warm and cold water patterns

[bobbyneuman]

looking for a site that features step by step intruuctions for bass flies....and also would like to know some good patterns for small pond fishing for trout in febuary in ohio. they stocked raibow in a pond near my home just want to give it a try i usually fish for steelhead this time of year and smallmout and largemouth and other panfish in warmer months,thanx bobby

[WarrenP]

Might try this one:

http://www.warmwaterflytyer.com/patterns3.asp?page=11

I will look for more.....

Here is a great popper for bass. Make sure to check out the Blockhead popper. I have ordered the pre-shaped Blockhead and they work great.

http://www.flybass.com/html/foam_popper.html

[ScottP]

Have you tried Youtube? Some great videos for all kinds of wamwater flies. Besides Warren's link (great site) try
http://www.invictaflies.us/Patterns.htm
http://www.warmfly.com/smf/index.php?board=14.0

Heck, I just did a quick Google search and found a bunch of sites I didn't know were out there. Poke around; that's half the fun.

Regards,
Scott

[Gandolf]

Hi Bobby,

They stock trout in the winter here in Texas and when I lived in Kansas the Kansas folks stocked trout in the winter also. Typically they are quite difficult to catch on a fly rod, at least that has been my experience and the experience of the limited number of fly fishermen I know who have fished for them in pond type locations.

That said, I do know of limited approaches that have worked at least some. A friend has caught some on the "olive and orange" fished very slowly, esentially bottom bumping it in very slowly. The olive and orange is a bead head no hackle bugger, and the pattern is as follows:

Hook: 3X long streamer/nymph (I use Mustad 9672), size 10, 12
Thread: olive
Weight: VERY small gold bead
Tail: Orange rabbit or Orange marabou
Body: fine olive chenille,
Hackle: none

During the winter around here, and I suspect up where you are as well, as one would expect, the only insect activity I have seen is midges. I have seen midge activity on the surface, and have caught trout on cream emerger drys and olive emerger dries. The patterns that worked best were midge emergers in #18. I do have to say, however, that fishing has been pretty sparce, and if you are just out to catch fish for the pan, you are much better off with hardware and powerbait.

The midges I have seen in the winter have been primarily smaller than # 18s, however the trout have taken the #18 drys emergers anyway. I fish the emergers dry and doped with fly floatant. The ones that have worked for me are an emerger fished dry in cream, and an emerger fished dry in olive. I have only had success with these drys when fish were actively rising, and I have only seen them rise right just before sunset, and the activity went on until it was too dark for me to fish.

The other type of fly that I think might work are small streamers that are minnow patterns. I think they should work for a couple of reasons. First, a friend catches winter stockers on spinners at times, and so silvery color streamers should also work for that reason. I also checked the contents of one of the stockers that I caught a few weeks ago, and the trout contained a very freshly eaten silver shiner minnow. The minnow was about 1.5"s long.

I have been tying hot flash minnows, and white marabou streamers, some with Angel Hair material on top of white marabou for the wing for these minnow patterns. I have not caught any trout on these ties, however, yet, but plan to keep trying.

The other thing that I think might work is to fish an emerger, or nymph, very slowly upward in the water column when I think a midge hatch might be about to happen. I have not been able to try this approach yet but hope to in the next few weeks.

Regards,

Gandolf

[FishnDave]

Will you have open water on that trout pond in February? Our ice typically melts off in very late February or first week of March. Might be sooner this year.
I'll assume your pond will have open water.
Here's some recent blogs I wrote about stocker trout in small lakes here that you might be interested in reading:
http://www.fishndave.blogspot.com/20...g-day-fly.html

http://www.fishndave.blogspot.com/20...g-day-fly.html

http://www.fishndave.blogspot.com/20...e-petocka.html

http://www.fishndave.blogspot.com/20...port-11-7.html

http://www.fishndave.blogspot.com/20...owa-trout.html


The patterns that have worked well for me are listed in those blogs.