This is big news! We are very pleased to announce that Ontario fly fishing guide & outfitter Rob Heal has joined the team at WILSON’S and will be working in our new Fergus fly shop when it opens in the coming weeks. Rob has been given the task of heading up and coordinating our fly fishing education and outfitting programs and we could not be more delighted to have him on our team!

If you are familiar with Rob Heal you already know that he is one of the most experienced and respected fly fishing drift boat guides in Ontario. Getting someone of Rob’s calibre is a coup by any measure and it is a union of strengths that will produce a level of outfitting, education and fly fishing retail in Ontario that has never been seen in the Province. To be honest, we can’t wait to get started! Anyone who has fished with or been guided by Rob over the past 16 years knows that he is passionate about teaching people and being on the river. This is a great opportunity for WILSON’S to take our fly fishing guiding and fly fishing school programs to a new level. Rob has been given the responsibility of putting together our new program and he has gathered together some of the other most skilled, experienced guides and pro-staffers in Ontario to create the most formidable team of drift boat and walk & wade fly fishing guides in the Province. Keep watching our website for more details in the coming days…

To learn more about what is happening with our new fly shop in Fergus, our schools and our guiding program please make www.CanadasFlyFishingOutfitter.com a favorite. We will continue to keep everyone updated via this blog and on Twitter @WILSONSFlyShop. In the interim please feel free to contact us with any questions or comments you may have – and of course guided trips! Rob is currently booking guided walk & wade trips on a number of destinations including of course the Grand River, the Credit River, Whiteman’s Creek, Bronte Creek, the Niagara River, the Humber River, the Ganaraska River, Bowmanville Creek, the Trent River, the Bighead River, the Mad River, the Beaver River, and the Saugeen River. We are also now booking fly fishing drift boat trips on the Grand River, the Saugeen River, the Maitland River, the Sauble River, and the Nottawasaga River.

We trust you will agree this is very cool but we have more announcements coming!

Stay tuned…

As I sit at home battling the proverbial “mother of all chest colds” it is emails like the one we received this week that make all of the effort of running a fly shop worthwhile. It is always gratifying to receive words of praise and we thank Ken for taking the time to let us know what he thought about our hatch chart for Whiteman’s Creek.

“I just joined your site & was totally AMAZED that u had a hatch chart for Whiteman’s Creek. I have had a 35 foot trailer 20 ft. from the creek at a gun club for 23 yrs now & many members fly fish. I have taught many younger & older members how to fly fish (as I have been doing it for about 45 yrs) & taught my 2 kids boy/girl how to fly fish at the age of 5. I will shortly be ordering a few of your flies [and] will definitely be giving your address to everyone here & am sure they will pass it on to all their friends… I am very glad I found you! Ken”

If you would like more information on hatch charts for the Grand River, the Maitland River, the Saugeen River, the Credit River, the Nottawasaga River, the Humber River, the Boyne River Nd other fly fishing destinations in southern Ontario please go to the Members area of our site. It is free to join our Fly Fishing Club and we trust you will like what you find!

One of the aspects I like about fly fishing is that regardless of how long any of us have been involved in the sport there is always something new to learn. Some of us focus on casting and teaching. Others prefer to focus on mastering the art of catching a certain species and still others prefer to master the art of fly tying. The list truly is endless but it has one common thread – we all love fly fishing and that bond and the mutual respect upon which it is based is what creates friendships at club meetings, fly fishing lodges, industry shows and chance encounters on a river.

I am not one to make New Year’s resolutions but as this year draws to a close two of the things I would like to learn more about in 2011 are fly tying and entomology.These aspects of our sport are inseparable and while endless in their complexity they also give us countless hours of enjoyment at a tying bench and on a river. I was told when getting into the sport that catching a fish on a fly you have tied yourself provides one of the greatest senses of accomplishment you can experience as a fly angler. Over the years that comment has haunted me and I have decided that 2011 is the year that I will improve my knowledge of both.

To that end, one of the best online entomology resources I have seen over the years is troutnut.com and if you have not bookmarked this website you should. Created and maintained by Jason Neuswanger, troutnut.com is a fly tyers dream come true because it has over 3,700 pictures of 748 subjects and a growing library of behavioral information to help fly tyers understand and better imitate the things trout eat.

To see what I mean go to www.troutnut.com

70 Fahrenheit (21 C):
Bahamian flats guides stay on the dock because their sunscreen is chilled.
Canadian anglers put ice in their hats to prevent heat stroke.

50 Fahrenheit (10 C):
Italian anglers stop fly fishing because their wine gets too cold.
Canadians anglers stop wet wading.

32 Fahrenheit (0 C):
British anglers stop fly fishing because their beer freezes.
Canadians anglers don’t have that problem because they drink Canadian beer.

0 Fahrenheit (-17..9 C):
New York City landlords finally turn on the heat.
Canadians anglers put on a toque.

-60 Fahrenheit (-51 C):
Santa Claus abandons the North Pole.
Canadians anglers pull down their earflaps.

-109.9 Fahrenheit (-78.5 C):
Carbon dioxide freezes.
Canadian anglers skip school to go steelheading.

-173 Fahrenheit (-114 C):
Ethyl alcohol freezes.
Canadians anglers get frustrated because they can’t thaw the keg.

-459.67 Fahrenheit (-273.15 C):
Absolute zero; all atomic motion stops.
Canadian anglers start saying “Cold, eh?”

-500 Fahrenheit (-295 C):
Hell freezes over.
The Toronto Maple Leafs win the Stanley Cup…

We hope you wake this morning to find everything you wished for under the Christmas tree and that you have friends and family with whom to share the day. Merry Christmas everyone!