Southern ontario trout

Brook trout are the native trout to southern Ontario and can be found in almost all the headwaters of the big rivers such as the Credit river, Nottawasaga river, Pretty river, Beaver river plus many other tiny spring creeks. Brook trout need cold water to live and it needs to stay cold all summer long. Brook trout are the best place to start for the beginner fly fisher.  With the right gear you can target them in these tight waters with a variety of different styles such as:

• Fly Fishing 
• Float Fishing 
• Spin Fishing 
• Tenkara 

Fly fishing for the Native Brook Trout in the tight Southern Ontario rivers and creeks is typically enjoyed best with a 6 to 7 foot 2 or 3 weight rod. This makes casting in tight areas a little bit easier than your standard 9 foot rod. A short leader around 7 feet is usually good for these small streams.  There are some occasions where i would use a 10 foot 4 weight but it is pretty rare. 

  Brook trout are very aggressive fish by nature and will often give you repeated takes on a dry fly after missing unlike some fussier trout. Dry fly fishing is the most exciting way to fish for brook trout because all the takes are visual. When there has been some recent rain and the water gets a little dirty and the speed of the flow increases, It becomes more effective to swing or cast and strip small streamers. 

  Indicator fishing in these small streams can be very difficult. It came make alot of  noise when casting into the small pools if your indicator is two big. A yarn indicator is the best option for this scenario. When set up in a  "Right Angle Rig" this method is very effective. This rig dose not fish well with split shot but adding multiple small midges or scuds (2-3 flies) will get you into the right zone to get that bite. Typically these fish will sit in less than a foot of water so getting those flies down becomes less of a problem. 

When you think of brook trout fishing you rarely think about centre pin float fishing.  Centre pin can actually be a lot of fun in small creeks if you just down size your gear from the standard steelhead and salmon stuff. A 10 foot ultra light rod paired with a Raven Matrix 4 3/4 inch reel is my favourite combo. 

  Staying out of sight and wearing the right colour clothing is a key component to creek fishing success. Small floats so to not spook fish. A short 1 foot shot line. light tippet like 3lb and a small hook size 14 or less. Raven 1 gram floats are a favourite of mine as well as the full line of raven products- Hooks, Weights, Split shot, Micro swivel,  Floats, Float elastic, Main line and tippet. Baits will vary depending on water conditions. Live bait like worms, minnows and leeches can be used. Artificial baits like worms, leeches, minnows, scuds, mayflies and sculpins can be used and often give you a better variety because you can carry multiple baits in your pocket at a time. Floating flies and even twitching wooly buggers can be effective as well.  

Spin fishing for  Brook trout is the more conventional way of trout fishing and is how most anglers learned how to trout fish.  Lots of our grandfathers took us down to the creek and showed us that casting a spinner across a little stream could be amazingly fun when there's trout swiping at it every couple of feet. 

  Spin fishing for brook trout is best done with a short ultra light rod around 7 feet paired with a small spinning reel. The short rods give you very good casting accuracy.  Spin fishing is extremely versatile. You are able to use the same float set up that you use for Center pin fishing, Than vey quickly switch over to a small spinner or crankbait. You can even use tight line nymphing techniques used for modern fly fishing by simply adding a sighter line to your main line. Drop shot fishing with artificial worms, minnows and leeches can be very effective as well in fast pocket water.

Ontario has a world class Brown Trout fishery and can even see brown trout over 30 inches. Brown trout are the biggest of our local Resident Trout. Resident fish do not typically exceed 22 inches and average about 14 inches but fish migrating from the lake can exceed that by a lot. When Brown Trout get to be a certain size they become very ferocious predators and are often considered to have Pike like tendencies. Brown Trout are Fall spawners  and will start to move up river to get ready to make redds as the season comes to an end in September . When fish start migrating you see some big fish in places you normally only catch small trout. When fishing in August you need to be aware that water temps can't  exceed 20 degrees Celsius or you can have fish die from exhaustion even hours after releasing them. Some of the ways you can target these big trout are: 

• Fly fishing 
• Centre pin float fishing (Steelhead / Salmon style or Trout style)
• Spin fishing  

A good do it all rod for these Brown trout is a 9 foot 5 weight rod. 5 weight rods will throw all your dry fly leaders as well as most indicator rigs. Dry droppers will be fine as well. if you want to throw really big streamers or mice than you can move up to a switch rod. 6 weight switch rods in the 11 foot area are a great addition to any fly rod collection and allow you to work long indicator leaders with ease plus throw big bulky streamers. 

