywhere from a foot beneath the surface to 10+ feet down.

So, most of the morning was spent fishing streamers on sink tips and there was no shortage of action. I landed 6+ rainbows on Woolly Buggers and Mickey Finns, with several more lost.

A colourful rainbow caught on a productive white crystal bugger with red hackle collar.

Another nice average sized rainbow caught on a streamer.

As the morning progressed, a few fish began rising. I wasn’t sure what they were eating and for all I knew the rises could have simply been fish chasing minnows. The important thing is, some of them were looking up and I imagined it didn’t matter much what pattern I chose. I settled on something big and bushy: a size 10 stimulator, for no other reason than it would float well and I could twitch it to imitate any kind of big insect on the surface. To my surprise, the very first cast triggered the biggest rainbow of the day.

A large rainbow that slammed a simulator twitched on the surface.

Although I did manage to entice a few more rises with the dry fly, it turned out to be less reliable than streamers. I switched back to my sink tip and fished woolly buggers for another hour or so before packing up and heading to work. It sure is nice to have the flexible hours that I do, but I definitely paid for it that day as I struggled to stay awake at my desk. There’s nothing like waking up at 5:15 and spending 4-5 hours on the water in the sun to tire you out!

The post Stillwater Rainbows appeared first on Caffeinated Fly Fisher.