WINTER FISHING IN SAFETY.

The weather has turned. Snow is falling, you saw ice along the shore as you drove home from work, and the last caddis hatch is long gone. It’s time to clean off the rods, empty the vest pockets, and hang the waders up until next spring. Or is it?

Winter doesn’t have to mean the end of your fly fishing. In many parts of the country, seasons stay open year-round, and while it may not be as pleasant as those balmy August evenings, the fishing can be more than worth the effort. Here are some tips and tactics that will help you make the most of the many opportunities there are to extend your fishing season.

CLOTHING.

Without a doubt, clothing will either make or break a day of winter fishing. Too little, and you are numb before the day is over. Too much, and you sweat and risk hypothermia. But you can easily stay comfortable if you pay attention and wear the right clothes.

Wear a hat. Most of the heat your body loses is through your head, due to the relatively thin skin and large blood supply. While on 40-degree days a ball cap will do the trick, put on a stocking cap when the temperature drops below freezing. If the wind is blowing, you might try a polypropylene balaclava under the ball cap with the stocking cap over that. When it gets REALLY cold, switch to a polar fleece water fowling hat, which handles even below-zero weather with ease. As temperatures fluctuate throughout the day, add or remove layers to keep your head warm but not sweaty.

Gloves are the second most important part of a comfortable fishing outfit. Glacier Glove makes some fine gloves, but the old standby fingerless wool is always a good choice. Those with Thinsulate ® lining are much warmer than typical wool and are not as scratchy. Under extreme conditions, such as early on a clear morning, insert chemical hand warmers into the gloves, and keep them in your palms throughout the morning. The heat from these warms the blood in your hands, preventing your body from restricting flow to the fingers in an attempt to conserve heat for your body core. And when you do get cold fingers, simply pull them into the glove and hold the warmer for a few minutes. Be careful not to get the warmers wet, though, as they will no longer work after being soaked.

It is usually a good idea to take along another pair in the back of your vest. If you handle fish, your gloves will soon become wet, and dry gloves are much warmer than wet ones. If you need to dry them out, the defroster of your car will do it in a hurry. It will, however, leave your car smelling a little fishy.

A fleece jacket under a breathable or nylon shell when winter fishing is a good combination. The fleece provides warmth, while the shell provides protection from wind and snow. A packable outer shell is preferable, since it can be removed and stored in your vest if the temperature rises.

Leg wear is dependent upon footwear. Under breathable waders, wear fleece pants, while under neoprene capilene or polypropylene long johns works the best. Try to avoid cotton pants, as these retain moisture and can make your legs very cold if you sweat while wading. Bring along a pair of pants for the trip home, though.

Wear good socks. You could wear a thin pair with a heavy wool or wool blend boot sock over them. Bring along an extra pair for the trip home.

WADERS.

Any waders can be used for winter fishing, but preferably either breathables or neoprene. Breathables are an excellent choice when you will be walking a great deal, since they are much more comfortable to hike in. Neoprenes provide insulation that breathables lack, however. The choice is up to you. I would avoid PVC or nylon waders, as these can become brittle when cold, and can be more easily damaged by ice.

Bootfoot waders will keep you much warmer if you spend long hours just standing in the river, which is common when winter steelheading or tailwater fishing. Stockingfoot waders offer some flexibility in boot sole selection, however, which may make them more desirable in the long run.

Felt soles work great on slippery rocks, as we all know. They stick to snow, though, and if you hike down the bank you will soon have balls of snow on your boots that make it impossible to walk. They will also freeze to rocks if you get out and stand on a gravel bar in subfreezing weather. To combat this, I try to walk in the shallows, and limit my bank time when in felts.

Lug soles may make it easier to walk in snow, but are not as useful in the stream. Air-bob soles are the best for walking in snow, and do provide some traction on rocks. Cleats or spikes are another option.

In below-freezing weather, ice will build up on the outside of your waders. In very cold temps, it can thicken to the point where you are walking around encased in ice. If this happens, be careful that your waders don’t crack at the joints as they lose flexibility to the ice.

TACKLE.

Winter fishing is not the time to take out your best gear. Equipment wear goes up dramatically under icy conditions, and I recommend that you use your backup outfit, presuming you have one. I put away the good line and switch to a cheaper DT line. Ice will soon crack a fly line, and there is no sense ruining a $50 fly line that might otherwise last years.

Any weight and length of rod is OK for winter use. I prefer a longer rod, as I spend most of my time nymphing. If you are a rod builder, you might consider making a rod just for winter use. If I were to do so, I would build it with a small grip so I could comfortably fish in gloves, and with oversize guides to slow icing.

Expect ice to build up in your guides and rod tip. When nymphing, the buildup may be slow, but it increases rapidly if the weather is very cold or if you are moving line through the guides, such as when you are casting dries or streamers. When you hear scraping, it is time to deice.

There are many products on the market which will slow the buildup of ice, and most of them work reasonably well. A suggestion would be to use the fly line cleaner/floatant endorsed by your line manufacturer, you can be confident this will not harm either the rod or the line. Apply it to the guides and to the top foot or two of the rod itself. The same hydrophobic properties that help it keep your line floating will keep water off of the guides.

