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.

I won’t say it’s been a record season for me though, as I had an especially difficult time keeping big fish on the line earlier in the season. I’m not sure if I’ve finally shaken the dust off my streamer fishing skills, or if the trout have had a change in attitude (or both), but hook-ups with big fish have picked up somewhat over the last month for me. I suppose I can also attribute this to the arrival of warmer weather and the corresponding increase in night fishing success.

A big wild brown from last week, caught just past dark.

The above fish was caught just past dark on a last-minute trip to the river after work. I had tied a couple realistic stonefly patterns using some newly ordered Hemingway wings and I was hoping to give them a try. However, forgetting about the rain we had the day before, I was greeted by a chocolate colored river when I arrived.

A day in the life of a river this season – high and dirty.

The stoneflies were definitely out, but the fish were too busy dealing with the low visibility to care much. I haven’t been finding a lot of time to tie flies this year, so I’ve been keeping a vice and box of tying supplies in my truck for emergencies. My supply of articulated streamers was in shambles, so I decided to tie one in the back of the truck before hitting the river. I went with a bright color given the water conditions.

A last minute tie in the back of my truck before hitting the river.

The result was four big fish in a couple hours, although only two were landed.

Another slightly smaller wild brown from the same night.

As is usual for me, big streamers and mouse patterns have been moving most of my larger fish. I’ve had a couple nice fish on stoneflies as well on the clearer days and I know for a fact that nymphs have also been catching a lot of big fish for people this year – in pretty much all water conditions.

Most of my trout (but not all) have also been caught past dark this month, largely because my weekends have been a write-off and fishing after work often doesn’t get me to the river until 7 or 8 o’clock. The fish below was another memorable one that smashed a streamer early evening in some more off-colored water.

A good looking brown caught on an articulated streamer on a mid-July early evening.

This fish was followed up by yet another decent brown shortly past dark on the same night – and it was preceded by a slightly larger one a week earlier.

The first brown of the season caught on a mouse pattern.

Needless to say, it’s been a pretty good season this year if you’ve been willing to put away the dry flies and emergers and fish meatier flies. I don’t expect this to let up any time soon, but hopefully we’ll be treated to some good dry fly days as well.

We still have lots to look forward to in August… terrestrials, late Isonychia, the understated White Miller, perhaps some straggler stoneflies and of course, even better night fishing. If you’re a masochist, there’s also the Trico hatches.

The post Big Water, Big Flies, Big Fish appeared first on Caffeinated Fly Fisher.

Since the Green Drakes in early June, I’ve been back to the Credit just a handful of times to fish for browns. I went into lots of detail about the Green Drake hatches in my last post, so I won’t reiterate that here. However, I did manage to fool one more nice brown on a Green Drake spinner during the tail end of that hatch. It was a stronger, heavier and more colorful fish than the previous ones I’d caught during the hatch – and it put a nice bend in my 4 weight.

A large Brown Trout from the tail end of the Green Drake hatches on the Credit River

Speaking of my 4 weight… I managed to break it last month while fishing the Credit. I was never particularly gentle with the rod (Hardy Zenith #4) and I suspect it may have suffered some prior damage where it broke. It’s been sent back to Hardy for repairs and I’m hoping it won’t take too long to return, as I’m left to fish with a 7′ #3 and 9′ #6, neither of which I’m overly fond of for brown trout on the medium sized rivers I fish.

When I caught the above fish, the Drakes had thinned out considerably. There were a few still kicking around that evening and some big fish (like the one above) were still keying in on them, but it was the last I would see of the Drakes for 2016.

A Coffin Fly from the end of the Green Drake hatch

Gray Foxes provided some opportunities when the Drakes were less active. During one such window of heavy Gray Fox activity intermixed with some of the larger insects, I tied on a very old Gray Fox dry fly that a friend of my Dad tied for me back when I first started fly fishing. It had barely been fished and was still in great shape – and while the hook seemed sharp after all those years, I managed to pull it out of the jaws of another large trout that it fooled and momentarily hooked.

A Gray Fox Dun, from a short-lived but thick hatch that brought up a few fish

By mid-June, temperatures had risen and there was much less insect activity on the water. We were in between hatches on the Credit and although I was hoping for Isonychia, a small to moderate number of large stoneflies were the main morsels that were now providing opportunity for feeding trout.

