Winter trout tactics for rivers

[WAtroutbum]

I was wondering if anyone could share some of their tactics for trout fishing rivers during the winter. I usually nymph/ streamer fish but believe I have trouble locating fish during the colder winter months.
Thanks for the help.

[flybop]

For me a very important aspect of winter trout fishing has been to find the right combination of current speed and depth that the actively feeding fish preferred on that day. Very often the trout were in slow to moderate currents.

When I start a day of fishing in the winter I focus most of my fishing in this type of water. If the fish are very active I pay more attention to the shallower riffles. Some of my best days in the winter have been after a cold snap is over and there have been a couple of days of warmer weather. Conversely, some of the toughest days have been a couple of days into a cold spell. If I can plan my winter fishing I always prefer to be out there when the water temp has been on an upward trend.

Move around and cover as much water as you can as well as varying water types. From my experience finding actively feeding fish in the winter has been more successfully done by searching for that magical combination of current and depth for that particular day than standing still and constantly switching flies.

[Bamboozle]

WAtroutbum:

Welcome to FAOL!

You'll find some good info on winter fishing in these threads:

http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/s...ad.php?t=22989

http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/s...ad.php?t=18203

[DG]

http://www.flyanglersonline.com/feat...otg/69eotg.php

http://www.flyanglersonline.com/feat...otg/60eotg.php

[Slate_Drake_9]

I spend a lot of time dead drifting nymphs in winter, 95%+ of the time probably. Find seams and current breaks and concentrate your efforts there. Fish up and down the water column until you find fish feeding. They all don't sulk on the bottom because it is cold. Don't waste a lot of time fishing the same water, move around until you find fish. This also helps to keep warm. Typically, if you find one trout, there are more there. On bigger waters I concentrate my efforts in the middle half of the river instead of the outside quarters near the bank when there is snow melt. The colder snow melt takes a little longer to mix in and cool the middle of a river than it does the edges and dropping water temps usually puts fish off the feed.

[JohnScott]

Can't really add to what has been said here or is available in the previous discussions via the links that Bam and DG provided. Just wanted to extend greetings and a welcome from SE Idaho.

John

[Tyro]

This is coming from a complete rookie, so take it for what it's worth.

I would target back eddies. Slow moving water so the fish aren't expending a terrific amount of energy to get food. Food gets caught up and swirled so that the fish can pick off a tasty treat at leisure without expending a lot of energy. Fish the foam lines, the seams of currents within the eddy. On the Deschutes that seems to be a productive way of targeting fish in the winter months.

Look up hatches on your local system that you are fishing. On my home waters the BWO's are hatching year round. Midday seems to be peak activity.

Cheers and blue fingers,
Steve

[okflyfisher]

In the winter on the highly pressured waters of the south plate in the canyon stretch above deckers in Colorado we used to size 8 to12 crane fly lava imatations on 7x tippet under indicators with great success. It was important to find deep slow pools. Fishing seemed to pick up if it warmed up a little.
These fish were very educated and the typical flies were size 18 and as small as you want to go.

[CO_Flyfisher]

Winter is the time to really bone up on your nymph fishing.

Around here, m-i-d-g-e-s are key.

Otherwise, I use pheasant tails, SJ worms, buggers, and even the occasional egg pattern.

[WAtroutbum]

Thanks for all the advice. I'll have to try some of those tactics next time i'm out.