My love of fishing began just about 50 years ago when I moved from Toronto to a foster home in the country. It was a 100 acre beef farm with a river running through the back end. I spent a lot of hours fishing for catfish. It was were I went get rid of stress.
Those memories of fishing are as fresh in my mind today as they were 50 years ago. Take a kid fishing and change a life.
I couldn’t wait to get out of that foster home and eventually moved to New Brunswick Canada where I still had blood relatives.
It was New Brunswick where I learned how to use a fly rod for the first time and spent the next 5 years finding and fly fishing every trout streams, brook and beaver pond I could find. I also spent a lot of time fly fishing for Atlantic salmon but that’s for another post.
Trout Fishing Tip #1 – Patience Wins The Day
As many years as I have been fishing I still get more excited the closer I get to a fishing spot.
I used to be the first to the water and usually the first to catch a fish but I wonder just how many bigger, wiser fish I spooked being in such a hurry.
I remember watching brother-in-law Joe, the guy who taught me to use a fly rod. He was slow and pokey but it turns out that he was more methodical about fly fishing and would always catch the bigger fish. it took me a few years to calm down enough to pay attention to him.
Joe would get all geared up, then he would creep down to the edge of the water, find a comfy rock and have a coffee while watching what was going on in and around the water.
Trout Fishing Tip #2 – Being Stealthy Wins The Day, Again
I learned a bit of patience from Joe but I learned to be a stealthy fly fishing from a college professor who was an avid fly fisher.
My professor asked me if I wanted to go fly fishing after supper as he knew I carried my fishing gear everywhere I went.
Well he took me to a spot I have fished many times and caught some nice fat 12 and 13 inch brookies. Nothing any bigger than that there, I thought.
Well I was about to find out there were much bigger brookies in that brook.
We didn’t take the same path I usually took to fish this spot. He took me up river a bit where we crossed to the other side and came back down to where I usually start fishing.
Before getting to the brook he started to crouch and almost crawled to a tree right on the river bank. From behind the tree he pointed out a little riffle of water going under an overhanging tree on the other bank.
He made one false cast to get the line out and then changed his direction and landed a small dry fly at the beginning of the riffle and let it drift under the tree. A huge splash and he had on a brook trout that could eat the trout I usually catch there.
I was blown away when he netted the first 18 inch brook trout I had ever seen.
He said to give that spot a break for a few minutes and we moved to the next spot where he did the same thing. Kinda crawled to a spot he could get a good cast with his fly, without being seen by any fish. Heck I used to just walk up and start casting.
This time he hooked into a 16 inch brookie.
The next spot it was my turn. I did all the stealth and tried to keep low in the tall grass. I had a bit of trouble making a cast in that position and my fly slapped the water. Big mistake when you’re fly fishing spooky fish like brook trout.
I did hook a 13 inch brook trout. Guess he wasn’t as smart as those bigger brookies who took off when I smacked the water.
Trout Fishing Tip #3 – Learn To Read The Water
Back to brother-in-law Joe who taught me to fly fish with a bit of patience. Well Joe also taught me about reading my surroundings. Something I have taught many people over the years.
He’d sit there sipping his coffee and reading the river for potential fish locations were we could take a fish.
Once he had them pointed out we would watch those spots. It was amazing to me when we would see a brookie take something from the surface, exactly where he showed me.
The more I observed the better I got at observing which showed in the numbers of fish I was catching on the fly. I actually got to the point where people I took fishing were impressed with my talents, talents I had to learn from others.
Related articles
- Atlantic Salmon Fishing New Brunswick (thejoyofflyfishing.com)
