Check out this great picture that my friend Eric took last week. He caught this Brook Trout on the Manistee and snapped this underwater shot of it. Such a neat way to record your catch; makes me want to get a waterproof camera!
Underwater shot of a Brook Trout my friend Eric caught on the Manistee
At least once a year I try to make a trip up to northern Michigan, to fish the Au Sable River and its neighbour the Manistee. This summer has been unusually busy and last weekend was likely the first and last time I will be up there this year. I took Friday off and drove 6 hours after work to get there for Thursday night.
The weekend was a combination of fishing and partying, as it was the big Au Sable Canoe Marathon weekend. Visitors from all across North America come to Grayling for this weekend to watch the race, making it the busiest time of year for both Grayling and the Au Sable River. Because of this, it’s not exactly the ideal time to be fishing the area – at least not the main branch. However, quality fishing can still be had on the Manistee, the North and South branches of the Au Sable and (to my surprise) even on the main branch the very morning after the race.
The warmer days of summer are here and with that comes some excellent night fishing opportunities. I still get funny looks when I mention fishing after dark to my buddies around here. I picked up on this addiction after several years of fishing the Au Sable river in Michigan. My wife and I rent a place on the Holy Waters section of the Au Sable main branch and there are a couple fantastic holes right right next to the property. I’d heard stories of the monster fish that inhabited those holes, but for years I was not able to see or catch them.
I still remember a few relaxing nights on the deck where we would repeatedly hear huge splashes in that hole – a big brown smashing prey no doubt. It was after this that I realized just how aggressive these fish get when the sun goes down. A couple years later I caught my first 20+” fish in that very hole after dark, on a big mouse pattern. I lost it before I was able to get it to the net, but I still consider it my first real night fishing success.
Night fishing is so popular out there that Gates Au Sable Lodge began hosting an annual Midnight Fly Fishing Derby, where pairs of anglers head out for an evening fishing tournament in hopes of landing the biggest fish.
Since then, I’ve been doing a bit of night fishing back home in Southern Ontario. Last weekend was my first real chance this year and it was no let down. I landed an 18-20″ fish and lost 2 other similarly sized fish in the span of about an hour.
18-20″ Brown caught after dark on a Southern Ontario river
The same rules apply here as they do in Michigan… huge browns come out of hiding about half an hour after the sun completely sets. Here’s are a few things that I’ve found increase my odds when fishing at night for big browns.
1. Use big flashy flies.
I have no doubt that casting a standard dry fly or streamer will catch fish. However I’ve found that consistently catching larger fish is both easier and more fun with a large (up to size 2-4) top water fly like a Gurgler or Mouse. With these flies, not only are they easier to see (or feel), but you generally strip them in and don’t have to worry much about getting that perfect drift or presentation. They also disturb the surface enough to attract predatory fish from all around.
2. Use darker colors.
The smaller the fly, the more important this is. When I fish a Gurgler, I don’t bother with darker colors as I prefer fishing a bright/white fly that is easier to see. A size 2 fly is large enough and disturbs the water enough that the fish are going to see and/or hear it regardless. If you’re fishing smaller dry flies however, you want to be using a preferably black fly which creates a more visible silhouette against the night sky. This seemed counter intuitive to me at first since black is much more difficult for the angler to see. However, we’re looking down from above – a completely different viewpoint than the fish. I’ve heard it described as washing your fly if you try to fish a white dry fly at night.
3. Shorten your leader and use larger tippet.
I learned this lesson the hard way, more than once. Since you’re casting (almost) blindly, you will be dealing with line tangles from time to time. Having a shorter leader definitely helps here. On top of that, the fish are not shy at night and there’s no need to keep your 10-12 foot leaders and tiny tippet. In fact, when I know there are big fish around, I have been going down as low as 4-6 foot 2x tippet. When a huge brown smashes a top water fly as you’re stripping it in, especially when you don’t see it happen, it’s easy for them to snap off even 4x tippet (I’ve had this happen).
