Well, warmwater season is either winding down or over for most of us. What will you be doing between now and March/April in preparation? New fly patterns to be tied, new style of fishing to try, scouting out new spots?
Preparations for spring...
Well, warmwater season is either winding down or over for most of us. What will you be doing between now and March/April in preparation? New fly patterns to be tied, new style of fishing to try, scouting out new spots?
What will I do this winter?
Tying a bunch of flies to replace the ones I left in trees.
Play with some new pattern ideas that have been floating around in that empty space between my ears.
Hit some tail waters this fall and winter to fish for trout and maybe some delayed harvest streams.
Read some fishing books
Hang out on FAOL more
Basically mark time until April when our warm water fishing season picks back up again.
Jeff
While I am able to fish all year here in the Atlanta area, it slows down quite a bit, especially warm water. I am filling up boxes with my top bream patterns to give as Christmas gifts and to fill up my boxes as well. I always like to try out one or two "new" patterns and like most of the rest of you I wait for the warming weather to do this all over again
Jim Smith
fishing and tying
My fishing season is year around here in Pennsylvania. Yes, it gets very cold in the winter and the fish really slow down their feeding, but I get out anyway. As long as the guides on my rod don't freeze up I can manage. When the guides freeze I go out on the hard water with a few of my buddies for some pan fishing. In addition, I'll be refilling my boxes with my go to patterns and tying some new patterns.
Living in the foothills I'm able to fish year round. The smallie fishing slows down but are can be caught through the winter. Trout fishing, either below a tailrace, DH water, or bluelines are available year round. So, I fish when I can which is not as often as I'd like. I try to tie as often as I can and I've got a couple of the slit foam flyboxes that will hold 392 flies that are empty at the moment. I go to an event in February called "Lyin' and Tyin': which coincides with a fly fishing show in our area. We get good rates at the Mariott, they give us a large room, we bring materials/vises/lamps and tie flies for hours on end. I usually learn a lot of new ideas/techniques at these gatherings. Last year I arrived at 1:00 (early check-in) and tied until 11:30 that night. I didn't even go to the flyshow choosing instead to stay and tie with some friends. I'm looking forward to this gathering next year.
By the way, if your friends with James Smith and you happen to be receiving some of his flies, you are lucky. That gentleman is genius at the vise.
Greg, that get-together sounds like a ton of fun!
My plan is to fish for the trout that get stocked around here for the winter and tie a bunch. I've got a few crawdad patterns I'd like to try and tie up for when the fish move to the riprap here in April and May. Other than that, I'm always tying new and different patterns, mostly soft hackles right now.
I'm also going to be gearing up to try and get serious about catching white bass this coming spring. I've caught a bunch of them on light spinning gear, but haven't gotten after 'em good with the fly rod.
this winter
Tying flies never ceases with me no matter the time of year so that will go on.I will do a lot of shakey head fishing for spotted bass with spinning gear because you catch the biggest baddest spots during winter down here in east central alabama.Then there is perch fishing in Dec,Jan,and Feb with ultra light gear----mini jigs,Hildebradt flicker spinners and such.And finally I'll do some fly fishing for bluegill with tiny midge patterns,Griffins gnats with my one wgt. on a lake near me which has really good brim fishing on certain windless days and in the north sloughs and on water ranging from a foot to about seven feet.Life is great when you are 76,retired,and have choices.
I'll fly-fish until it just gets too cold, or the water freezes over. Then I'll tie up some micro-jigs for ice-fishing. I'll ice-fish for bluegills and crappies, and hopefully some stocker trout too.
Like Quivira Kid, I've caught a lot of white bass on spinning gear, but only a dozen or two on fly gear. They are a BLAST! I'd sure like to target them more next year with the fly rod.
Patterns I'll be tying over the winter in anticipation of next year's open water:
-EP shad
-Arizona Diamond Shad
-Clousers
-boa yarn leeches
-gurglers in a variety of sizes
-shwapf
-carp flies
David Merical
St. Louis, MO
NC fly tying show
Hey g qualls...where do they hold the NC fly show & when.Im down here in
Wilmington but I got a car & will travel.Thx.Fd
I'll fish til the water gets too hard, then I'll hit the tying vise and work on all the things I promised myself I'd get figured out last winter but didn't.
If it swims and eats, it'll eat a fly.
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