Even though Spring was late, Summer is coming early for trout fishing.  I've been taking advantage of some free time from work and pretty good weather to get in as much trout fishing as I can before the water temperature rises to dangerous levels for Catch and Release.

At my favorite little Brook Trout lake, the surface temp (ST) is already 75F (I like Imperial measures....more human, I leave CGS to laboratories).  According to Crossman's Fish of Canada, the textbook most biologists are forced to buy at $120 states that 75F is fatal to Rainbows.  Browns can take a bit higher but same for Brookies.  Our technical advisers from Carleton U. say that 75F is not actually fatal.  The fish can take a bit of time of it but they will avoid water at that temperature if they can.  We have had fish go belly up being brought in at ST70F.   The surface temperature usually goes down 5-10 ft before slowly getting cooler.  At 20ft down, it can be dramatically cooler.
The ideal temperature for trout feeding is 55F-65F.  Many experienced trout fishers who practice C&R, move off trout waters at 68F, Bill Spicer for one.  Three of my Rainbow lakes are already at 66F.

The issue is the trout's ability to get O2 out of the water at these temperatures.  Try struggling in the water with a hook in your mouth while holding your breath and you get an idea of what the trout is going through.


So to avoid this area of the lake, the trout will hang out in 25-35 feet of water for most of the day time.  25 ft is the deepest plants survive and that is where the trout food is likely to be.    According to the information I've received from these advisers, the next issue is baratrauma.   Trout coming up quickly from 30 ft will suffer the human equivalent of Bends.  Some believe that Lake Trout have a release valve for this, other experts are not so sure.  But our sport fish of Rainbows, Brook Trout and Browns do not have this ability.  So when we do our summer fishing with our full sink lines down at 20 to 30 feet we could be subjecting our trout to this who will come up pretty fast to shake that hook (which they can only do by jumping in the air), then hit that oxygen depleted water, well I'm sure you get the picture.


In the Ottawa area, we don't have  cold mountain trout lakes but not to despair.  Pike and walleye are open and Bass will soon be and so will Musky, the new target of flycasters.  I can't wait to get my winter made 10wt rod into action.


If you still want to catch the remaining couple of weeks for trout, get him in real quick, don't net, just run your hand down the line and flick that hook out.  No time for pictures.   Otherwise, you may be taking something home.  Our lakes aren't well enough stocked for too much harvest which unfortunately is the case.

I took a chance on the weather and went to my favorite little Rainbow Lake in the Calabogie area.  The fish are not big here as the lake is relatively small but usually plentiful.  And they can be caught on flies.  Trout are almost always on the surface so one can use dry flies as well.  It is so good a fly fishing lake that the OFS adopted it and did some additional stocking a few years back.

There is an axiom in flyfishing:  Don't leave fish to find fish.  You can adapt that also to mean, don't go to another lake when you catching at the lake you are on or last on.

There were plenty of mosquitoes at the launch but I had prepared my rods in advance so I skooted into the lake toute suite.  Right away I got action on my usual combo of White Phentex Humpy and a chironomid point fly on a long leader.  This time I had on an epoxy green buzzer.   I got five takes on that plus a couple on the Humpy.  Didn't land any but that's OK.

When I picked up an emerging midge, I saw that it was brown with tan stripes so I put on a brown chironomid and landed one on it.

On the wet rig: #4 sink with a Black Coney Leech as the dropper and a PT Nymph at the point after I noticed a single mayfly floating by.  Got a nice 2nd year fish (like the one above) right away.   Here is the Coney Leech I keep talking about.

I got three on the Coney Leech.  I did a throat pump on one of the fish and noticed zoo-plankton or tiny scuds.  I then put on a Blob.  I've never fished a Blob before but that is what you use when they are feeding on these tiny critters.  I can see why Britain wants to ban them.  I had tension on my line but a 3rd year RB swallowed it deep.  Fortunately I was able to get it out without damage.  I didn't take a pic of the trout as I wanted it back in the water as soon as possible.    Here is a picture of a Blob in case you haven't seen one.  Mine got wrecked in removal.  And it is not nearly as good looking at this one.  You need to get the special chenille from Britain.

Got lots of hits.  This lake is famous (infamous rather) for fish that nibble but don't take.  Also got one on a Mrs Simpson.
All in all I hooked about ten fish today in five hours of fishing.  That is not bad in a lake so close to civilization and 45 minutes from home!

45 minutes from my house in Pakenham, I have access to several small brook trout lakes.  I find that rather nice being so close to the 4th largest urban area in Canada.  There are not many larger fish in the lake as it is fished quite a bit.   When I arrived a worm fisher had taken out a "one pound" fish.   I wouldn't eat fish out of a lake like this because they eat so many leeches.  A friend did that once a few years ago and he reported the flesh to be whitish and mushy.  The other reason is already stated and that there aren't many, so why would a person do this?  The good news is that the otter did not eat all of them.   There were many of recent stockers jumping.  It is curious to me why this lake is the only one that has so much surface action.   This third year fish was taken on a white phentex humpy.  I also got action on a dropped chironomid off the humpy.   There were a few boatman and many midges on the surface but no shucks so the hatch was some time ago.   It did not appear as there would be one today even by 3PM.