4. Know the water and get into a favorable casting position.
Don’t try to wade a river like you would during the day. Pick a hole that looks like it holds a lot of fish and stay put. If you really know the river well, you might be able to move carefully between a few holes, but often you can spend a lot of time at a single location at night. If you’re stripping top water flies, cast downstream and strip them back upstream. This is a very forgiving way to cast at night and accuracy is not too important. I’ve also had success dead drifting flies, especially mice, though it requires a bit more practice to get a feel of where your fly is landing when you can barely see.
Unlike many fly fishermen, I’ve never been much of a morning person. It’s not that I don’t enjoy waking up before the birds to a fresh pot of coffee and being the first person on an unspoiled river. If there’s anything in life that can get me out of bed, it’s definitely fishing. However, the convenience and success of evening fishing has stolen the majority of my outings in recent years, not to mention the fact that I’ve always been a bit of a night owl. This season has been somewhat of a departure from my usual fishing schedule. A relatively new neighbour of mine also happens to share a passion for fly fishing, especially on the Grand River. Due to our schedules and family commitments, we decided to start making some early morning trips to the Grand. It’s about a 45 minute drive from our place, so being there before 6 am means waking up at or before 5 am – and if you know me, that’s no small feat.
Admittedly, as great a river as the Grand is, I haven’t fished it too much in the past few years. Most of my time has been spent on other less popular rivers. However, the several trips we’ve made so far this year have reminded of a few things I had forgotten:
Stepping out onto the water at the crack of dawn is a wonderful experience. The crisp morning air, quiet, calm and undisturbed water instantly makes you forget how difficult it was climbing out of bed. With the entire day ahead of you, your sense of urgency is non-existent. Wildlife is abundant and fish are still a bit more careless than they might be after a day of dealing with anglers. On a morning trip last week, we were greeted by a pair of playful deer as we stepped into the river. They remained for several minutes before finally realizing we were there, after which they calmly walked back to the river bank out of sight.
A couple deer playing in the river
I managed to sneak away to the Credit last night for a couple hours, hoping to find it a bit further along than the Grand was on the weekend. My hopes were met, with what was one of the bigger Hendrickson hatches I’ve seen in quite some time. The bugs were so thick in fact, that when I went to disassemble my rod before heading back home, I noticed a pretty consistent coating of bug goo on my rod from swinging it through the air.
My camera has been acting up every since I dropped it last year, especially when trying to use macro mode or taking pictures in low light. Excuses aside, here are a couple pics:
Tried to capture the thick hendrickson hatch coming off
Hendrickson Mayfly
Most of the Hendricksons had the typical yellow egg sac, though it fell off the one above before I snapped the picture. Apparently I haven’t fished this hatch in a while, because my supply of Hendrickson flies was abysmal – I only had a few spinner imitations which were too small. So instead, I tied on my goto Red Humpy and managed to hook up with a few small browns. Nothing spectacular, but it was a start.
After a long cold winter, trout season is finally open in southern Ontario. For a change, most of the rivers and streams are teeming with water this year, due to a good amount of snow melt and rain in early spring. Add to that some absolutely perfect weather for the first week of the season and you couldn’t ask for much more. Well, other than good fishing, I guess…
For most my fly fishing years, I have favoured the dry fly more than all other types of flies. My very first trout was taken on a dry fly, my most memorable days on the water involve dry flies and they produce arguably the most exciting takes from fish. I would typically rather prospect for trout with a dry fly than tie on a nymph or streamer, even when the fish are not rising. Considering most fish feed under the surface, this is a bit stubborn.
