There are many different options for lodging and tours when it comes to an Ontario fly fishing getaway. Canada Outfitters is one place you may want to consider when planning a fly fishing trip to Ontario. They offer a secluded area with lovely cabins and all modern amenities to make your fly fishing vacation in Ontario memorable.

Peace Island Lodge is a four-star rated full-service fly fishing lodge. They have incredible fishing for monster trophy Northern Pike, Big Lake trout that weigh an average of more than ten pounds, and more walleye than you can imagine. They report that it’s not uncommon for guests to catch 100 walleye in a day. They have genuine Cree Indian guides that will lead you to the best fishing spots in the area.

Another option is the Fox’s Den Lodge that offers excellent getaways for the avid sportsman. A secluded lodge twelve miles from the nearest road. They are only accessible by boat, train, or floatplane. Located on Dog Lake, Fox’s Den provides fly fishers an excellent experience as they fish for Northern Pike, walleye, trout, and more.

Sonny-Bob Lodge is in northern Ontario on the remote Oba Lake. Like many of the lodges in the Ontario area, it is only accessible by railway or floatplane. Oba Lake is known as one of the finest places to fly fish in Ontario. You can catch large Northern Pike, whitefish, and jumbo perch. The scenery is spectacular, and the fishing is extraordinary.

These are only a few of the places you can go for fly fishing in Ontario. Do your research before you plan your trip and find a place where you can feel comfortable while getting a vacation experience as you’ve never had before!

The lower part of the Sacramento River is a prime place to catch California’s largest rainbow trout. The river provides exciting year-round fishing opportunities. You can catch some incredible fish in both winter and spring, but spring brings a huge caddis fly hatch that brings the fish out in droves. You can also find some exceptional salmon catches on the river – especially in the fall and winter.

Feather River is a great place to catch steelheads. Fishing on this river is exciting, productive, and challenging all at the same time. The best fishing is in the fall where adult steelheads weighing over four pounds can be found quite easily. In the spring, you will also find some great opportunities to fly fish for some record catches.

If you’re looking for a challenging fly fishing experience in Northern California, you may want to look at the East Fork of the Carson River. This stream provides trout anglers with many different experiences – access being one. The narrow, fast-flowing upper reaches above Wolf Creek are accessible only by a rough four-wheel-drive trail, on horseback, or by foot. A classic freestone stream with lots of riffles, rapids, deep runs, and pools. These conditions create excellent habitats for stoneflies, caddisflies, and some species of mayflies throughout the Carson drainage. Large fish are consistent on the Carson, especially around the Nevada border where the river branches off, providing a great place to find the fish.

The Truckee River is the largest of three major river systems in the Northern California/Reno area. The good weather provides year-round fly fishing with easy access, beautiful canyon scenery, and feisty wild trout. Experts rate the Truckee as one of the best fly fishing rivers in Northern California. However, it is a tough river to fish because of the current where it flows into the Nevada area.

These are only a few of the myriad choices you have available to you for fly fishing in Northern California. You have a lot of options to catch some unique fish. Plus, you can enjoy fly fishing year-round in the balmy Northern California weather. It can be a great opportunity for you to hone your fly fishing skills and plan a wonderful fly fishing getaway.

Fly fishing differs from regular fishing because you don’t use a heavy lure and a light line. Instead, using a fake fly on the end of the line, you cast out a heavy line with a thinner leader on the end. Often a color of ribbon, thread, or fur is tied to the fly. This gives fish the impression that what they see is a bug that they eat. Fly fishing lines are much heavier than regular fishing lines but are often designed to float.

There are two types of fly fishing. Dry fly fishing involves the fly remaining on the surface of the water. Water fly fishing involves sinking the fly into the water. Both methods are very effective. The use of the techniques is up to the person fishing and the circumstances.

Fly fishing is practiced throughout the United States and Canada. The most common states for fly fishing are Montana, Utah, Idaho, Colorado, California, and Alaska. The amount of fish flowing through the Rocky Mountain area is incredible. West Yellowstone is considered the major hub for fly fishing where you can catch more fish than in any other location. Areas of Canada including Alberta, and other water areas throughout the world are also great locations for fly fishing.

This sport of fly fishing continues to be very popular, with no sign of letting up any time soon. Fly fishing enthusiasts spend lots of time and money fly fishing. They buy the best equipment and travel to the best fishing locations, hoping to be lucky enough to catch the extraordinary fish swimming upstream.

That’s what makes fly fishing in Wisconsin so wonderful! Wisconsin fly fishing provides the most diverse trout fishing in the Midwest. The northeastern Wisconsin streams provide challenges in fly fishing that require the angler to wade for fish hidden behind big boulders.

Southwestern Wisconsin streams provide a challenge for fly fishermen who have a lot of patience. Streams in southwestern Wisconsin include Castle Rock Creek and Timber Coulee that support excellent fly fishing, natural reproduction, and mayfly and caddis hatches galore. The streams in this part of the state are spring creeks which support large numbers of fish, mostly Brown Trout, but they don’t come easily. Dry fly fishing can be excellent, but on heavily fished streams, emergers and lesser-used flies can be more productive than standard dry flies. For most streams in this area, anglers need to use light tackle, long leaders, and stealthy approaches. The streams tend to be narrow, which makes casting accuracy much more important than casting distance.

Central Wisconsin is home to gin-clear streams where you can see fish from where you stand. This area is known as “Sand Counties” because the landscape is extremely flat to gently rolling with very sandy soil. The streams run deep with few fish-holding structures. To the untrained fly fisher, this might seem like a place where you wouldn’t want to fish. Nothing could be more wrong!

