Blue lining and Enjoying the weather

[BrooksAndHooks]

Decided to enjoy the warm weather since it got over 35 today, and check if my local brookie honey hole had thawed out at all. A lot of the spots were still frozen solid, but I was able to get into a few and fish some rifles at some places. Caught 2 little guys, missed 2, and spooked 3. Just started tying in January and used my own flies today, so I was happy to see I was actually able to catch fish on them (even though brookies will eat almost anything). Was a great day on the water, but was pretty difficult hiking in the foot + snow we had on the ground. It was great to see the stream still seems to carry and extremely healthy population of brookies. It's an extremely small stream and I've never caught a fish over 7-8" but I've always got my fingers crossed.

 

[HopBack]

Catching anything, especially Brookies this time of year is a bonus and I just usually am glad to get out. I can't wait to get out tomorrow in the Lehigh valley.

 

[troutbert]

Nice! What kind of fly were they hitting?

 

[SlingerFlyRods]

my dad and I are headed out to Meet a friend tomorrow. Hoping for similar luck. Thanks for sharing

 

[Fishidiot]

Nice. Some tight fishing there.

Mountain brookies, in my experience, can be quite aggressive in winter, even with heavy ice.

 

[BrooksAndHooks]

Thanks guys. The trick yesterday was actually finding the open water. I've got some rad holes up there with good sized fish, but they were all iced over. Fish were as active as ever yesterday, plenty aggressive. I had one surface halfway out of the water coming after my fly at one point. I had another shoot after the fly as soon as it hit the water and actually swim over top, I had to wait til he moved to bump the line a little so I didn't line the fish. He took it after that. I was fishing an olive scuplin wooly bugger pattern I tied. Elevation at this stream is between 2200-2500 feet so there was a ton of snow compared to other areas and it was a bit cooler up there was well. I wanted to get out before all the snow melt came off. Definitely just enjoyed getting out, catching a few was just the cherry on top. Can't wait for some warmer weather.

 

[cpc1027]

Awesome! I tried to go check out a new blue line yesterday, but everything was iced over. I'll wait for a thaw before I commit to exploring for the day.

 

[BrooksAndHooks]

Yeah, The higher in elevation I got, the icier it got. I got up to my favorite big holes and literally inches on inches of ice under 2+ feet of snow up there. And didn't even start to thaw yet cause it was still cold. I have a bunch of blue lines I've been scouting out driving and using online mapping that I plan to visit this spring and summer, so I'm itching for it to warm up. Hopefully you have some luck when you get to head back there!

It's raining and warm here today, buddy asked me to go out tomorrow so I guess I'm shooting out for a few hours. Trying a section of a stream I've never fished and have a honey hole as a back up! Tight lines guys.

 

[streamerguy]

Nice!!!

For some reason I always have very poor luck fishing for brookies in the winter. The fish that are present seem to be just as easy to catch as they are in the summer, but the vast majority of the fish seem to disappear. I dunno......just my experiences(which are limited in the winter). Maybe its just the streams I fish...

 

[BrooksAndHooks]

It's definitely accurate I think then again all wild trout get a little thin in the winter once it really cools down.

I got out today, on a bigger stream. Buddy had one hit and once catch, really tiny brookie. I had 4 hits, 3 of them out of the water, lost them all though and didn't bring any to hand. Pretty bummed but it wasn't bad. Rained on us all day long and got pretty cold and tired so called it a day. Glad to get my feet wet and some more hits on my fly I tied. Wish I had brought some in though. Can't wait for it to heat back up again.

 

[Chaz]

Just wondering what region you're in that the elevation is 2200 to 2500 feet?

 

[tomitrout]

Just wondering what region you're in that the elevation is 2200 to 2500 feet?

I'd guess not the south central or south east, nor Pittsburgh, nor Erie, somewhere there in that big band of orangeishness...

 

[BrooksAndHooks]

That would be correct. I double checked and the section I was on is 2200 at the point I was fishing. SC/SW PA.