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Grand River


YakFisher

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All I'm saying is to try to use a little discretion because we all know that certain ethnic groups love to set up house along the banks of these types of areas and take more than their fair share without any remorse for the harm they are actually doing

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Ethnic group crosses the line on this site !!! We are all part of an ethnic group and there is no prejudice here.....so please leave that kind of talk alone.

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Well that's all well & good...until somebody else decides to "share" your spot with the world for you.

I used to fish steelhead in the Wilmot until Hank & Italo decided to film half a season there.

I used to fish steelhead on the Grand below Caledonia before some internet heroes started posting Youtube videos, now that stretch gets pounded when nobody else used to drift it.

In another month the piers will be infested by loogans the night after the first salmon report gets posted.

My favourite backcountry lake system used to be completely empty ten years ago, then it got written up in a guidebook and this years bass opener had a dozen groups on it, so much so there wasn't an empty campsite in 20km of lake.

Internet fishermen are never good company.

General observations=Good Specific stretches=Bad

Some of us have been around messageboards since they first started and seen the damage they can do, and that feeling in the pit of your stomach when you find a good area then see somebody running around screaming about it kinda sucks.

I can see both sides of this debate. 10 years ago I wouldn't have cared so much. Now that I am disabled, and still love to fish, I am limited to accessible spots that are basically drive up and fish. When someone "blows the whistle" on these spots, I'm euchred until I find another one. Don't get me wrong, I like this site, and what it stands for, but I've "lost" more spots due to over-fishing and/or over-crowding.

(If anyone has any good spots that I could try out and wouldn't mind sharing them with me via PM, that info will go no further... )

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To clarify things for the original poster:

The Grand River is a tailwater fishery, the cold water discharge from the Shand Dam supporting a stocked, non-reproducing brown trout population for many km downstream in the Fergus-Elora-Inverhaugh area. The river is thoroughly mapped and access is excellent; a video has been done on it, many pools and runs are named and quite famous amongst fly fishers.

Below the dam there are three special regulations areas. The rules are no bait, no kill, single barbless hooks only. They are well marked. I strongly suggest you buy the river map and study it. If you find these restrictions onerous, there's plenty of other water in the area, and one must bear in mind that special regs water in the entire province is almost non-existent, so it's not worth worrying about. Do you have to be a fly fisher to try the area? No, fling a spinner with your Ugly Stik if you want to, just replace the treble with a single and crush that barb, and remember that you WILL be watched... the locals love their water... and some fly fishers will definitely get territorial with you. If you are not familiar with river etiquette... hope you know how to swim. My advice is to ditch the gear and buy a fly rod... fly fishing is definitely more fun!

Having said that, there is one ethical problem to point out. With such a dry winter, and the hot summer so far, water levels are going to be down, and water temps are going to be up. I haven't been up there this year, but things may be very dire come August, and you have to decide for yourself it it's ethical to target stressed fish that may very well die upon release.

Hope this clears things up a bit. It is a truly beautiful area, and the fishing can be wonderful, though it's never very easy, unless you go after the fresh stockies.

And to all the folks raving about not posting sekret spots on teh interwebs... this is not a river you should worry about... the Grand River tailwater fishery is very, very popular already, known to fly anglers around the world... there are no secrets here. Get there at dawn on a week day and you may have the place to yourself, but not likely, and not for long. Multiple cars will be parked at every bridge and parking lot. Don't worry about publicizing it, there's a map, a book and a video already, and who knows how many websites.

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To clarify things for the original poster:

The Grand River is a tailwater fishery, the cold water discharge from the Shand Dam supporting a stocked, non-reproducing brown trout population for many km downstream in the Fergus-Elora-Inverhaugh area. The river is thoroughly mapped and access is excellent; a video has been done on it, many pools and runs are named and quite famous amongst fly fishers.

Below the dam there are three special regulations areas. The rules are no bait, no kill, single barbless hooks only. They are well marked. I strongly suggest you buy the river map and study it. If you find these restrictions onerous, there's plenty of other water in the area, and one must bear in mind that special regs water in the entire province is almost non-existent, so it's not worth worrying about. Do you have to be a fly fisher to try the area? No, fling a spinner with your Ugly Stik if you want to, just replace the treble with a single and crush that barb, and remember that you WILL be watched... the locals love their water... and some fly fishers will definitely get territorial with you. If you are not familiar with river etiquette... hope you know how to swim. My advice is to ditch the gear and buy a fly rod... fly fishing is definitely more fun!

Having said that, there is one ethical problem to point out. With such a dry winter, and the hot summer so far, water levels are going to be down, and water temps are going to be up. I haven't been up there this year, but things may be very dire come August, and you have to decide for yourself it it's ethical to target stressed fish that may very well die upon release.

Hope this clears things up a bit. It is a truly beautiful area, and the fishing can be wonderful, though it's never very easy, unless you go after the fresh stockies.

And to all the folks raving about not posting sekret spots on teh interwebs... this is not a river you should worry about... the Grand River tailwater fishery is very, very popular already, known to fly anglers around the world... there are no secrets here. Get there at dawn on a week day and you may have the place to yourself, but not likely, and not for long. Multiple cars will be parked at every bridge and parking lot. Don't worry about publicizing it, there's a map, a book and a video already, and who knows how many websites.

Theres a post i really like...

Thanks icehut

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Guest live2fish85

I agree 100% about not posting specific spots. I have found lots of my spots from lots of time on the water and searching, why can't you?

I will help people out and have told some friends my spots and showed some but I will not post them on here or any forum because it will be crowded and over fished, causing the fishing to decline and push me to look for more spots.

12 mile and places like that are spots that have not great fishing unless you want panfish, carp, cats and the odd other fish. The Niagara is good and well known. Doesn't mean you go out there your going to hammer fish unless you go to the better spots.

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