Sometimes all it takes is for the water to warm up a degree or two during the midday hours for the trout to get active. Food sources decrease- I had some really fun days guiding this summer where we threw nothing but dry flies from start to finish in various Blue Wing Olive, Pale Morning Dun, Caddis and Yellow Sally imitations- all with considerable success.
All you had to do was match your dry fly to the bug-du-hour that was hatching and you were into fish. Throw that rainbows and unicorns scenario i. Remember this- you are only going to encounter two possible hatches during the winter: 1 Midges 2 Blue Wing Olives. These micro food sources don't pack a ton of calories, but can still get the trout pretty eager to feed during even an average hatch.
The fish don't have the luxury of daily, prolific hatches right now so they're going to take advantage of what they can get more often than not. However, even with less of a need to feed during the winter, Midges and Baetis alone aren't likely going to be all it takes to keep a tail kicking back and forth.
A little more protein here and there is going to be much appreciated and that's where worms, eggs and stoneflies come into play. For worms and eggs, these are two great winter food sources and provide a lazy trout exactly what it needs- a "non-escaping food source". Eggs and worms provide many more calories per meal than a midge or baetis does, and should go-to patterns for the wintering angler.
While stoneflies are without question a summer hatching insect, their nymphs are still in the water during the winter and you can bet a trout is going to relish in the opportunity to get another easy, calorie filled meal during these entomologically leaner months. These are very tailwater specific food sources and year round food sources I'll add that the trout can really home in on. Both these food sources can be pretty river specific and a research on the internet will quickly tell you whether or not to bring some along.
Doesn't get much easier than that. Real estate decreases- During winter, rivers are typically at their lowest levels of the years. Case in point, once you've found one, you've likely just found a bunch. If we think back to Point 1 regarding metabolism, where then would it make sense for a winter trout to take up shop?
Most all of you probably know the answer to this. Winter fishing is a little like that nebulous moment before you ask the new girl to dance. You could be in for the time of your life, but you better be prepared to accept — even to embrace — rejection. Fly fishing is a solitary sport, best practiced alone. Winter can be the exception to this rule, however.
It's not a good idea to be alone in a river where one slip can leave you a certain candidate for hypothermia. In the winter, a fishing partner can be a life saver. I am a fisherman, though, and I fish whether or not I can find someone to come along. Even in the winter. Existence is full of risks, and I tell myself that knowledge and caution can keep me safe in frigid water, ice and snow.
So far, I've been right — at least mostly. If they ever find me, cold and sodden, wedged under some ice-choked log jam, feel free to say, "I told you so.
Despite the danger, there is a purity to being the only person on the stream in the winter. Snow and cold protect you from contamination when you're on the water. The people who despoil — the litterers, the slobs, the polluters who care neither for themselves or this beautiful treasure of a world — are kept at bay by the harshness of the surroundings. No cigarette butts, no styrofoam worm containers, no beer cans. Just snow and water and sky.
You are alive, alive in every important, meaningful way. You have to be careful, though. It can break your heart. People are at risk, at risk in a way that trout never are, of losing their connection to the world around us. This is especially true in the winter. We walk into a room and if it's too dark we turn on a light, if it's too cold we turn up the thermostat.
Suddenly our needs are met; we're warmed, coddled, illuminated by civilization. The danger is that we can lose the ability to understand, to intuit, to observe anything beyond the most base and obvious things around us.
Standing in a stream with ice on the banks, ice in my guides, ice all around, I feel as if I've suddenly been freed from a box, a box that's been shut for so long that I've forgotten how to breath. We wrap ourselves up in so many things, in texts and e-mails and jobs and deadlines and obligations and the people around us, that it's almost impossible to break free, to feel the weak afternoon sunshine of December or understand the mysterious natural rhythms of a stream.
I envy the trout. The last time I fished, back in October, was on the Henry's Fork. My brother-in-law Pat and I wandered around a stretch where the trout still rose freely regardless of the cool temps and the gleaming patches of snow on the bank. There was a breeze, too — cold and pure, out of the West — and in spite of the fact that the rainbows were gorging themselves on a blanket hatch of BWOs and midges, you had to want to be there.
It was cold. Our fingers were numb, and our noses too, and our feet felt like frigid strangers. There are times, even with our warming climate, when winter arrives early in the high country and we get a glimpse of what the upcoming months have in store. Todd Tanner is a longtime fly fishing writer and a frequent Hatch Magazine contributor. He also runs the School of Trout. How do you find a stream that's not frozen mid-winter where you live?
The elk are walking across our Rio Grande in Colorado. You haven't fished in the Winter until you've fallen in to the East Walker River , up to your neck when it's -5 F. I try to keep a towel , and a change of dry clothes in my back pack or car, if it's close. Hypothermia is a Deadly Risk, but missing the solitude of Winter fishing? No way, it's my favorite time of year! Great story. I pinched a nerve in June and had 3 vertebrae fused in September and was told no hunting or fishing.
Hopefully on December 23rd when I see the doc he will say I'm good to go. In my 60 years of flyfishing, the last 6 months have been agony. I live on the Arkansas river in Colorado and watched so many folks fishing my favorite runs and pools. I have tied flies and filled 2 boxes for my 17 year old twin grandsons. I learned how to make furled leaders. I've watched more flyfishing videos than you can imagine. So the writer drove it all home.
I fish in the winter and can't imagine another 6 months without wetting a line. As soon as the doc says ok, the first day above freezing, I'm hitting the river! Great story - has some fantastic parallels to life in general. Being paralyzed by it all is a choice. See you on the river! At some point, all of us have to make a strategic retreat. Clear, slow water, smaller insects and wary fish call for smaller flies and lighter tippet than you might use the rest of the year.
Hope for dry fly action but plan to nymph. Winter fly-fishing is a nymphing show. Consider a double-nymph rig with a smaller midge pattern on top and a weighted stonefly below, to help keep your flies near the bottom of the river. Look for trout in slower waters. Trout metabolism slows in the winter. Back eddies, off-channel areas, and the inside of current seams can all be places to look for winter trout. Cover the water thoroughly.
Cover the water methodically to increase your changes of hitting a fish. Sleep in. The best fishing will be during the warmest parts of the day — late morning to mid-afternoon. Winter trout fishing is about being outside, enjoying the solitude and challenging your fishing skills. Plenty of time to catch loads of fish later in the year. Some of your best bets for catching native redband trout this winter include the lower Deschutes, Crooked, Metolius, Fall, Klamath, Blitzen and Owyhee rivers.
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