Fly Fishing on Opening Day for Trout

Its almost time! I can feel it in my belly. 9 days to go until opener here in Ontario. I’ve been tracing through notes from last year, and ensuring that my list of good flies for opener are well stocked in my fly boxes.

One thing that really stinks is getting out to theriver for a few days, and realizing that you tied flies that have nothing to do with what is going to work for early season brookies and browns…..especially when its your first day out of the season!

In particular, I like to use micro streamers resembling
the fry that will be hatching in the rivers. This could mean shiners, chub,rainbow, brown and brook trout among other fry that may be present in the system. I usually fish these with the typical across and downstream swing method, but there are other useful ways to present a tiny streamer pattern.

One method that I really like is very similar to dead drifting a nymph. I find that this method works best where there is a moderate flow with very visible current seams.

I’ll start by positioning myself downstream of therun. I then measure out enough line to complete the intended drift plus acouple of extra feet. The extra couple of feet are going to allow me to mend line as the fly drift down stream. Toinitiate the drift, I flick my fly upstream, attempting to place it directly on top of the current seam. Next, I’ll toss a slight upstream mend to allow the fly to sink. I want the fly to be bouncing bottom while it sailsdownstream. I keep my rod tip relatively high in the air to keep line offof the water and to avoid having the fly move too quickly downstream. Early in the season, with water temperatures still very chilly, fish are going to be a little groggy, and often a slow, consistent drift is what is need to initiate a strike. Allowing the fly to drift with the current, and adding the odd twitch seems to be just the ticket for early season brook trout. As the fly get near to me, I’ll set a little line back down on the water to allow the current to pull the fly until it is directly down stream of me. I let it hang there for a few seconds before beginning an erratic, but shortretrieve of the fly. That is, stripping the fly in with one or two inchjerks to imitate the fry trying to fight the current.

With this method, I tend to avoid casting over the main run to fish the seam on the far side. If the stream is small enough, this is very simple to do, but I find with a run any wider that 10 or 12 feet, the fly becomes difficult to present in a natural way.

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