Winter Fishing technique's

[Walshmiko]

I was just wondering what everyones approach to winter fishing was..
Myself, I usually use heavily weighted nymphs drifted slowly on the edges of seams(Current drop off points), behind rocks(Slack water type) I pretty much just concentrate on keeping the rig deep and slow, it seems to produce just fine, but Id love to hear others view's on winter..

[LopatNympher]

I've never fished for trout in the winter but plan to this year. I'd love to hear about techniques as well.

[AaronJasper]

I will throw in a forgotten technique here... Indicator nymphing is DEADLY in the winter months!

[sholgate]

You know how many people tell me, "You can fish for trout in the winter, it is not trout season." My next question is, "When did it end?"

I love winter fishing. I love looking for the ones that are smart enough to evade the Spring, Summer, and Fall capture! And the fall stocking too. No crowds.

I like to break out the brassies in all colors, some copper johns, and small pheasant tails with indicators. I still usually fish them in pairs of contrasting colors and sizes.

[Magnet]

If you find a spot where you can euro-nymph, you might not have to deal with icing guides as much.

[alanb_ct]

Repeat of my post from last winter:

The past few days I have received a couple of personal messages about my Farmington trip on Sunday. The trip was a modest success, and the few fish I caught were really the result of some advance preparation. Perhaps this information is helpful to you, as it pertains to winter fishing. As a highly successful guide, I see Aaron getting ready this way all the time.

This was a fairly typical winter's day in NW Connecticut with 25 degree air temperature, 39 degree water temperature and a nasty North wind gusting to about 20 mph. There were three main elements to my preparation the night before: my rigging, my clothes layering and boots and my research on conditions. I will go through these in order. The point is that, especially for winter fishing, some advance preparation saves you some aggravation and cold hands when you first get started.

Since I suspected the fish would be in slower margins, I set myself up for indicator nymphing. My vehicle can not hold a fully rigged 10ft rod, so I set up the 4-piece rod in two pieces with the reel attached. I always put away my reels with no leader attached, so just the Rio welded loop is sticking out of the spool. I constructed my nymph leader, about 11ft and even crimped on a #4 shot and tied on two flies. I coil the butt section of the leader and do not use a loop at the tie-in point. Since I don't need a loop-to-loop, I can simply knot the butt section to the loop in the fly line and am ready to fish. I also applied Mucilin and fluffed up two yarn indicators with a piece of velcro. On the rod itself, I applied copious amounts of ice-off paste to the guides and the rod blank surrounding the guides.

For my vest, I use a smallish chest pack, so I generally sort out precisely what I need. I keep a tote in the car that has all the backup gear. I don't find it practical to lug everything around anymore, especially since I am toting the big camera to generate content for the web-site! As time goes on, I think most fishermen prune down the gear they carry. I do carry enough raw monofilament to construct a new leader at any time, whether I am indicator or Euro nymphing.

For my layering options, I chose double of everything. For socks, one pair of light weight Merino wool/lycra, followed by a pair of calf high Smart wool. I wear two layers of Simms waderwick pants. On my torso, I wear an Under Armor T-shirt, followed by a zip-turtleneck winter weight Under Armor shirt. On top of that shirt, I wear an oversized Merino wool sweater with elbow patches. On top of that, I either wear a Gore Tex Windstopper fleece or a Gore Tex XCR rain jacket or both. The fleece I have is sized 3X, so it fits over my bulky sweater. I generally wear the final layer over my chest waders. For wading shoes, since it there is snow on the ground, I wore my Simms Rivertek studded aquastealth, since the snow doesn't stick to the sole. On my head I wear a Simms windstopper cap. I have them, but I don't generally wear gloves. I always wear photochromic copper glasses.

My research on conditions was multi-pronged. I checked the USGS flows, the three river reports on the Internet, and talked to Aaron about his guide trip the day before (the most useful bit of advance information!). If I had been unfamiliar with the roads or terrain, I would have also used Google Earth at this point. If you ever find a particularly good spot and worry you can't find it again, it really pays to do some legwork when you get home to record the position.

I hope this information is useful to you and leads to winter fishing success! Tight lines.

[Walshmiko]

At what water temp do the fish avoid the main current?

[Troutastic]

Alan,

Being as it was my first time fishing in serious winter weather last week, I was not prepared...

We got out of my friend's truck and opened the tailgate to begin putting on our waders, rigging our rods, etc. After approx. 2-3 minutes of exposure of the winter winds/temperature to my hands, I would have to try to warm them up, stick them in my pockets, blow on them, the works. Rinse, repeat. That will only take you so far...

I got my waders and winter gear on and began rigging my rod for the day. BIG mistake not to pre-rig my rod! My hands were so cold by this time that I couldn't even tie a piece of tippet on my leader. Solution: I had to sit in the truck for 10 min, warm up the hands, and then feed my rod tip through the back window and rig it up inside the cab.

Needless to say, in the future I will most definitely be pre-rigging my setup, probably even put my waders on beforehand, etc.

[Walshmiko]

Sholgate, people don't know that it never ends...Some of my best days were when it was nasty out, Remember last year x-mas(Icy storm)? One of my better days, had the river to myself and the fishing was non stop...
Im with Alain with the glove-less approach, I always lose them while tying leaders or flies..It sucks watching them float away...I have three left gloves now

[sholgate]

I go out anytime my wife has something else to do OR when she will not miss me. Holidays when the family has been around a little too much. There will always be a fishing season!

Here is a pattern that has been working for me well this fall....
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