Fly fishing Tips You Can Use:
Fly fishing advice from one of the top Grand River fly fishing guides in Ontario. Fly fishing tricks and fly fishing tips which you will use, not only on the Grand River in Ontario, but across Canada. This is the original fly fishing Tips and Tricks Page on the Internet. Don't be fooled by imitations.

Here Are the Fishing Tips:
Archive #7: November, 2002.

Taken from some of the e-mail questions I receive, a few pointers as to why you might not be catching fish. On the river, if you ask yourself these questions, you might just get a few more hits.

Are there fish in the river?
This sounds silly, but for example, if you are fishing for salmon or steelhead and the run has not come up the river . . . it could be tough to hook into one. Just because the lads in the tackle shop caught salmon yesterday, there is no guarantee the fish are still there. They might have moved several miles up stream or down stream They might have moved back out into the lakes. Who knows? Buy a pair of Polarized glass and spend a wee bit of time watching the river before you start fishing. If you don't see any fish you might want to try another location. It is one thing to go fishless after you have drifted flies over fish all day, but quite another if you have been fishing a river which is fish free. "Du-Oh!"

Where is the barometric pressure?
If the pressure is low ... stay home. Fishing in a low pressure is a tough thing to do. If you can, try to fish when the pressure is on the way up or if it is holding and steady. There is more info on this, and a goldfish, in one of the other Tips Archives Pages, but I am not going to spoon feed you, so you will have to go looking for it.

Has the pool been recently fished?
Just before you get to the pool, a van load of loogans walk through it, then merrily head off down river. You arrive and are chuffed to death to find you have the pool all to yourself. You fish the heck out of it bit fail to turn a fish. Chances are, they were spooked before you got there. This is hard to detect, but if there is a whack of cars in the parking lot as you head down the trail but find no one fishing the good holding water, you might just have missed them. If you find yourself in this situation, try fishing in unlikely looking spots, close to where the fish should be. Sometimes salmon, trout and smallies will get spooked out of a pool, but they will hang around close to the area they just left. They will either be a scared to death and they won't touch a fly, or they will be pissed off at having been relocated and will smack at anything drifting past them. Try using an attractor fly like a Mickey Finn or even a Thor. Yup, I know a Mickey Finn is technically an imitative pattern but some folk insist on calling it an attractor.

Do your hands stink?
Right then. You stop for a fill up of petrol on the way to the fishing hole and spill some on your hands. But, being in a rush to go fishing, you don't wash all the traces of the petrol smell from your hands. Guess what? No fish. The fish will pick up the scent after you have tied on the fly and they won't touch it. The same holds true for insect repellent, sun block, aftershave, perfume or boot polish containing mink oil. Several guides I know swear smoke from a pipe, cigars, joints or cigarettes will do the same.
Tips:
A. Fill the gas tank the night before you head out.
B. Wash your hands - and then each fly - in river mud before you start fishing.
C. Use aftershaves like Calvin Kline Carp, Brute Brown Trout, Old Spice Smallmouth or Channel #5 Barbless.

Same time ... same place?
If you only fish between 1:00 pm and 2:00 pm but you don't seem to get any fish ... try a different time slot. Get your butt out of bed a few hours earlier or try to stay out a few hours later. Why not try a spot of night fishing. I am a big fan of fishing steelies and salmon during the two hours before dawn and the two hours after sunset. Some angler I know swear the best time to get these fish is in the mid afternoon, but I have never done well with that time slot.

Is my leader too short?
One of the biggest errors made in fly fishing is to use a leader which is too short. A short leader might not get the fly down to the right depth or worse, it might position the fly too close to the fly line. If you see fish, but they won't hit the fly, try adding a few extra feet of leader. Having said that, try to stay in 'your leader length comfort zone.' Adding a foot or two to a leader will change the way it turns over the fly, so you will have to adjust your casting technique to compensate for the additional length. Going from an 8 foot leader to a 20 foot leader in one swoop is asking for trouble. Be smart and take baby steps. Most of my fishing is done using a 12 to 15 foot level leader of 8 to 4 pound Vanish, Drennen or Fireline. Now, take a look at my leader set up.