I was able to fish several lakes at Pourvoirie Baroux.  One of their lakes is pretty small, Verrat  but I had barely got off the launch when I had this rainbow on.  I was using a combo of a Coney Leech and a Yellow Hammill's Killer.  The Leech got the fish.
There were also some sizeable Brook Trout there as well.  They also liked the black Coney Leech but the Vampire Leech has many shades of colour along with the chartreuse bead.   The Brookies liked that particularly.  Water was still cool at 57F so they were not too far down.
Baroux is an interesting place but doesn't hold a candle to Kenauk or Chevreuil Blanc in our area.  Not sure if we will go back.

This was our first trip to Pourvoirie Baroux about 1.5 hours out of Ottawa.  What attracted us to this place other than trying other venues was that one lake is stocked with Arctic Char.  As it turned out they stocked the lake with 2000 char right as we were arriving.  I don't know if these were just stocked or if they were holdovers from last year.

There was a significant mayfly hatch going on so I put on as the point fly a PT Nymph.  The best fly for the char was the Vampire Leech with a chartreuse bead.  I put that on as the dropper.  I had read that they liked this colour.
Once you find a "pod" of these fish you are in for a treat.  Twice I had two fish on at the same time.

Lac Vinet is also stocked with Brook Trout and we were catching them in abundance at the same spot.  We went back the next day and they were gone.

More to come.

Every lake is different.  On my last report I was at a brook trout lake with the surface alive with boatman and backswimmers but not a single rise in the three hours we were there.  At this lake, there were less bugs on the surface but fish jumping everywhere and they stock the other lake with much greater numbers of fish!

I didn't use my boatman patterns because my Muncher fly works so well as well as my white phentex humpy.  Both have similarities to boatman/backswimmers. 

I did something different that I haven't done for years and that is putting two leaders off of the fly line hoop.  One with two feet of mono and the humpy, the second with 12 feet of fluro and the Muncher.   The recent stockers are not so proficient in taking the dries but pretty good with the nymph!  Of course I was after 2nd year fish or older.  I got this one in and had two other big rises.  I'm pleased that there are still some older fish in this favorite lake of mine.  I don't understand why other fishers just don't get it.  If you take all the fish out, you have lousy fishing and not much in the pan either.   This is a very small lake and so a fish this size is pretty good.  I have got larger ones but rarely.

The otter is still there.  I'm going to ask OMNR if they will trap it.  There are other more drastic measures that could be taken as well.

What a difference a few days makes!  At my favorite small Rainbow lake in the Calabogie area, there were trout rising to midge emergers.  This second year fish was caught on an Elk Hair Caddis with my 3wt rod.  They are pretty active.  Lots of jumps and none too happy to be in the net.  I know this is at least two years old because they haven't stocked in our area due to the late Spring.  With my #4 sink two fly set up, the Black Coney Leech dropper brought in two and the point fly  Yellow Hammills got two as well.  Lost a couple as well on the Leech.   At this lake they like to nibble.  That is the sign to put on a smaller fly.  That usually does the trick.  Not bad for two hours of fishing starting at 10 AM.  ST48F
We finished the day by fishing a couple of hours at a nearby brookie lake but no hits.  Our serenity was interrupted by a Bait Contractor dumping several minnow baskets all around the shore line.  His motor likely sent the sensitive brookies hiding.  Then again brookies are hard to predict. They are not like Rainbows that like to feed all the time (as do bass).  It was puzzling not to see any rises to any of the boatman making quite a scene all over the surface.  Surface temp 54F
I don't mind them taking minnows out of this particular lake because there are almost too many.  They would eat all of the food if left unchecked.  However with the VHS virus throughout the area, it is astonishing that OMNR doesn't follow the lead of Quebec and ban all live bait fishing.

I went to two of my favorite lakes yesterday.  The ice was out but the water was still pretty cold....about 47F.  You know, it is not so much what you know but how much you have forgotten about flyfishing.   The general wisdom is that fishing is best in the early morning.  But that does not apply to early in the season.  I had forgotten that.  At my 'buggy lake' I saw no midges coming off until around 1PM.  I saw two midges and one emerging but nothing before that and absolutely nothing at the previous lake earlier.  At this time of year it is better to fish later in the day.  We are late this year.  The lakes should be alive with hatches of midges and boatmen.  Right after I saw those two midges flying around I saw the first rise of the day but then it was time for me to go home.  I will fish later in the day for the next few times.

At the earlier lake, I did see some signal on the scope and almost right away got a half hearted hit.  I brought in a 10-11 inch Yellow Perch.  I had decided earlier that if I got a perch from this lake, I would take it home.  A small one would be hard to fillet but somehow I would cook it.

MNR had told me some time ago that they should not be stocking trout in a lake with Perch because they eat the same food as trout and occupy the same territory, unlike Bass.  They virtually would starve out the trout with their superior numbers. This lake is big enough that not all the food could get eaten and so it does produce some large Rainbows.  With this in mind, it practically becomes our duty to catch, kill and eat perch.  You would be doing your trout lake a favour (and yourself).

The small perch (and bass) can be cooked whole.  Check the internet for recipes and instructions.  My 11 incher (see it is getting larger) tasted just fine and the skin and bones separated nicely.  Don't forget to scale it at the lake.  You don't want to make a mess at home that you will have to clean up.