Yes! I Got The Brown, But Colin Caught More

Colin and I have been successful on both counts – he is still here and tonight we went fishing. Once again, on the Grand River near Elora. We arrived about 5PM, the day was sunny with some light breezes and the water very clear – close to normal flow levels and height. Although, admittedly I’ve not spent much time on the Grand River fly fishing having in the past preferred sections of the Saugeen.

But I have to admit I’m learning to really enjoy the Grand River. I fished some of it years ago, but it always seemed to be overated in many respects – and I didn’t like the sudden differences in flow rates that could occur depending on what the conservation authority figured it needed to do at the Shand Damn.

Anyhow, Colin and I began the evening’s fishing with nymphs. Within about 15 minutes, he had himself a small chub. An hour and a half later, and after a number of missed hits, a larger chub. On a fly he tied himself! This was not looking good! Colin was ahead in the fish landed score by 2, against dad’s zip. By then, there was both a Hendrickson and Caddis hatch going on, all at the same time. The water all around me had rings where fish were rising. I tied on a pattern which drifted high on the water – perhaps a bit too high, as I had hits just about every cast – but no real hook ups. What was also interesting to me was that the fish did not seem interested at all in anything smaller than a size 12 or 14. The larger flies were what they were interested in – but, it also seemed to me that most of the fish hitting my flies were on the small side – less than 6″.

I kept looking downstream, watching my son work the water – I am really impressed with how he has taken to fly fishing. He slowly worked sections, and quite smartly too – even though he was not sucessful in more than two fish. His casting is beautiful and I had wished I brought along my video camera just so he could see later how good his casting actually is.

The hatch seemed to end – I waded down to where Colin was, talked with him for a while and then returned upstream and tried some sections I had not fished before – this time with a nymph again. I looked at some real fishy looking water, and cast out my nymph, stripping in a short but quick motion (this seemed to be the most enticing to the fish) and had a brown on for about 4 seconds. Darn!

A few casts later – a terrible cast – where everything just went wrong and the line landed on the water curled up 10 feet in front of me, I was preparting for the next cast, when.. bam! Totally unexpected – and of course, lost that one too.

“Ok, there’s some nice fish right here,” I thought to myself. Next cast, perfect to how I wanted the fly to drift into the target zone – then some short quick strips.. another wham! This one felt good.. and I knew it was well hooked. The rod I was using, a 9′ 5wt. Temple Creek Outfitter Professional series rod felt good in my hands. I called Colin who was way downstream while bringing the fish in. He had never seen a brown trout before, so I wanted to show him how pretty they were.

Thankfully, there was no one else on the river to hear my hollering as I tried to get his attention. While he was walking up towards me, I took hold of a beautiful, chunky 12 inch brown. Normally, I’d release the fish immediately, but I really wanted Colin to see this, so I gently handled it in the water, tickling its tummy while waiting for Colin to arrive. We admired it for a few moments – and then watched him dart away back to the deeper water after being released.

By now it was getting close to dark – the sun had already begun to set, so we only had a few more casts left before we had to clear out of the river. I had one more hit on the nymph but no solid hook up before leaving.

Colin and I took off our waders, chatted for a bit while I was thinking, “Sheesh – I guess I have to take Colin home to Ottawa tomorrow.” A few minutes later, after we pulled out onto the highway, Colin said, “You know Dad, it seems like a bit of a waste for me to go home tomorrow because I don’t have school on Friday – what’s the point in going back for just one day?”

“Well.. I guess we can make sure it’s ok with Mom if you stay until the weekend – I sure don’t mind!”

Colin’s left a message with mom. Maybe there’s more dad and son fishing time in our future this week! I’m still not sure who is more excited, me or Colin – but I was really happy today that he caught the first fish, and then managed one on a fly he tied himself as well. Could a really nice brown trout be in his very near future?