My Fly fishing history… Part I

I started fishing at a very young age. My Dad would take my younger brother and I fishing for his favourite fish, walleye, up around Orillia, Ontario. We’d take along our toys and play or nap at the front of my Dad’s 14 foot Sears aluminum boat that my grandparents had given he and my Mom for a wedding gift.

My Dad with a Southern Ontario Walleye. She was released to fight another day.

We’d usually catch a few and I always enjoyed the time we spent together. Ultimately that was really what it was all about: catching dinner and spending time together. My Mom’s Dad, Stan Bodaly, would join us a lot on our adventures but he was much more of a river fisherman for trout and bass. I’d have to say that this is where my love for river fishing came from and it has certainly influenced my fly fishing life ever since.

As I moved into High School, even though I hadn’t discovered fly fishing yet, I was regularly coached by my grandfather in how to use a spinner tipped with a worm for trout in many local rivers. This was usually in the spring and fall as the summer was spent fishing for walleye or Chinook salmon out on Lake Ontario (yes, it’s stocked!). When I moved out on my own, I did a lot of fishing for trout and even more fall and winter fishing for Great Lakes salmon and steelhead in Lake Ontario and Lake Huron tributaries using roe and a noodle rod. It definitely didn’t hurt that my grandparents lived 10 minutes from the mighty Maitland River!

As mentioned in my last post, it took a fortuitous trip to visit some family in NWT and fish Great Slave Lake to become addicted to fly fishing. The funny thing is, while a lot of people I’ve spoken to that do not fly fish talk about what an art it is, I think anyone can learn if they choose to. I found learning the cadence and rhythm was the most important thing. You don’t even have to be that good, but it sometimes helps to be lucky.

After that trip to NWT and catching a few Grayling and Lake Trout on they fly, I went out and bought an inexpensive rod and reel combo to learn how to fly cast to Brown trout. I can honestly say it was the best fly fishing purchase I’ve ever made. I gave it to my son and, two summers ago, he caught his first trout on that very rod on the Grand River, my defacto home river.