What an interesting Spring we’ve had; bitter cold and endless amounts of rain.  It was hard to believe that Trout Opener was just around the corner.  The week prior was spent scouting, checking weather, tying roe and going over my gear to ensure that nothing would go wrong on that day.  I never thought the thing that went wrong would be the disappearing of fish. I decided to fish the Beaver River in an area where fish usually stack up and because of the late runs they were having, I was 100% that we would have a triple digit fish day.  We got to our spot at midnight to not hit one fish at all.  We simply chalked it up to low vis and high flow so we went to sleep and woke up for first light.  The four of us went down to our spot and not even a single touch.  Couldn’t believe it, we gambled and we lost big time.  It was 8am so we decided to head down river to find the odd hook up happening below a dam farther downstream.  The four of us decided to split up to try and find where the fish went.  A buddy and I ended up hitting a few fish each but a disappointing opening morning to say the least.  

The four of us joined back up and decided to head back home to hit the head waters of a West End Trib.  This spot wasn’t much for scenery as we fished through train tracks, and an Industrial area but it did hold a few more fish.  We decided to call it a day and recoup for Sunday’s outing.   

After speaking with various friends it seemed most of the fish were to be had in the East GTA Tribs.  Reluctant to fish those tribs with the amount of people that usually haunt those ditches, I needed my fix so like any addict, I went to get my drug of choice; CHROME.  A good buddy of mine absolutely destroyed fish in this stretch on Saturday and was nice enough to share his info with me. As we got down to the river, we found that it was clearing to the fish’s advantage, about 3 feet of visibility.   As we proceeded down river we began to hit a few fish in each pool, nothing crazy but maybe throughout the whole morning I hooked 20 and my two friends hooked 15.  Not what were used too on opening weekend but a lot better than Saturday.  This stretch of river was beautiful, nothing I would expect for a Northern Durham Trib.  It felt like we were fishing the Notty or Pine at times.  Very beautiful and it was great to see only a handful of guys the whole day.  I’m sure it being Easter weekend helped with keeping guys off the river as well.  

Definitely my worst opening weekend fish wise, but it was shared with good friends and how can you complain about that?

Gear Review:  One item that helped a lot on opening night was the new LL Bean Head Lamp http://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/47316?page=trailblazer-ii-headlamp.  I picked it up the week before as I knew we would be doing some nocturnal fishing.  The head band was very comfortable and the 4 settings and 2 colours were perfect for night time fishing.  I’ll be sure to put this to use many times over in the future.
 
I also got to test out the Dr. Slick forceps which by far are the best on the market.  http://www.drslick.com/products_scissorclamps1.asp I’ve used many varieties of forceps and you can easily feel the quality when you pick them up.   I recommend the scissor clamp with the curved end.  The curved end really helps with hook removal which prevents bending or breaking of the hook.  The scissor is great for cutting line or deflated roe bags after landing a fish.