Winter Fishing Tactics

Tips for on stream success during the chilly winter months by: Jack Arnot

Fishing during winter can bring out struggles for even the most accomplished anglers. The conditions provide a challenge almost every time I fish during this part of the year. For anglers located in the Western regions of the United States freestone rivers will slowly start to freeze over leaving most of them un-fishable through periods of the winter. On the other hand, tailwaters seem to fare better during the freeze because of the almost constant water temperature pumped out all year long. This offers anglers year-round fisheries most of the time, but not without its challenges.

Most tailwater rivers tend to get more pressure from anglers and this almost certainly impacts fly and tippet selection as one of the first things I look into. Downgrading from 6x to mostly 6.5x and 7x fluorocarbon for my standard tippet selection helps me get smaller flies down into riffles, runs, and pockets while also providing an easier meal for fish-holding deep in the water column. The reason being that most of the insect populations in tailwaters tend to be in the size 16-22 range and especially during winter it can be even smaller. With a lighter tippet, I can get small size flies in this case two sz18 perdigons with 2.5 and 2.0mm tungsten beads down to the bottom with minimal effort while achieving a lot less drag. One misconception people make is that tippet size reflects how picky the trout are on any given day, I completely disagree. In most scenarios, a fish would eat the same fly on 5x as it would on 7x, but the main difference would be how quickly that fly reached the bottom. I fish light tippet to not only give me an edge on what the trout can see sometimes but mainly because I want my fly to reach the bottom of the river as fast as possible. Fishing heavier tippet increases drag in the river, along with the flies and this leads to putting heavier and larger flies to achieve a greater depth.

Fly selection on tailwaters and winter fishing, in general, can be crucial at times because there is not a lot of food flowing down the river, to begin with. This being said fish can be suckers for junk and attractors like eggs, stoneflies, and worms which can work equally as well on any given day. One of my favorite rigs for winter fishing in deep runs is an egg or stonefly tied with a 4.0mm tungsten bead as my point fly. In addition, I mostly use a small beatis perdigon on my dropper with a 2.5mm silver tungsten bead. The heavier fly on the bottom especially a sz 14-12 slows my flies down when fishing deep holes and runs where fish tend to be in the winter. Most times fish eat my dropper fly on top and my point fly is just used as an anchor with the occasional odd fish picked up on a junk fly. Midges, beatis, scuds, and small mayflies seem to be the most productive flies for me, I tie many of these patterns in perdigon style for a quick sink rate and added durability. I have found that adding somewhat unnatural colors can be a trigger for sluggish fish sticking to mainly oranges, blues, and pink color schemes in the form of thread hot spots or flash. This can provoke eats when the trout are slow to eat and provide a complete contrast from some of the natural flies they see.

Finding fish willing to eat is a problem I run into often when winter fishing. Fishing pocket water that would produce lots of fish in the summer can be almost barren in the winter and at times it can seem like the river is void of fish. One thing I do is fish SLOW, especially when I am in a run where I know there are fish. Looking for deeper water is key because this is the most common holding water. Fishing soft transitions to deeper water can also be productive because fish move up on shelves to eat when a hatch is coming off. I constantly adjust my depth and weight until I feel like it is sufficient, and then think about the type of flies I might change. Rarely do I dwell on the fly being the problem, most of the time it is lack of weight and not enough tippet to get to where the fish are feeding. Another problem can be too much weight or an excess of tippet so it might take 15 minutes to an hour to find that sweet spot. Once this happens I tend to cycle confidence patterns and then move on to less imitative flies like eggs, worms, or mops on a second pass of the run to see if the fish want something less natural. Most times it can be a balance of attractor fly and natural fly that seems to produce the most fish. My leader set up is a euro nymphing leader made of 4x Maxima Chameleon, 4x Cortland camo leader material, and Hanak 4x tri-colored sighter. Fishing a light leader allows for minimal drag on the flies and the ability to fish flies that wouldn't turn over on a standard 2x or 3x euro leader.

Some tips and tricks I also use on the river before I start to fish are put fly flotant or chap-stick to my guides and part of my fly line to reduce ice build-up on cold days which allows for less time picking ice off the guides. This has to be applied every two hours on a cold day but most of the time it will hold up for an entire day. Neoprene gloves/surgical gloves can also save the day on extremely cold days but also add some comfort whenever the temperature drops, I like these more than gloves because they are thin enough to handle fly line and even tie on flies. They are less bulky than gloves and definitely keep your hands a lot warmer with the advantage of being water proof.

While different tactics work for every angler this is what I have found to work for me. I have tried to sharpen these skills through years of competitive fishing and I think even the most novice angler can take away small tips to enhance a day out on the water during the winter months.

Tight lines- Jack Arnot