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 #11. January 2005.

Clean it out.
Clean all the junk out of your fly fishing vest. I have said this before and I am saying it again. If you know where your terminal tackle is you will get more fish. You will spend less time faffing about looking for stuff, and more time fishing.

Stick with the basics.
Some of the best fly fishermen I know carry one or two small boxes of flies with them on the river. Most of them use a floating line for much of their fishing, and they keep their "on the river tackle" to a minimum. They catch fish because they fish the heck out of the flies they take, and they spend time to work on retrieving the fly or manipulating the fly line during "the drift." Far too often fly fishermen (from novice to expert and guru) get caught up in the need for new patterns, rather than working to death traditional flies. Yes, new patterns will produce fish, but you are never really sure if those results are a flash in the pan. I have watched fly fishermen switch flies after two or three drifts, because they are not getting hits. Heck, it takes me about two dozen drifts, with the same fly, just to figure out how the currents are working, and how my fly is fishing. After about three or four dozen drifts, I am just getting a feel for what is happening. In essence, your first two hours on the river are your "warm up," or they should be!

F is for F-Fly.
Every fly fisherman owes Marjan Fratnik a huge debt of thanks. In Slovenia in 1977, Marjan developed a pattern which we now know as the F-Fly. He took an existing pattern called the Entenpurzel (created by Swiss fly tyer Jules Rindlisbacher) and made the pattern a much "simpler tie." By 1983 or there about, Marjan had reduced the fly to a wing of cul de canard with a thread body. Two decades later, this pattern has become a modern day classic. Sadly, there are now hundreds of variations of the F-Fly, but the version Marjan developed (the thread body with the cul de canard wing) is by far the most productive. If you are going to fish for trout in 2005, you need to have some F-Flies in your box. You can fish them as a dry, as an emerger or even as a "stillborn" in the surface. An F-Fly will work in a caddis hatch or even in a mayfly hatch. You must have a few of these in your box. Note: The biggest error most folk make when they tie and F-Fly is that the body is too thick or too fat.

G is for Good Grief, or Get a Grip.
There is no getting away from it. There is a whack of fly fishing information out there. The trick is to try and filter out the credible information from the not so credible stuff. Keep in mind that before the Internet was developed, and before the space age fly tying materials hit the fly fishing market place, fly fishermen were getting fish on patterns like the Pheasant Tail Nymph and the Hare's Ear Nymph. Also, remember that trout have an IQ of 3 and carp have an IQ of 6, so you are not matching wits when you go fishing. Read most of the fly fishing self help information with an open mind and a large pinch of salt.

Take a Trip.
This advice is a bit odd, but it works. Take a one or two day trip and hire two local guides to fish the same stretch of water for half a day each with you. Chances are you will be amazed at the differences in how the guides look at the river, how they fish it, what flies they use and how they select which flies they use. If you want to expand your fly fishing horizons, this is a great tip. It works. I have done this several times, and each time I do it, I always take away a few good fishing tips or I learn to look at fly fishing a wee bit differently than I did before. Travel in the US is so inexpensive, that if you live in the US, you should be taking two short fly fishing junkets this year. I kid you not, it will pay off in spades for you.

Size Matters.
In the spring and in the fall when the water is high, you need larger sizes of flies than you would use in the summer during low water conditions. So, in February, when you are tying up Hare's Ear Nymphs, or any other pattern, try this and it will save you a bunch of time. Start out by tying the pattern in a larger size, then keep tying them by the dozen down to the smaller sizes. At the end of a week, you will have a full selection of sizes for use all year long. Too many tyers will sit down and produce the flies they need for their next trip, without looking ahead. You have the materials right there in front of you, so you should take the opportunity to tie up the different sizes you will need, and then you are done with it for the year.

Sun Block.
Check the best before date on your bottle of sun block. Some brands have a very short shelf life, and once they have expired they offer little or no protection from the sun.

Make a List.
With some things change is often hard to measure, and fly fishing is one of those things. Just when you think you have it figured out, your next three trips produce a total of two small fish, and you are almost right back to where you started. Start by getting a bit of paper or an old business card, and write on it three things you would like to do so that you will become a better fisherman. To start out try these three:
1. Sharpen my fly after every snag.
2. Reduce my false casting.
3. Take the time to watch the river.
Now take the bit of paper to a print shop and ask them to laminate it for you. Take the laminated paper and attach it to the front of your fishing vest. Once you have turned these three things into an every day habit, then move on to another three. Oh by the way, it should take you about a season to adopt these three things into your fly fishing.