Forget the trout opener: June is when Canadian fly fishing truly comes alive

I have a personal rule for the opening day of trout season: Go fishing for yellow perch. It’s not that I don’t like trout—I do. But opening day, which across much of the country falls in late April, is almost always a letdown. The weather’s cold and wet, the fish are sluggish, and the rivers are shoulder-to-shoulder with anglers showing more enthusiasm than technique.

I get it. It’s been a long winter, and people just want to stand near open water again. Yet within a month, many of those same anglers—folks who do actually enjoy fly fishing—have switched from trout flies to walleye jigs and pike spoons. The opener, and how quickly it fades, says a lot about how we see fly fishing in Canada: tradition-bound and overly focused on the spring. That’s too bad, because early summer is when Canadian fly fishing truly comes alive.