Archive for the ‘Stillwater’ Category

It started out typical of previous Opening Days – with Dave up and “at ‘em” earlier than me.  He started his day be fishing some creeks and rivers and then onto Lake Eugenia, where he caught a few small brook (speckled) trout.

I later met Dave in the afternoon in Orangeville, and we decided to head over to Humber Springs and try our luck for some rainbow trout.  When we arrived, we were told that the fishing had been pretty darn good earlier in the day, but the fish seemed to have stopped taking.  Sure enough, after we set up our fly rods, we found that there was no action whatsoever for quite some time.

But it was still nice to be out on the water, and good to keep up a tradition with Dave where we have hardly missed an Opening Day together since about 1978.  There have been a few in there where emergencies or a major family commitment interfered with our plans, but not many.

I tried a variety of fly patterns with no luck at all, including wets, leech patterns, and after noticing some midge husks on the water, a variety of chironomid buzzer patterns.  But nothing.

Finally, after thinking it was going to be a useless afternoon and evening as far as catching fish, Dave, who had walked over to another part of the pond, called out to me.  When Dave does that, it usually means fish in the neighbourhood.  I scrambled over to where Dave was fishing, to hear him tell me that he had just had a fish on that had broke his fly off.

As well, there were fish rising nearby – appearing to be taking small minows that were swimming near the surface.

A few minutes later after a cast from the bank, Dave hooked and landed a nice rainbow trout of about a pound and a half:

David Moore and his Opening Day Rainbow Trout.

Me? Well, I tied on a fly that was given to me – no idea the name of it. I did get to feel the strike of a fish for the first time in months – in fact three times, I had a fish on but lost it.

As it got dark, the temperature cooled down and the fish seemed to take another break from their feeding.

It wasn’t the most successful Opening Day we’ve had, but after a long winter, just being out fishing is good no matter the number of fish caught or seen.

I’d never heard much about “Booby Flies” until a few years ago, when I started doing more stillwater fly fishing. My friend Arron Varga introduced them to me, and when he did, I thought they were pretty weird looking. I still don’t quite understand what the attraction to the fish are that take them, although I’m told it’s not how they look; rather it is the noise or vibration they make.  Personally, I’ve never caught a trout on a Booby Fly – but that just may because I seldom have tried them.

When I first heard about them, I did a wee bit of reading up on these flies and heard a few more things – like how they were all the rage on some U.K. reservoirs for rainbow trout.  And I also heard that some places had banned the use of Booby Flies because of how effective they are at catching fish, apparently.

In the March 2010 issue of Total FlyFisher, there is an article entitled “Booby Trap,” featuring anglers Mike Marriott and John Pass “as they employ a new Booby technique, trying to catch from a water that hasn’t seen a trout caught for more than two weeks!”

In the article, Mike Marriott points out that indeed, many fisheries have banned the Booby. But for a different reason than what I’ve heard:

“The problem is, if you’re fishing catch and release with Boobies, the trout you catch are generally deeply hooked and then have to be dispatched, and for this reason Boobies are banned on many fisheries.”

Mikes go on to suggest that his method of fishing Boobies, which employs the use of split shot, most fish are lip hooked and the fly is therefore easier to remove.

Booby flies are also sometimes called “Dolly Parton’s.” If you don’t know why, you’ll understand the very first time you see one. Basically, they have two round bits of foam on either side of the hook shank near the eye.  They can be dressed in many different ways – some fly tyers will attach eyes to each “booby.”  Some swear by using different colours of boobies, and different sizes for different levels of flotation (the foam helps the fly float off the bottom, when using sinking lines).

I know that Arron has caught a good number of rainbow trout on Booby patterns. I’ll have to get ask him to provide some of his favorite patterns with photos!

Many anglers like to use pontoon boats or float tubes for fly fishing stillwater. My good friend Terry Hunt has been using a pram boat – an 8 foot flat bottomed wooden boat for fly fishing, and due to requests from others, has started up a business making the pretty little boats.

More here: Fly Fishing Watercraft? How About A Pram Boat?