Opening Day Disappointment

Colin arrived from Ottawa yesterday to carry on our years long tradition of spending Opening Day together. We had made arrangements with my friend Dave Moore to head to the Grand and show him a few of the access points as he’d never fished there before, meeting here first at about 7AM.

I was so excited with anticipation that I couldn’t really sleep. A few rum and cokes – and finally at 6AM, had an hour long “nap.” The day started out grey, windy and cold – and continued that way. I don’t think the temperature got above 8C where we were. The cold weather must have made the fish very lethargic as not one was seen during the hours Colin and I fished with Dave.

We threw everything but dries at the flies – there didn’t seem to be any point to dries as even with some minor hatches going on – there were absolutely no rises whatsoever. Not a hit all day – and not one fish seen being caught by any of the other anglers nearby.

About 3:30PM, shivering and Colin especially cold due to a leaky wader, Colin and I decided to call it a day with the idea that we’ll be heading out again tomorrow. Dave decided that he’d head up to Meaford to try the harbour area for rainbows using worms. He just called to gloat that he caught a 5 1/2 pound rainbow – and not only that, the temperature was warmer than where we had been fishing earlier! That was unexpected! Usually, Meaford is at least a couple or three degrees cooler than the Orangeville-Elora-Fergus areas.

Regardless of the disappointing action, it was still great to get out on the river though and start the bad casting habits all over again. I was quite impressed with how well Colin, my 15 year old, did – remembering all the good habits he had been taught in the early season of last year by Ian James.

Well, here’s to better luck tomorrow!