A large stonefly from the Credit River

On the evening I broke my 4 weight, after walking back to my car to exchange the broken rod with my 3 weight, I fished back down through some water that failed to produce even a sign of fish earlier. In typical fashion, as daylight faded, water that was seemingly devoid of trout hours before suddenly gave way to rising fish. The brown below took a size 8 stonefly dry from such a spot just before calling it a night – giving me at least one memory other than a broken rod to leave the river with.

A Brown Trout taken on a size 8 stonefly dry just before dark

A few days later, I returned to the same location with my trusty 3 weight and had a similarly quiet evening of fishing with little bug activity. In an attempt to salvage the outing, I decided to chuck some large streamers (because, that’s what 3 weights are made for, right?) through a big pool that failed to produce any fish on the previous trip. After casting downstream and across didn’t work, I switched to casting upstream and stripping down to fish the streamer deeper. The result was another hefty Credit River brown with a heavily damaged jaw – but otherwise beautiful.

Credit River Brown Trout with damaged jaw

I haven’t been back to the Credit since the heat wave and severe lack of rain moved in, though I did night fish the Grand for the first time a couple weeks ago with a friend, where I caught an unexpected Walleye (apparently they are quite common on the Upper Grand) and a 17″ Brown. I’m planning to head to the Credit tomorrow for a night fish as well, which I imagine should be fairly productive given the warm days we’ve been having.

The post Browns ‘N Bugs 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.

Every year I spend a great deal of time exploring new water. Most of the time I’m simply scouting out new sections of my favourite local river, though occasionally I’ll travel to a new river or stream. My most recent fixation is a section of water that I’ve overlooked for years, mainly out of laziness and a hunch that it would be unproductive and impossible to fish. This is a smaller branch of a local river, with much different characteristics from the main branch. The river here is narrow, fast and broken with lots of little pools. Turns out, it’s exactly what I love in a river: scenic, full of character and challenging. This is the type of water where stealth, patience and effort pays dividends.

This scenic river section has lots of rapids, creating many small plunge pools

At first glance, this river appears extremely shallow and fast, not exactly what most fly fishers consider productive water. However, a closer look and some footwork reveals a number of small pools that are created by this fast water plunging over rocks and tiny falls. Many of these pools are too small to drift a fly through using a traditional fly cast – instead, one must carefully approach from behind and high stick a dry fly or nymph through the hole. Others holes are larger and have the potential of holding a number of decent sized fish.

A moderate sized pool at the base of some faster water

I’ve caught  a pretty even mix of Brook Trout and Brown Trout on this water, which is good to see (stop trying to take away our Brown Trout, MNR). Most of the fish are small to average sized, though I’ve heard of some trophy sized browns inhabiting this section as well.

An average sized Brook Trout for this section of river

My favourite dry fly for other sections of this river – the Stimulator – has been even more productive here. This is no surprise given the huge number of stone flies I’ve seen here.

There’s no shortage of stoneflies here

I’ve found that when fish are less keen to take a dry, giving it some action by skating it across the surface will often produce a strike. This is another benefit of the Stimulator, since it floats so well.

There are about four larger holes that I’ve found, as well as a fairly long stretch of nice looking deep water at the bottom of a steep ravine that is nearly impossible to fish. I’m convinced there are some very nice fish down there!

One of the larger holes, which has produced a couple decent fish

One thing this river is notorious for is making you hike a very long way to find larger holes. The one above has produced a couple fish – the brown pictured below as well as a good sized rainbow that my friend hooked into and lost before we could get it into the net. I’m convinced there are bigger fish in here, but I’ve yet to see them.

A mid sized brown, the first fish to rear its head from the previous hole

These pics were taken earlier in the season, though I’ve returned a few times with good results. However, tonight (technically last night now) was a different story. I drove up for a couple hours of fishing before dark, but rather than spend that time actually fishing, I spent it tracing my steps back along the dense forest path, where (in typical style for me) I managed to drop my BlackBerry. I spent nearly 2 hours retracing my steps, only to give up hope and eventually, by some miracle, find my phone lying face down on the dirt while heading back to my car in the pitch-dark.

This season has been somewhat of a disaster for me on the front of losing or damaging things and thankfully tonight was not an addition to that list. But those are stories for another night!

The post Testing New Waters appeared first on Caffeinated Fly Fisher.