I’ve grown to appreciate the nymph and streamer for what they are and I certainly fish them more now than I did in the past: but still, I don’t enjoy them as much as I do fishing closer to the surface. Most trout fisherman generally consider these 3 types of flies: dries, nymphs and streamers. There’s also the more recent hybrid emerger, which is fished just under the surface flim, but these are what you’ll find predominantly in most fly shops and fly boxes. Yet, the sport of fly fishing grew up exclusively on another type of fly, one that is largely ignored by most anglers today: the wet fly.
I’m not stating anything ground breaking here. This subject has been brought up by lots of others, on the internet, in books and elsewhere. Speaking of which, I just received a copy of a new book, which is why this subject is fresh on my mind:
Wet Flies by Dave Hughes
Just a quick post to say Merry Christmas! Woke up extra early this morning to 3 very excited kids and things are just settling down. Hope Santa was good to all of you and hope you have a great holiday and happy new year.
While searching the infinite database that is the internet, I came across a couple fun tying ideas that I think I will use as inspiration next year. Enjoy!
Christmas Bugger (source)
Fly Ornaments (source)
Every year I dread the end of trout fishing season in southern Ontario, but I always try to be optimistic about the possibility of getting out for some steelhead fishing during the colder months ahead. It’s never really been my thing, but I figure there must be a reason everyone else is addicted to it, so it’s worth a try. Well, it’s all coming back to me now… the reason that optimism never turns out.
Dark, work, kids, weather and more dark… that about sums it up. The much shorter days mean less opportunity to get out after work and less time spent outdoors with the kids (I have three of them by the way). That basically writes off weekdays completely and when the weekends come, it’s a lot of catching up with the family. For me, evenings are always prime fishing time and that just doesn’t work well this time of year.
It’s not all a loss though, since thankfully there are things other than fishing to keep me busy. Like… tying flies, or reading about fishing, or playing fishing video games! OK, just kidding (sort of) 😉
Seriously though, I’ve wondered for a long time why there are absolutely NO good fly fishing video games. Just think about how great a fly fishing game would be on the Wii, done properly, where you cast using a realistic motion with a Wii Remote. I’ve searched for fly fishing simulations and the only ones I could find are extremely outdated and not very appealing, at least aesthetically.
In case you weren’t aware (or it wasn’t obvious from my writing), I’m a pretty big geek. I’m a software developer, currently on the gaming team at RIM (BlackBerry). You know those really outdated BlackBerry games, Brick Breaker and Word Mole? I made those, years ago granted. Technically I did not create Brick Breaker – just took over it a couple years after it was created when I joined the team. Word Mole though, was all mine (along with a couple artists and a co-op student).
Anyway, my point is that I spend a lot of times either writing games or playing them and I’ve been giving this whole fly fishing simulation a lot of thought recently. If I can muster up enough motivation and free time, I am seriously considering starting a project working on one of my own, with modern 3D graphics, realistic environments and simulated casting motions using something like the Wii Remote. Maybe then, my southern Ontario resident trout fishing can extend into the winter months (in my family room)!
If you’ve got a bit of geek in you as well and think this is a good idea, I’d love to hear your thoughts/comments.
As is obvious from my sudden lapse in blog posts, things have been pretty slow to non-existent on the fishing front since the trout season closer. This is the norm for me around this time of year, when the weather gets suddenly colder and rainier and the fishing slows down.
That doesn’t mean I’ve got nothing to write about though. As we get some drier days and the crowds thin down I’ll be getting out for some fishing here and there. Also, this year I’ll be spending more time on the fly tying bench restocking my supply and experimenting with new flies.
In fact, I’m currently in the midst of doing some research for a little side project: building a custom fly tying station. I haven’t quite decided yet whether this will be a full size fly desk, or a smaller, more portable tying station. There are some neat ideas out there and I plan on combining them to make something of my own. Here’s a couple links I have been looking at with some neat plans:
Fly Tying Desk
Portable Fly Tying Bench
The idea is that this will cost very little – possibly using nothing but scrap wood I have lying around my garage. I’ll post some more details and pics as I flush out the design and start working on it.