freestone streams vs limestone (wintertime)

[Trails and trout]

Its winter time and the temps are definitely not ideal. But I wanted to know your guys opinions on which type of stream you target during the colder months. I know I often stick to the stable temperatures of a tail water and lime stone spring creek during the colder months, I am curious to see who has an opinion on the topic.
Also what are some of your go too flies for winter, mine are sexy waltz, squirmy wormy, pheasant tail, freincie, and jiggy stone in brown olive.

 

[Swattie87]

Limestone and tailwaters are clearly safer bets. I’d venture a guess that most fishable sized freestoners are iced over right now. I drive over the Susky in Harrisburg on days I work from the office. The channel was probably 90% iced over yesterday. I worked from home today but looking at the forecast, we’re headed for a deep freeze here in the next week. Freestones are gonna need a real mild streak to shake the ice.

In more milder Winters, the last several of which have been, I do still fish freestoners too. I tend to look for streams that have predominantly wild Brookies though, as they seem to stay more active in colder water than wild Browns.

 

[jifigz]

I agree with Swattie. An actual legit spring creek in these cold temps will have the warmest water and, therefore, probably the most active fish. The hybrid streams like Penns and the Little Juniata are usually good bets, too. In mild winters, small freestoners for brookies are my favorite streams to fish though. I've had my most memorable winter outings on them. If flows are decent and streams are ice free, brookies are pretty easy to catch all winter long.

 

[Trails and trout]

Limestone and tailwaters are clearly safer bets. I’d venture a guess that most fishable sized freestoners are iced over right now. I drive over the Susky in Harrisburg on days I work from the office. The channel was probably 90% iced over yesterday. I worked from home today but looking at the forecast, we’re headed for a deep freeze here in the next week. Freestones are gonna need a real mild streak to shake the ice.

In more milder Winters, the last several of which have been, I do still fish freestoners too. I tend to look for streams that have predominantly wild Brookies though, as they seem to stay more active in colder water than wild Browns.

I’ve noticed that too, the brookies are definitly more active and I’ve got several to eat dries even when it snowing