We complain about it…a lot. Six weeks ago every Ontario Fly Fishing Guide and angler was pulling his hair out due to the lack of rain. Two weeks ago we complained as there was too much rain. It’s often feast or famine. Living in rural Ontario, I often talk with farmers who for the most part, have identical complaints and equal concerns. Is it worth complaining about? That depends on how dead the conversation is and how much one person wants to revive it but beyond that, complaining does nothing. You have to find the good in everything though and the big rain event in early May was a gift. Although we complained at the time, we needed it badly and it has left the area in pretty good shape in terms of trout fishing. Of course a steady and light helping of rain will always be welcome but for now, take advantage of the conditions.
So what do we do about it? Gain and maintain a sense of how the rain effects the rivers that you fish. For example, the last major rain event in our emmediate region put a lot of the systems out of commission but several rivers west of us were in great shape and fished well during that period. Use the tools available to you and take the time to do some exploring after those rain events to get an idea of what happened to your river. Develop your own patterns and it will pay dividends.
So here is what we know about the region: The tail water is fishing well and at normal flows. Hendrickson’s are still hatching strong with grey foxes mixed in. We are getting to that period where the fishing will steadily improve and with the resevior full, we can expect pretty good temperatures for late May and June. Caddis have also become more important and the tail water is experiancing solid daily hatches.
Finally a reminder of “Grand Opportunities” at Belwood Lake on June 2nd. Grand Ops, as we often call it, is a great day filled with friends, food, educational seminars and masterclasses, and gear sale/swap. Also, there’s The Friends of The Grand draw for any single handed Sage “ONE” rod, with matching line and reel, of your choice (tickets available at our Fergus location).

Tight lines,

The team at WILSON’S

It is mid-May. You are at work. It is sunny. You have your gear in the car and you are wondering if fly fishing conditions on the Grand River are worth cutting out early.

In a word: YES!

Temperatures on the upper reach are perfect. Water clarity is excellent, Hendricksons are still coming off and we are seeing some craneflies, grey foxes and the beginning of a tan caddis hatch. Tell your boss you are not feeling well and you need to go home… and if he/she falls for it stop into WILSON’S Fergus at 105 Queen Street West to say hello!

Part of what we will be offering on the WILSON’S blog going forward and on a daily basis is river reports. As we gather intelligence on the systems in our region, we’ll pass it onto you in hopes that we can better prepare you in planning your trip. Last weeks high water anomaly caught many off guard and frankly, we were a bit suprised to see so many showing up at the shop that had no idea of what had occurred. (That being the tail water reaching its highest discharge in three years.)
Now I know that we won’t be able to reach everyone but we will try and provide you with the best and most up to date reports that we can, both in terms of flows and what the fishing is like.
Further to that, please feel free to send us information on other rivers if you feel it’s worth sharing.

So what can one expect this weekend on the tailwater? At this time, flows out of Shand dam are 9 cms and about 9.3 degrees. The Hendrickson’s have been fairly consistent through the middle and lower sectors but we expect them to be tailing off. If you are planning to travel in the next week, I wouldn’t leave the house without a few grey fox nymphs, emergers and dunns. More and more caddis are showing up as well so be prepared for that contingency.

It’s going to be a beautiful weekend so try and take advantage of it.

We are now 2 weeks into trout season in southern Ontario and many anglers are scratching their heads because of the weather we have had wondering what flies to use and where they should be fishing. We are pleased to be able to report that the Grand River is getting back to seasonal norms in terms of flow and we can also tell you that hatches are at least a week to 10 days ahead of historic norms. Some of the regular readers of this blog may also be wondering why we have not been posting on a more regular basis and the reason is we have been up to our a$$ in alligators with the opening of our Fergus store. During this period we have been doing some employee training and part of that training has included how to access this blog and write entries. In the grand scheme of things we will admit that writing the blog has been put on the back burner but our new life with a second store to look after is starting to settle into a manageable pattern and you will see us returning to more regular entries shortly.

In the category of “One step forward, two steps back…” We are now in week two since we opened our fly shop in Fergus and every time we think the ‘to do’ list is getting shorter we remember another item or two that needs to be taken care of. Those of you who have kindly taken a moment to drop in to say hello will already know that we have held off ramping up our inventory beyond what it is (which, by the way, is more fly fishing inventory than Fergus has seen in quite some time) because we have not had security bars in the windows. That situation has now been rectified and our next pile of boxes full of goodies is due in Fergus next week. In the interim we have been doing a LOT of listening to what customers have been telling us and we have been taking more than a handful of notes.

So what is coming down the pipe? Well, first and foremost we have our website team working on a new landing page for the Fergus store and we are editing our current website to reflect our new staff, our fly fishing schools and our impressive fly fishing guide program. We are also finalizing some pretty cool contests that are going to be a great reason for people to drop into the store and continuing to tie up the loose ends. Stay tuned…