  Dry fly fishing for brown trout depends on the type of water you have in front of you. Big brown trout typically do not sit with groups of fish until you start to approach the spawn season in the fall. Juvenile trout will be farther up river in your more typical trout water, a standard 9 foot leader will do fine on this water. Typical trout water would be a small wadable stream 5 feet deep in the better pools, partly wooded with log jams and shade cover. Slow water will change the way you fish. Different types of bugs hatch in the slow water and are typically a swimming type of insect making movement in the fly crucial to success. Very long leaders from 15 feet up to 22 feet are required because these slow water trout can see and hear everything. A 10 foot 4 weight rod is a great tool for this approach. Approaching them from a 45 degree angle from the rear and placing a cast over top of the fish with only the leader landing in the sight window of the fish is your only shot at these day time dry fly sippers. 

 Streamer fishing is the most run and gun style of fly fishing . Throwing big streamers dose not take much finesse , Its loud and clunky when casting. This is where the switch rods come into play. You put a few cast in one area, if nothing moves for the fly than cast to another location. Keep your leader short, Around 6 feet is usually a good place to start. The speed of the strip can vary from a 2 hand strip very quickly or just a slight hand twist retrieve. The speed of the water and the level of activity in the fish will determine the speed of the retrieve. More often than not, streamer fishing is used to target bigger fish that are looking for larger prey.  These big browns are the king of the river in most scenarios in the case of resident fish, Pike and Walleye would be the biggest competition. 

  Nymph fishing can be broken down into 3 categories. Indicator fishing, Contact nymphing or something we like to call Swimphing/Naked nymphing.

  Indicator nymphing is using a suspension device to hold your flies in the water column at the depth required to be in the strike zone. You can use a "Right Angle Rig" or a "Standard indicator leader" will work. The difference between the two is that the standard leader can use split shot and the right angle will be difficult to use any shot at all. A good rod for this method is a 10 foot 4 weight. Slow water areas are better for the "Right Angle Rig" with a New Zealand style indicator or yarn indicator. It allows for a very stealthy approach and great strike detection with small size 14-22 flies. 

  Contact nymphing or Modern nymphing has become very popular in recent years. This style of nymphing is unique as it dose not require fly line or a suspension device. Using weighted flies, Colored sighter line and very thin tippet you can suspend the flies in the water column using the rod tip or simply the weight of the fly itself. This means that you must be fairly close to your target but the more experienced anglers can still fish 30 feet out from them. A long rod 10 to 12 feet long is necessary to be able to reach great distances.  You are still able to fish a dry fly with this method and it even gives you the ability to bounce the fly on the surface of the water. If you local rules allow you to fish 3 flies than you are able to fish the whole water column at one time making this the ideal choice for time sensitive fishing.  

  Swimphing / Naked nymphing is exactly what it sounds like. This is a very simple method of targeting big browns on very slow flat water. A 9 foot leader with 1 foot of 5x tippet attached to it and a slightly weighted nymph or soft hackle is all you need. Deliver a cast across river or slightly down stream and either hand twist retrieve or do quick half inch strips. Allow the fly to sink on initial delivery, Start to strip and pause every so often and let the nymph sink back down to the bottom. When you have big fish sitting in slow water they are use to seeing there food move or swim. This food could be giant diving beetles, leeches, burrowing mayflies, minnows, mice or other terrestrials plus many others. The common trait of all this food is that it swims. By swimming your nymph slowly it becomes more realistic than a dead drifted insect in these conditions. 

 Centrepin ( Steelhead style ) : Steelhead style centrepin refers to the size of rod you are using as well as your reel. A 13 foot float rod paired with a large reel around 5 inches in diameter is a favourite around Georgian bay rivers and tributaries. Early spring and later in the fall are the best times to bring the big rods out. The water is typically higher at this time and the extra reach can often get you a better drift without disturbing the water. Floats for this set up start at 4 grams and can go up to 8 grams. Clear floats in this scenario will greatly improve success. Shot lines will start at 3 feet long. A 4 or 5x tippet 14 to 20 inches with a size 14 - 10 hook. Hook size will  depend on the size of fish you anticipate to catch. Live bait like worms, minnows and leeches can be used. Artificial baits like worms, leeches, minnows, scuds, mayflies and sculpins can be used and often give you a better variety because you can carry multiple baits in your pocket at a time. Using flies and even twitching wooly buggers can be effective as well.   

 Centrepin ( Trout style ) :  Centrepin can actually be a lot of fun in small creeks if you just down size your gear from the standard steelhead and salmon stuff. A 10 foot ultra light rod paired with a Raven Matrix 4 3/8 inch reel is my favourite combo.   Staying out of sight and wearing the right colour clothing is a key component to creek fishing success. Small floats so to not spook fish. A short 1 foot shot line. light 3lb tippet and a small hook size 14 or less. Raven 1 gram floats are a favourite of mine as well as the full line of raven products- Hooks, Weights, Split shot, Micro swivel,  Floats, Float elastic, Main line and tippet. Baits will vary depending on water conditions. Live bait like worms, minnows and leeches can be used. Artificial baits like worms, leeches, minnows, scuds, mayflies and sculpins can be used and often give you a better variety because you can carry multiple baits in your pocket at a time. Floating flies and even twitching wooly buggers can be effective as well.