If you do ice up, there are two basic ways to clean your guides. The first is to dip the rod in the water until the ice has melted. This works well if the temperature is right around freezing, or if water temperatures are in the 40s or higher. You do risk damaging your rod by scraping it on the bottom, and in colder temps this can lead to a buildup of ice along the entire rod. DO NOT dip the reel in the water. If you reel becomes wet, it will freeze solid. If you do dip it, take the spool off and shake all the water out of the reel, then replace the spool and strip off several yards of line and reel it back in. This will help remove any remaining water. Keep turning the reel once in a while until you are sure it will function properly.

Option two is to manually remove the ice from the guides. If you pry it out, you risk snapping off a guide or even the tip of your rod. I usually melt the ice with the heat of my fingertips, then remove any remaining pieces when they have separated from the guides. Handwarmers are useful when you do this.

If the rod itself becomes iced up, very carefully remove the ice before casting. Ice is much less flexible than graphite, and if the rod is encased in ice, it may only flex where the ice is cracked, which can cause the blank to snap in two.

If you use a net, you will find that the bag tends to freeze solid in below-freezing air. Before netting a fish, thaw the bag by immersing it in the stream. Wait until the net is flexible before netting the fish.

Most line baskets have a lot of plastic that will break when in cold temperatures. Even the ones with mesh have the plastic supports that will easily break when in freezing temperatures. The suggestion here is to not use them, unless you want to buy a new one in the spring.

HEALTH and SAFETY.

You run a much higher risk of hypothermia than in the summer months. Tell someone where you are fishing, and when you will return. If possible, fish with a partner and stay within sight of each other. And drive carefully. Even though it’s cold, take off the waders and drive home in your normal shoes, since icy felt soles don’t stick to the brake pedal very well.

Drink lots of water. Cold air holds much less moisture than warm, and as a result, you lose water faster than in the summer months. If you take a drink of water every hour or so, you will find that fishing is much more pleasant.

Wear sunscreen on your hands, face, and especially lips. When it is cold, you pay less attention to the sun since it never feels hot. But the UV is still there, and sunburns can happen before you know. Wear good polarized sunglasses, too, not just to see fish but to protect your eyes from the sun.

If you fish rivers that are not tailwaters or fed by warmer dam release waters BE CAREFUL. There can be ice flows that can take your legs out from under you and the results could be devastating. My advice is to try to stay with tailwaters. The roaring fork in Colorado often claims the lives of unsuspecting fisherman in the winter. It's just not worth it.

DOWN TO BUSINESS.

Hatches are limited in the winter months. In most waters, midges are the only significant insect hatch from November into March. These usually come off late morning to early afternoon, and are most prevalent on warmer, cloudy days. Blue-winged olive mayflies are also present on many waters, and hatch under the same conditions.

Aside from that, most winter fishing is subsurface. Depending on the water, either nymph or strip streamers, with nymphing being the primary method. The actual mechanics of fishing are the same as at any other time of the year, although you might fish much shorter in the winter than in the summer.

Fish become less active as water temperatures drop and their metabolism slows. As a result, they spend a great deal of time just sitting there, and will seldom move far to capture food. You must therefore get the fly right in front of the fish in order to get a strike, and in many cases present the fly to the fish dozens of times before he will move to take.

Since the fish aren’t capable of significant exertion, they tend to stay in the slower, deeper portions of the stream, where they do not have to fight the current. They will, however, be close to the edges of the current so they have access to drifting food. Focus your fishing on those areas.

Another result of this movement is that fish tend to congregate in a relatively few areas. Typically, where you find one fish, you find many. Therefore, if you do get a fish out of a particular lie, continue to fish that spot.

When you do catch fish, try to keep them in the water. While taking a fish out of the water is always stressful, it is even more so when the air is below freezing. Gills are very delicate, with a strong blood supply, and can freeze in seconds if it is too cold.

Winter fly selection can be rather sparse. When streamer fishing, use either original or olive D-buggers. When nymphing, use D-buggers, egg patterns (especially if there are browns, whitefish, or other fall-spawning species present), San Juan Worms, midge pupae, small beadhead mayfly nymphs, and stonefly nymphs. Where present (usually within a quarter mile of a dam release), mysis shrimp are a significant winter food source. Remember that most mysis shrimp die while in the turbulent waters of release so stay with white as a color. This high protein morsel will hook some very big fish.

Good winter destinations are usually tailwaters. Bottom-release dams result in relatively warm water for several miles downstream. Fish move up out of the lower reaches of the tailwaters into the milder conditions closer to the dam. Insect activity is greater in the warmer water, too. You can expect daily midge and BWO hatches on many of these streams.

Some freestone streams also stay open throughout the winter. The more turbulent streams generate enough heat through the movement of water to stay relatively ice-free. Water temps in these streams tend to be in the 30s, though, so fish will be less active and harder to catch. Again, remember, heavy flow rivers can be very dangerous - stay away.

So don’t think you have to give up fishing just because there is a little snow on the ground. There are plenty of opportunities to find fish, and with the right preparation, the endeavor can be both fruitful and enjoyable. If you live in an area where there is heavy fishing in the warmer month, much like going to a college basketball game, you might rediscover the pleasant isolation of being on the water that was an integral part of your fishing experience years ago !!!!. THEN GO FISHING".

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