Spring has sprung: Canada trip part 2

The next day we moved north, looking for something that has eluded me for a while, I wanted to catch my first steelhead. I knew I can do it, I had some pretty good local intel and support. My guides taught me the technique, put me on fish, what else could I hope for?  Meanwhile they did a little fishing themselves. Sotto got the first one on his spey rod:

 Then Hari's turn to land a beauty:

The fish were surfacing all over the place  but all they had on their mind was the spawning, not the food. They were even trying to get into a tiny brook to spawn. Finally, after numerous casts, I could feel the perfect swing and my first steelhead became more then just a dream

 

Last day of this dream trip was very short. I had a plane to catch so for a couple of hours we chose a nearby creek that had some little ones hanging around

 And some a little bigger:

 The big brown managed to stay hidden from us in the morning, but Sotto found it in the afternoon.

Spring has sprung: Canada trip part 1

    It took quite a bit of work to coordinate 4 guys into 3.5 days of fishing together on some of the prettiest rivers of Ontario. But when passion is involved, things happen. Friday afternoon I was treating patients at my busy clinic and Saturday morning found me chasing wild trout in the wilderness of Canada. Tungsten beads and fishing equipment stuffed into my carry-on luggage raised an eyebrow at the airport check in scan but I made it to Detroit on schedule for the pickup.

  Signs of spring everywhere, although winter was still showing its presence. First river looked absolutely amazing and was a disappointment not to have even one strike between the 4 of us in a couple of hours of fishing. The view compensated for it though, one of the prettiest rivers I ever saw.

 

Candy was in the river, but the fish were nowhere to be found.

 

 

 

 Then change of location, off to another gem of a river. This one reminded me of some of our romanian rivers, long time ago, before "green" energy fever hit them.

    Only the little ones stayed for the photo ( the biggest one got away) but Sotto managed to scoop a couple of feisty browns from their hiding places.

Dangerous living, those boulders were not there last fall:






The second day brought some meat in front of my camera. In the afternoon we finally hit the jackpot. It started slowly but then the hell broke loose.

 

 Or should I call it heaven?...

Then in the end, Sotto hit the prettiest rainbow of the day:

 And the fish we caught continued to grow through that night, beer after beer.

 Here's his side of the story

 

Awesome first 2 days, we are heading north for part 2, stay tuned...

MARCH MADNESS

     I was able to head down to the Farmington River in Connecticut a couple of weekends ago and since I decided that this year I will do things a little different, I fished mostly sections previously unexplored. This way I discovered some incredible dry fly pools that I cannot wait to fish during an early summer hatch. Winter was still an important part of the story.

   I was using some new barbless hooks and I have to say they didn't disappoint me during this early test. A few fish fell for the goodies despite the brutal wind and bitter cold.

Hopefully no more pictures with snow and ice in my posts until November!

Extra layer

There is something extraordinarily beautiful about winter in New Hampshire. It's too complex to be squeezed in a few words. But you see it all around, in the white/blue contrast, the calmness of the falling snow or in the intricate ice designs.

 

I didn't like it in my first years here. The commute was hard, scraping ice from the windshield in bitter wind was not my favorite thing to do and ice fishing did not appeal to me. But I gradually got used to it and actually started to like it. And in the past few years another dimension was added: fly fishing can be great, even in the middle of a snowstorm. 

Even cleaning the ice off the guides or the line has its own charm. In Arizona you just dip the rod in the water. Here is repetitive manual work.

We are still under winter weather here in new Hampshire, but it doesn't feel like before. There are no long winter nights spent tying flies and dreaming about the sunny days with abundant hatches that are so far apart. Fly fishing does not die in the winter. You just need add an extra layer...