Georgian Bay Trib: Trout’s Revenge
It had to happen, I suppose. The trout got their revenge today.
I had a bit of cabin fever, so I decided to make one more trip up to one of the Georgian Bay tribs I fish before heading off to the sunny south. As most of you know, there are a few rivers still open for trout in Ontario (e.g. the Saugeen), and this little river I headed out to today is open until January 1.
Besides, I’ve been tying up a number of new wet and soft hackle flies that I wanted to test out to see if they’re any good. Just so I wouldn’t have to wonder about that very important issue all winter, you see.
This is a beauty little river. It’s a ‘migratory’ river of course, so in summer it’s full of baby steelhead just ready for action. And right now the salmon are heading up to spawn, and it’s a treat to have them brush by your feet as you stand there, in awe, 3 WT in hand. Not that they’d hit a fly, of course, intent as they are on procreation. Completely understandable, in my book. I wouldn’t either.
The fishing was poor today, I think because the water is getting so cold and also the level was up quite a bit from weekend rain. I got a few 6-7” fish, but nothing worth taking pics of. So I took a few of the river, just to share with those of you who (I know) have been grieving some in the last few weeks.
The first one is taken looking down into the river gorge from the bluff above. The other two are basically upstream and downstream from almost the same spot.
As payback for me harassing them all summer, the trout got to witness me taking a full header after tripping on a root while descending a bank, landing face first in the river, rod flying out ahead and arms pinwheeling like a helicopter. Fortunately for me, I landed on a gravel bar in only 2” of water, but it was still enough for me to get drenched all down my front. And today the air temp was about 6C with a 30km wind.
I could hear the fish laughing and clapping all the way down the river, while I very gently tried to extricate myself back to the warmth of my car and civilization.
I shall return !
