Last year, I spent some time trying to fish a prestigious head-water system in Ontario, and every time I left the stream with my tail between my legs. Skunked, missed fish, lost flies (A LOT), lost nets, and being attacked by hordes of fire-ants – the hardship never seemed to end. I was at a loss – my friends would consistently land nice resident fish from this stream, and I didn’t know what I was doing wrong. It was frustrating. However, like any good trout stream, the beauty, solitude, and allure of catching a beautiful resident trout pulled me back time and time again.
Flash forward six months, and it’s the beginning of a new trout season. After spending opener in some cold weather with very limited success, I was very excited to drive out to this head-water system after work. The weather was sunny and around 15 degrees Celsius – a nice change of conditions compared to the cool days of the previous weekend. I arrived at the access point, geared up, and made my way to the stream near an old bridge. While I do feel I am becoming a better angler over the years, I think most of my improvement has come with the development of patience. A year or two ago, I would have just hopped in the river, and started tossing flies like it was nobody’s business. This day, however, I just sat on the bank, alone, soaking in the sounds of nothingness, and watched the river do its thing. I spent a solid ten minutes just watching for any activity, and didn’t observe much, so I started working sections of the pool with a Czech nymph. It was only after two or three casts, when I was getting ready to stroll to the more familiar part of the stream, that I saw a trout surface in some slack water created by the current rolling around the bridge abutments.
Now, with my luck on this stream, when this happens to me, the scenario typically unfolds as follows:
1. Locate an active fish
2. Psyche myself up (“I think I can, I think I can”)
3. Prep my cast
4. Completely botch the cast
5. Expletive
6. Spooked fish
But today, however, the trout gods were in my favor as I presented the fly in just the right way, and as soon as the nymph hit the water, the trout hammered it! After a fun tussle, I had this beautiful resident brown in my net. It was a huge relief for me to finally have success on this stream, and especially with such a gorgeous brown trout (I love the red spots!!).
Of course, this was the only fish I caught in the couple of hours I had on the water, but I’ll take one fish like this any day! All in all, it was an excellent evening on the water, and I can’t wait to do it all again tonight!
Tight lines,
Cody
