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With the cooler weather on us, what tactics or methods to you use when trying to find what the fish (bass, gills, or crappie)?
Start with lighter colors, switching to darker colors?
Adjust retrieves?
Fish different depths?
Try a differnt fly and repeat the above?
What flies do you usually start with?
Trying to put together a "recipe book" as to what to try.
Watch weather conditions closely. Fish small bodies of water if possible, and concentrate on those with shallows on the north side. If you get a 3-day warm spell during winter, and water is open, fish the north side of farmponds, if it's the shallow side. Use a fairly large streamer, wooly bugger, etc. This is not the time of year for a small fly. Fish very slowly, then slow down. Oh, yeah, the 3-day warm spell, fish on the 3rd day.
Never considered which end of the pond to start on. Starting on the north side - is that because it's warmer? Guess I could take the water temperature and find out?
For me this winter olive has been a very good color.
Bill,
Winter bassing with a fly rod has it's own special challenges. Primarily, it's both dificult and inconvenient to fish deep (25 to 50 feet) with fly casting gear.
That's the reason you want to try to target smaller waers during the cold months, the bass can't get too deep on you.
Always fish the warmest water you can find. If you can find an area where a warm spring or a warmwater discharge enters a body of water, you've found your 'spot'. If not, the northwest 'side' of the majority of bodies of water will be a tad warmer, due to longer sun contact.
Bass eat less in cold water than they do in warm. They also will expend as little energy as possible to get a meal.
For the fly fisherman that means several things:
Larger flies will work better, as the fish at this time of year would rather eat one large meal than a bunch of smaller ones. They aren't 'fly picky' though, color and 'pattern' are relatively unimportant. Fish something big that they can see and you have confidence in.
Accuracy is critical. The fish won't move far to get a fly. Depth control is probably the most important part of this.
Fish very slowly. Make a cast and retrieve it as slow as you can, then, on the next cast, slow down by half. Lots of long pauses. Start with several seconds, and work up to several minutes.
Make multiple casts in the same spot. Don't try to cover water. Pick a good area the size of a dining room table and try to cover every square inch of it five times over during one day of fishing.
Never, ever, in cold water, leave an area where you've caught a fish. Bass will school tightly in cold water. In a small pond, once you've found one fish, it's even possible that ALL the fish are right there. It's certain, though, that there wll be a bunch in any location that holds them.
Bass don't change location in coldwater unless they are forced to by water level fluctuations. Cold water fish are very stable. If you find them once, you can return every day for months and find the fish in the same spot.
Winter is NOT a time for prospecting, fish ONLY in areas where you have a high confidence that fish are actually there.
If fly selection is something that you are struggling with, fish a big (3-6 inches long) black bunny leach or zonker type fly and add a weed guard if snagging is an issue.
I don't personally enjoy winter bass fishing with a fly rod. I'm too impatient. The lovely folks at the Arizona Game and Fish Department put those trout things in the lakes during cold water periods, though, so we get some easy fishing for a change.
Good Luck!
Buddy
p.s; on any large reservoir in Arizona during the winter, with a good sonar and a jigging spoon, you can catch hundreds of bass. Not as much fun as the fly rod, though, and that won't get down to those fish....BS.
Buddy,
Thanks for all of the good info.
After reading over the replies, I think I am to impatient as I retreive the flyline. As was stated, slow down, and slow down again. Cover the same areas multiple times.
We are having some record hight temps here in Virginia, yesterday the high was nearly 70. I was thinking that the bass would be more active in this warmer weather.
I am fortunate to have a storm water retention pond behind the house that has been stocked over the years with transplanted fish. Where I can get to and cast with a flyrod, the depth is no more than 10 feet. There is a lot of brush surrounding the pond for the most part, except for a small clearing here and there.
As has been stated, slow and slower. I tend to use more blac, brown, dark olive patterns now. Usually larger sizes. Everything in the pond is as big as it is going to get for the year. All the little stuff has been eaten.
Use imitative patterns as the fish are going to have along time to look at it.
I have a second rod with me inthe canoe and I will toss a bright pattern some, just to see if the fish are interested in it.
95% + of the fish are on dark slow moving patterns.
Rick
What is meant by a slow retrieve?
With a 30 foot cast for example, my idea of a slow retrieve would be to let the fly settle a bit into the water, then strip the line in, perhaps 3 to 6 inches. After about 10 seconds or so, I pull in another 3 to 6 inches of line, continuing this process until I have pulled most of the line back.
Bill, in most of North America, east of the Rockies, the major drainage is to the south, in general terms. Therefore, in most impoundments, the shallower end will be to the north side. This shallow water warms first, and will hold every fish in the pond at the end of a 3-day warm spell. Be careful about catching and keeping at this time of year, it's very easy to catch every large bass out of a small pond. And if you know how to do a finger-twist retrieve, this is the perfect time and place to do it slowly.
For me, at this time of year. A slow 1 inch strip with a minnimum of a 5 second pause.
You don't make alot of casts, but the fish are not moving very fast at this time of year.
Hope this helps.
Rick
Bill,
I 'finger twist' or use little 1 to 2 inch strips, and drink a lot of coffee and eat a lot of Christmas candy between movements.
It's hard to stress how important 'slow' really is.
That should also indicate how important 'where' you fish is.
Spending fifteen to twenty minutes on a single cast that's in the wrong place.....
Good Luck!
Buddy
RG is correct about trying the north end first. I have a number of good winter ponds and all of them have shallow north ends. In Oklahoma, it seems like the wind is always blowing from the south which means you have a lot of wave action on the north end which not only increases the oxygen in that part of the pond, but combined with the shallowness, warms the water up quicker. You don't have to take the water temperature, it's just a fact of nature that the water is warmer and that's where the bass will be early.
As for retrieve, during the transition times to spring, I use a slow motion finger twist retrieve most of the time. At this time of year, it's not unusual to have a big channel cat take a swipe at your woolly bugger or streamer, so I wouldn't recommend a delicate rod for this fishing. I'd go with a good 5 or 6 wt. at the lightest.
Edit: Hmm, somehow my post ended up in the wrong thread. . . too many windows open I guess. :oops:
I went "gear fishing" on Mcgee Creek lake in Oklahoma 2 weeks ago and we were drop shotting bass on points and humps in 25 to 30 ft of water. They go deep in the winter and you've got to give them a slow, "in your face" presentation. Your best bet, as Buddy says is in a shallow small pond with a fly rod. That's where I've had my best, and only, luck in the Winter with a fly rod. I guess you could catch them on the deep, big lakes with a weighted line, but man that would be slow.
Robert
Robert is BACK!!!...That, to me, is the most exciting part of this post!!!
I like white, combined with chartreuse or hot pink...hot pink head with a white tail has been DEADLY for crappie, at least for me. I like my early season flies unweighted or very lightly weighted. Again, SLOW!
Mike
Amen on Robert! Buddy is back, too. Wow, like all I wanted for Christmas was my two bass beasts! Anyway, striper fishing near Boston a couple of years ago we were casting 9 wts with sand eel imitations. We'd cast, then place the rod under our arm and pinch the line in a half inch at a time. Reeeeeeeeaaaaaaal slow. Up here, one of the techniques for crappies and gills while ice fishing is to do a quick, jerk lift and allow the jig to settle back down near the bottom, an inch or two above the bottom. Then let it sit. Right after ice out, again hitting the north bays of the lakes up here, you adapt by casting a weighted nymph and letting it sink. Take some time to commune with nature. Then use a very slow, almost imperceptible retrieve. That hand twist technique is great, but it has to be slow. Deep. Slow. Fun. JGW