I visited a trout stream today I hadn’t been to in a few years. If you were on the road to this place you likely wouldn’t know it was there. Yes there is a bridge but the stream is so far down from the bridge into what appears to be an impassible canyon, you can’t even see the water as you drive by. There is a parking area and there is a trail.

You can get down the canyon in two or three places (depending on how agile you are). If you follow the trail, you emerge at the bottom end of the canyon stretch. Below is a deep pool followed by riffles. Above are some slow deep weedy pools. This morning the trout were rising, as they do, just at the edge of my ability to reach them with my fly. I edge upstream and the water deepens, close to the tops of my waders in spots. The rises appear further upstream at the same pace. The water is very clear. Even where it is deep you can see bottom. Of course that doesn’t necessarily mean you can see the trout. Once, several years ago I fished in here and sat down to eat my lunch overlooking the stream. As I sat still, eating my sandwich, the trout which were invisible to me a second earlier began to materialize. I counted 21 in that pool, mostly small ones,  along with two chunky brookies.

The cliffs are fantastic, with caves and crevices carved out of the rock, and ferns and trees growing with no soil. Countless colours.

Walking this steam is difficult at best. In the slow water below, the pools are guarded by mud which makes movement next to impossible. Further upstream, log jams block the stream in many spots. There are springs gurgling over mosses, working their way to the stream, providing the cool fresh water the trout love. In all this stream is difficult to access, difficult to walk, difficult to fish for trout that are at times difficult to catch (I confess I have had a few banner days in there over the years, when I’ve found some of the bigger trout in the stream).

I found this stream many years ago. That is I knew the stream existed and I followed it upstream for miles, checking out possible access points. If I hadn’t been looking for it, I never would have found this spot. It doesn’t get fished much. Really,  you have to be kind of nuts to try it. It is also one of the most beautiful places I’ve been to in Ontario, a hidden gem.