........this week.

So, I did briefly look at some water Wednesday evening. Lots more bugs, lots more rising fish.

I saw bugger all Hendricksons myself ( arriving around 4:30'ish, below Elora ), though a guy I talked with said he had caught a couple of smaller fish on them in the morning. Personally, I'd say they're done down there.

Definitely Foxes about, not sure how the fish are reacting to them. Managed a fish on an emerger. Fish were far happier with Cranes, even more so with BWO's. I left the water covered in black caddis....................so, whatever that tells you.

.........meh.

I literally spend more time getting ready to fish these days than I do wetting line.

I had planned to fish today ( Tuesday ). With days in advance, I tied some flies, clean and dressed my line, tied a new leader, etc. All to ease the process for the day of. If I tried to do that that on the same day? I'd be in agony before  I hit the car. Waders and boots? Thats always taxing regardless. And the fishing part? Well, water watching takes up the majority of my time. If I can't find fish rising, I can't be bothered. Very much an effort verse reward sorta thing. If my backs gonna ache, so is some fishes lip. I'm a bastard like that.

My blog. I get to whine.

So, my gear sits by the door, rigged and ready. Last look I had showed me enough Foxes flopping about the surface that by now the hatch should be interesting some fish. I'm often wrong though. I'll cross my fingers and see if tomorrow allows me a kick at the cat.

Hatch Charts.

I've noticed a fair amount of traffic comes this way via searches for hatch charts for both the Grand and Upper Credit Rivers. Lets talk about charts for a second.

First off, for those new to the sport, charts can only be so accurate. Bugs don't use a calendar. Probably the most accurate method would be phenology. Years like this, where spring weather conditions were accelerated, the bugs were too. Some years they get pushed back. What they are good for is giving you a general idea what should or could be on the water, and what should be coming up. The internet is also a good resource. Many shops have river reports online and will clue you in to the currently producing hatches. Blogs such as this one can also tell you what others are finding successful.............though, buyer beware..........anyone can write a blog. Some are excellent anglers. Others are not, like the hack who writes this blog. The well known fly fishing author John Gierach once said something along the lines of 'there are good anglers, and there are good writers. Seldom are they one in the same.'

Of course, the easiest way to find out what the fish and the bugs are doing is to get out there and look.

Grand River.
http://420flyfishing.blogspot.ca/2012/05/grand-river-hatch-chart.html

Upper Credit River.
http://420flyfishing.blogspot.ca/2012/04/credit-river-hatch-chart.html

No fishing.

For me at least. Sucks to have all the time in the world, and not being able to use it.

My mother fished a little last week, and managed to find some smaller fish that were eager to rise to BWO's and ( especially ) Cranes. I like this news.....................Cranes account for a good deal of fish for me. Much less Hendriksons..............so I wonder if that's about done.

I see Grandriver Troutfitters has a revamped site up. Always good to have a look at their site to see what bugs their seeing, as well as checking river flow. The river reports seem to be updated frequently.
http://www.grandrivertroutfitters.com/

Hopefully after this protracted period of recuperation I can coax something out of my back this coming week.

Water Watching.

Today I managed to go sit by the side of the Grand for a few hours today. The flow rate had been raised to over double its normal flow rate, so I wasn't to surprised by the lack of rising fishes. The number of Hendricksons that came off was far less than a couple of nights earlier. The only fish we saw move on them were the recent additions to the river by way of the FOGR. Cranes and Caddis were more abundant today, and I may have spotted a fox or two, but couldn't get one in my mitts to get a good visual. Really wish they would stop screwing with the flow rates.

From the sidelines..........................

So, a look at the Grand today revealed a much different scenario than my last outing. More bugs. Numbers and variety.

I didn't fish. I watched. My back is f@#k'd and I couldn't muster the effort. Watched Mom fish for the most part.

Surface activity was limited to a short period in the later afternoon when the Hendriksons came of thickest. My mother managed a fish in the higher teens, her biggest fish to date, and later busted of a quality fish that would have dwarfed her new record.

