Ontario Fly Fishing Guides: The Best In Southern Ontario

Ontario fly fishing guides guiding a client

There are dozens of Ontario Fly fishing guides and I have been one of them for over 20 years. I know most of the best Ontario fly fishing guides and I can honestly say that the best Ontario fly fishing guides will be your full-time guides that are trained by other veteran guides.

The best Ontario fly fishing guides will work as a guide full time and will have the best reputation, exceptional fishing skills with the ability to teach those skills to others. The best Ontario fly fishing guides will have tons of testimonials and referrals like the guides do at A Perfect Drift Guide Company

Best Ontario river guide Graham helping out a young angler
Top Ontario river guide Graham helping out a young angler with a huge steelhead. This was 1 of 15 they landed that day

I teach other fishing guides and some of them are the best guides in Ontario in their areas.

My experience as a guide for over 20 years has taught me that just because a guy is a great angler doesn’t mean he is a great guide.

Some guys just can’t teach, some guys don’t have the patience, and some guys want to fish so bad that they want to run off while their clients are fishing. And some guides are just lazy and don’t put in any effort.

Back when I was learning to be the best guide I could possibly be, I asked one of the top fly fishing guides in Ontario “what makes a great guide”. He said to me ” if you’re the type of guy that gets just as much enjoyment out of watching someone else catch all the fish as you would fishing yourself, you will make a great guide. But if you can’t stand watching all that great fishing without wanting to grab a rod and start fishing then your not a guide, your an angler”. He was 100% right.

The best guides love to teach and watch others catch fish and improve, the best fly fishing guide in Ontario will leave you with enough knowledge at the end of the day that you will forever catch more fish because of it.

The Best Fly Fishing Guides In Ontario Know The Rivers

Top Guide Graham guiding Bill and Mark
Top guide Graham guiding Bill and Mark from the New Fly Fishing Show to some great spring steelhead.

The best fly fishing guides in Ontario will have extensive knowledge of the best rivers in the area. They will also know the best times to fish, the best time of year, where to go at certain times of the year, when the water is too warm or too cold and what to use to catch the most fish in that river.

There are rivers that I fish where I know there are certain sections of rivers that will hold lots of big brown trout, but as the season progresses, I know that they migrate to other areas of the river for food, for colder water, or for better oxygenated water.

I also know based on how much rain we get and the time of year how high many of our rivers will get and how dirty they will be, and how long it will take for them to clear up again.

This is what I mean when I say the best guide will know the river extremely well, and it’s only the best fly fishing guides in Ontario that will be able to do this.

The Best Fly Fishing Guides In Ontario Know The Fish

A top guide putting his client in the right spot for some good trout.
A top guide putting his client in the right spot for some good trout.

The best Ontario river guides will know the fish extremely well. This means knowing migration patterns, feeding times, feeding zones, the food sources of the best flies, when they will be active and not active.

I have walked clients into a spot and pointed out a rock in the middle of the river and said as soon as the bugs show up a 23.5-inch brown trout will swim up the river and sit right in front of that rock. 30 minutes late the fish shows up and my client has his personal best in the net.

I have spots that I call the king and queen spots. It’s a spot where the two biggest fish in the pool move to when it’s time to eat. It’s amazing how predictable trout can be and I often tell my clients how big the fish they are about to catch is before they even hook it.

That is called knowing the fish and I teach this to other guides, and it’s the best Ontario fly fishing guides that will be able to do this over and over again, day after day, year after year.

A part time guide isn’t going to be on the water enough to see these trends.

Other Methods Make A Better Well-Rounded Fly Fishing Guide

Graham Centerpin Fishing
Graham Centerpin Fishing

There is one major advantage I have over other fly fishing guides in Ontario and other fly fishing guides all around the world.

The guides that I teach also have this advantage.

I know most Ontario fly fishing guides don’t have this advantage because they don’t talk about it or teach it to their clients.

I also know they don’t know it because I study fly fishing and I’ve yet to see it written or on film anywhere, not to the same extent. When I eventually guide the other fly guide clients they tell me that nobody has ever shown them that.

So what’s my advantage? I have been float fishing and Centerpin fishing and spin fishing for over 30 years and I guide with these methods regularly.

These methods have taught me some amazing things that other fly guides don’t know. These methods have taught me about speed control, depth control, and depth finding, they have taught me about fish reactions, fish movements, and fish feeding behaviors.

These methods have also taught me about what my leader angles should be and what’s good and what’s bad.

Understanding and being very good at those methods has improved me as a fly angler and has greatly improved me as a fly fishing guide because now I teach my clients this.

I now teach other guides how to do this and the results are amazing.

The Best Guides Will Keep You Safer

Angler wading along a dangerous river
Anglers wading along a dangerous stretch of river like this often fall and get hurt or break rods.

Experienced guides know that it’s always safety first. They will help you navigate the banks and through the river so you’re less likely to fall or get hurt. The best fly fishing guides in Ontario know when a river is unsafe and will recognize your abilities and limitations.

This is something that part-time guides and inexperienced or untrained guides won’t know until it’s too late and people are getting hurt.

The Best Ontario Fly Fishing Guides Educate

Graham training with David Arcay
I had the opportunity to train with guys like David Arcay (left) who is a world champion fly fishing angler. I now teach other guides and anglers what I’ve learned.

I learned many years ago that the fish don’t always cooperate and there will be days when the fish won’t bite at all and the clients will catch nothing.

That is why I always make sure I leave my clients with an education and that I teach them as much as can in the time I am on the water.

That way even if the fish don’t bite they always leave with something, and that something is new skills that will help them catch more fish than ever before.

I even teach so much stuff that most guys end up forgetting half of it which is why I send my clients a summary of what they learned and what was covered on the water.

I believe I was the first guide service in Ontario and I might still be the only guide service to send clients a summary of information after their guide trip.

Who Are The Best Ontario Fly Fishing Guides?

A new guide training another guide
This is a top guide training a new guide. You want to be sure you choose only river guides that have learned how to guide from other top river guides.

I can only comment on the Ontario fly fishing guides that I know and have worked with and there are a few good ones. These are the same guides that get good reviews after good reviews.

The guides at A Perfect Drift Guide Company have been the best fly fishing guides in Ontario for a long time and are well-trained by other guides.

They are all trained to be guides and they are all committed to coaching and teaching, and they always make sure every client learns as much as possible.

They are also backed by thousands of testimonials, emails, and referrals.

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