Winter fishing tips

[5footfenwick]

Yeah. I’m mostly a small stream guy, and they take a little longer in the Spring to turn on. I’ve taken days off in April before in what I thought would be good conditions, but still struggled more often than not…cold water. I do like fishing Hendricksons on the larger limestoners…fun to catch fish during the daylight hours, as opposed to the later season mayflies which are usually a dusk, or later deal. But, I’m satisfied with doing that on weekends. I want my vacation days for the Summer and Fall. Ideally after a good rain.

I shoot for good fishing to start the first thunderstorm in May. I’m no expert at anything by any means, but I do know this event triggers brook trout to turn on from early May and then they stay turned on untill mid October. I’m with you Swattie. I used to take vacations in March and April a lot when I was younger. However, the small stream fishing just never really pays off this time of year.

One year 3 of us took a 10 day backpacking trip in mid March. It was our “spring break,” When we started there was several feet of snow. By the end it was 50 degrees and we were wearing t-shirts. Unfortunately all that snow melt blew out the tiny creeks with ice water. 3 trout were landed in 10 days by 3 guys. Pretty discouraging. Still fun, but I think expectations need to be adjusted for the colder water.

~ 5footfenwick

 

[dryflyguy]

I'm most comfortable fishing with air temps above 50.
However, will do it when its in the 40s.

With air temps in the 30's, I'lll only be on the water if fish are rising.
And am able to catch a few between breaks to warm up the fingers.

When its cold enough to ice up the fly line, I'm done.

 

[Kms]

So, one of the first things that I would buy if was going to do very much winter fishing today would be to invest in the best available Hotronic foot warmers.

Stay safe and be comfortable, and the several hundred dollars that you’d spend for a pair of them might not be worth their weight in gold…but they’d certainly be worth their weight in steel. 🐟

Maybe not as good a Hotronic, but still pretty effective and far less expensive. This is the manufacturer of “Snow Deer” heated socks.

Heated Gloves, Socks, Clothing, Hats

SAVIOR Heat is Concentrating on Producing the Best Outdoor Heated Goods. Our extensive product range includes heated gloves, heated clothing, heated socks, heated hat, and more.

saviorheat.com

I picked up socks for myself and my wife and daughter, and also grabbed a pair of gloves on clearance. So far everything works well and warms up for several hours.

This old 25% off code below still works and drops the price for a pair of socks to ~$40, or two for $80 with free shipping. I figured that’s worth it just to have an extra set of batteries.

SAVIORHEATED

 

[ryansheehan]

The best advice for fishing in sub-zero weather is: Don't.

The best advice for winter fishing more generally is to go on mild days when the temperatures go over 40F.

Agreed, I hate seeing other people on the river.

 

[Nymph-wristed]

Fish live in water. All the old adages you might hear about fishing between 10 and 2, fish only when it's over 40 degrees, etc. are all great advice for the fisherman's comfort in the winter.

If you are fishing tailwaters, spring creeks, limestoners near springs, then water temperature is the primary thing to worry about.

Even in the winter, brown trouts especially are still crepuscular, so you may be surprised how good fishing is before 9 AM some mornings. You may also plan to fish 10 to 2 and then not catch a thing until 3:30 PM when the sun dips below the horizon (too true my last couple of outings that were mostly a 3 hour walk in the woods for 1 hour of productive fishing).

Wind sucks but a calm 35 degrees can be awesome, especially if conditions have been stable for a couple days.

Feeding windows may be shorter on cold days, so lower your expectations and stay sharp for that 90 minutes of fishing between casting practice.

Just to pile on the article and @Bamboozle and others' points about tenkara: mono rig is your friend in temps below 35 degrees.

Go fishing. Or don't. I love it when the only others I see are stir crazy dogs walking their owners in the snow.