Before the Hendriksons showed up en masse, both Crane flies and Tan Caddis could be spotted. The fish only concerned themselves with the Hendricksons though. Would have like to have seen the spinner fall, but patience is hardly my long suit when my back is screaming torture.

Would love to be out every day of the week. Not feasible though. Hopefully I'll be able to squeeze in some time before the weekend.....................not gonna hold my breath though. 

Grand River.

You'll want to check the flow rates before you head out this weekend. It was at 55(!!!!) around 4pm today. I hear they may keep it up over the weekend. Make sure to check before you head up for sure.

GRCA Flow Summary


It was running around 18 when these pics were taken.

Grand River Hatch Chart.

Yeah, so I'm starting to work on a hatch chart for the Grand. If anyone has any corrections, or additions, such as Grasshoppers which I see I missed, or hook sizes like on the Isopod's and Ant's ), lemme know via email and I'll try to incorporate the changes a.s.a.p. So, buyer beware. I don't see any horrible inaccuracies, but there's bound to be something somewhere at this point. Thanks! :)

First outing of the season.

So, today was the first time I could get out this season.........bad back, yadda yadda. The weather forecast looked decent enough, so I figured I'd give it a go. Apparently, I had spent the first month of last year fishing crappie, and as a result had to do some quick ties to prepare.

Figured to hope for some Hendrikson action, but was a little fearful the water might still be to cold. When I first go t to the river, this seemed to be the case. There was a lot of Hendriksons coming off the water, but no fish were moving on them. Oh well. Eventually two fish started to make sporadic attempts at surface fair, and I managed a decent enough fish after a dozen casts or so on a Hendrikson Dun. After a couple of hours of watching water devoid of action, we decided to split.

As we started home, we happened by a stretch were fish were moving in steady rythyms on the duns blanketing the surface. I had already removed my waders, but figured I'd brave the slightly less then optimal water temperatures for a few casts. This was probably a good move.

So, I waded into the frigid waters, questioning my sanity, and started to work on a fish. I shortly hooked into what turned out to be another decent fish.

...........................and back it goes.

Alright! So at least there was a point to freezing off my balls! I probably could have been content with the days efforts at this point................but.............there was still some risers. I picked off a fish that was in the 13" inch or so range. Cool. I was done. A few fish were enough to make a decent day of it. I pulled my chilled ass out of the water and started to make my to the car. As I was doing this, I spotted another fish rising, and figured to make a couple of casts on the way by. Again, probably another good decision. The  fish sucked up my Dun on the first drift. Set the hook, and realized I had hooked into a very decent fish.

I had a problem with this fish, in that I had an obstruction immediately below, and I could not let the fish run that way or it was game over. I was using 5X, so I could put a decent enough pressure to keep it somewhat controlled with finesse. The reality of  situation though, was I was apt to bust of the fish at anytime. 

Stopping a good fish that wants to run is not how I generally want to handle things. A number of times during the 5 or so minute scrap I knew I was on the verge of hearing my tippet snap. However, I learned a long time ago, you can't be afraid of losing a big fish and you have to fight it as hard as possible. 

The 'knee squeeze' in the pic is not from the strain of fighting the fish.........I've got me net clamped in there. ;) The pic is snapped while I am putting the breaks on the fish. My reel hand is clamped on the reel and I'm playing a very tenuous game of give and take in an effort to keep the fish out of obstruction. Again, not the preferred way of handling a good fish.

.........incoming.

God was smiling on me today though, and I eventually got the rather irritated fish to net.

The fish was released so fresh that it broke my hold as soon as I started to revive it, swimming back to the depths from whence it came.

All in all, a pretty good few hours to start the season. Was also fortunate enough to have someone with a camera to capture some shots. This is almost never the case.

All the fish were caught on a #12 Hendrickson Parachute Dun cast with 3wt using 5x tippet.