Stream structures are heavily used, and deep holes are common, particularly along the outside of a bend, and deadfalls and root wads can hold much fish. This area is where the stream structures were first devised. The water quality of these streams is excellent and helps support incredible natural reproduction. Wild Brook Trout are the most common fish, but you can also find natural reproducing browns and some rainbows.

The freestone streams of Northern Wisconsin tumble violently over bedrock. The freestone rivers are home to the best pocket water fly fishing in Wisconsin. Casting a nymph or a dry fly attractor around the boulders is often a way to catch more fish. The meadow streams are favored by fishermen who enjoy fishing light leaders and small flies.

There are some of the beautiful places you can fly fish in the great state of Wisconsin. You’ll be surrounded by rolling hills and grazing cattle as you try to land your next big fish. When you are an avid fly fisherman, you’ll find a wealth of fun and enjoyment in the streams of Wisconsin!

Positioned on a log vigilantly eyeing my bobber for movement, a one-man raft paddled past, and in no time the occupant was making wild movements with the longest fishing pole ever. Mesmerized, I watched his graceful movements like he was a black belt martial arts expert. When my father came to check on me, I asked about him, and my dad said he was fly fishing. A couple of other fishermen gathered to discuss this exotic art. All agreed it was a superior art form requiring more time than any of us had to learn, let alone master. I tried to study my bobber with earnest after that, but it never seemed to hold the same pull it once had.

Fly fishing indeed is beautiful to watch. After all these years, I still enjoy watching a genuinely skilled caster. I also enjoy watching fly fishers with unorthodox techniques. Some people haven’t read all the books or taken lessons but instead have learned their skills on the water, and some people have truly unique yet effective habits. Anyway, this article is to de-mystify fly fishing for those of you that want to learn, this is a starting point from which your new passion will take off. (OK I am hoping)

Two Basic Types of Fly Fishing

I remember a fly fishing friend said to me, “Looks like good dry water, right downstream,” as we were floating down the Deschutes River. A fly fishing novice looking downstream asked, “Dry water?”

My fly fishing friend was referring to dry fly fishing. There are two basic fly fishing techniques, dry fly and wet fly. Dry fly refers to fishing your fly on top of the water, traditionally used for trout fly fishing, now most species are being caught with a dry fly of some kind. Dry flies usually imitate adult insects that return to the surface to lay their eggs back into the water. It is at this time they are very vulnerable to being eaten by fish. After mating and depositing their eggs, the insects then die. Commonly called ‘spinner falls’ fish tend to lay and gorge themselves during these times. Dry flies are also used during hatches when the flies are emerging from the water. ‘Match the Hatch’ refers to fishing as an imitation of the predominantly hatching insect of the moment. Dry flies can also be insects that get blown into the water, such as grasshoppers or ants. Many bass flies or bass bugs imitate drowned rodents or frogs.

Dry fly fishing is what most people think of when they think of fly fishing. Some fly fishers use many false casts to dry their offerings or to place their offerings directly over a rising fish. It is this technique that I observed all those years ago that was also done in a famous movie ‘A River Runs Through It.’

Fishing sub-surface involves using heavier flies that will sink. Often sinkers are added to the line above the fly to sink your offering quicker. Sub-surface fly fishing involves using nymphs, wet flies, and streamers that serve as food available to fish below the surface. Flies imitate every bug or nymph available underwater. They also imitate worms, leeches, eggs, crabs, virtually everything available to eat.

While dry fly fishing gets all the attention, fish consume up to 90% of their diet under the water. So you are apt to catch more fish using ‘wet flies’ than with dry fly fishing. Especially if you are just beginning, fishing sub-surface is going to result in more fish getting caught. While fish are feeding on the surface, they are very skittish and very selective. Almost any fault in technique, rigging, or fly selection will result in scaring off the fish you are trying to catch.

Equipment

There are some basic pieces of equipment that you must have or borrow to first try fly fishing. The first is a fly rod (never a pole). The instrument you use to fly fish with is a rod. We have written a whole article on ‘Choosing a Fly Rod’, that will give you enough basic information to at least be able to ask educated questions when shopping. The second is a fly reel. We also have an article called ‘Choosing a Fly Reel’. If it were me, and budget is of concern, (and when you see the prices of fly rods, it probably will become one), scrimp on the reel and not the rod. Casting a quality fly rod is a thing of joy that sometimes I can become so lost in the rhythm of fly casting I forget about the fish. I fished for years using a Pflueger Medallist. If you were to poll fly fishers over 40 and I bet over half have owned one of these.

The next thing you will need is the fly line. If you are to purchase just one, get a floating line, you can always add weight to the leader and sink the fly. But it is virtually impossible to float a sinking tip line. The fly line is very thick, and it is what you cast. Unlike other forms of fishing where the bait and weight are cast. After the fly line come the leader and tippet and finally the fly.

Waders and wading boots are also mandatory if one is planning on wading. With perhaps the exception of summer, when wet wading can be a relief from the heat. You can have any more decent Neoprene waders for around $60 and felt-soled wading shoes for about the same. Although these aren’t top of the line, and comfort and performance suffer somewhat, they will be more than adequate.

The idea behind fly fishing is to show the fish what they feed on as naturally as possible. The first time I fly fished, I was amazed at how much more I fished. You don’t need to reel in and cast out again, just lift and cast again. More time with your fly in the water equals more opportunity to catch fish. The actual motion of simple fly casting is easy enough to pick up, much like the motion of hammering, accelerating on the downstroke. In an afternoon of practice, you could master the motion well enough to have a reasonable chance of catching a fish.

There you have it. While fly fishing can become unnecessarily complicated, I believe it is the simplest form of fishing. So basic is its form, and so exact is the role of its instruments that you could call it perfect. And there are times when one can get caught up in the act of exercising this perfection, that the entire world fades away until it is just you and the