Winter

[Lake Erie High Ball]

So I take a gulp of my Pepsi as I read and scroll down, then DUDLEY'S thousand words comes into view

Rcassady try fly tying then every day becomes perfect to enjoy this hobby / sport.

[Max]

Try some Egg Fly patterns--globugs, loop clusters, etc. The Brownies are still, or recently completed, spawning and the trout are accustomed to feeding on them in late fall. Brookies are also late fall, early winter spawners.

Good luck
Max

[EdD]

I just looked at the next few days' weather. It's going to be 61 ... on Monday! ACK! I'm going to have to figure a way to finance this fishing thing without a job.
<snip>

<clapping Rcassady on back>
Welcome aboard, Laddie! I can see that you're one of us!
(BTW, if you come up with a viable answer, please send it to me PM...)


Ed

[hungNtree]

I'm with Ed, if you figure it out let us know! PLEASE!!!

hNt

[Rcassady]

Just looked at the 10-day forecast for my area. Not only is tomorrow going to be the first day we're going to break freezing in more than a week, but after a few dry days (enough to get the snow runoff over with), Saturday's supposed to be 51 degrees.
Not only will I be glad to get out, but I'd imagine both the smallies and rainbows in my favorite river will be glad to finally emerge as well, if only temporarily. At any rate, the only problem I'm having is figuring out how to explain to my wife that it's highly unlikely I'll be home during daylight hours Saturday.

I'm just praying the weather holds out, and, at this point, not even sure I care what it's like out there.
Also, I'm ordering my fly tying kit in a couple of weeks, so when the weather turns sour again, I'll be ready to go. God knows I've already exhausted the Woodford Reserve supply.

[EdD]

Ah, Woodford Reserve. Good stuff, a little sweet, but good stuff. It tastes like a wheat whiskey instead of a rye bourbon, but still very good. Not that I would know, you understand...

Ed

[Rcassady]

Ah, Woodford Reserve. Good stuff, a little sweet, but good stuff. It tastes like a wheat whiskey instead of a rye bourbon, but still very good. Not that I would know, you understand...

Ed

Certainly. I can't imagine anyone on here taking a nip now and then. By the way, Ed. I noticed you're from Nashville. Ever fish the South Holston? I've been doing some reading and have been contemplating possibly taking a trip down there sometime this year (I live just a couple of hours away). Is it worth the trouble?

[Rcassady]

Finally got out on my home river Saturday morning. No luck, a few VERY sluggish bites, but went home without catching a fish. Got some good casting practice and some time outdoors, so I can't complain at all.
It was nice out there, although I couldn't drive to my favorite spot, thanks to a massive tree felled by a snowstorm last month.
Also, I'm posting a photo of some footprints I found on the beach where I was fishing. I definitely wasn't out there alone, and I'm thinking maybe it was a beaver, but I'm not 100% positive of what was out there with me.
And the water was perfect, if a little too cold for my taste.
Can't wait for it to warm up some, but I'm getting my fly tying equipment early next month, so I'll have something to do to prepare for the season.

[chemrat]

I've only been fly fishing since October or so, and while the first two days were pretty pleasant (wading in Missouri streams around Steelville with a friend), the last 5 times have been cold. So far, I can't cast very well, though an OK cast happens from time to time, and I've caught two fish (smallmouth and carp).

The thing that struck me was that I became very acclimated to the cold since we had a good month of 10-20 degree weather, more or less. Then, when we had some days in the low 40s or high 30s I thought, "this will feel like summer!".

We have a bunch urban trout lakes in St. Louis that are sticked every year, and they are catch and release only (I think also no live bait) in January. Bass and other fish may also be present. So, I went into Forest Park (of World's Fair fame) to practice casting at Jefferson Lake, and maybe catch a fish.

I consistently under-dressed the first three times out, however. The "warmer" temperatures came with increased dampness, and it felt colder than 20 degrees had. I do have plenty of cold weather gear, not necessarily fishing-specific, but it does little good sitting in a closet at home. I think I was more exposed to wind than I had expected, also. Since I go running by there every Sunday, why any of this took me by surprise is a mystery- of course I generate a bit more heat running than fishing, and thought I was accounting for this. Not so.

I tried fishing off the bottom of the lake with a full-sinking 5 wt line; one of the other two on the lake was having success off the bottom with some kind of spin-casting setup and a lure that I never saw. I had two good strikes on a woolly bugger, but couldn't hook anything. The strikes only came with fairly fast stripping. I did get hooked in the hand by another fly fisher- he was quite good, but a gust of wind surprised him- lucky I had the gloves on. He then caught some small trout with a nymph/indicator setup while I was skunked.

Well, possibly as a reward for reading this post that doesn't say much, I'm including two photos from my Flickr acct from fly fishing Rose Canyon Lake on Dec 29. The lake was beautiful, up at around 8,500 ft in the Santa Catalina Mountains, north of Tucson (a short drive). My brother-in-law, fly fisherman since childhood, caught a number of trout. It was about 20 degrees, ignoring wind chill. We went twice and one day the gusts were 40-60 mph (really, as in this isn't a fish story: gusts were blowing cars off the highway down in the valley (tragically), but the wind didn't start until we were up the mountain and had hiked the two miles through the snow to the lake. No way were we leaving...). We stopped at a scenic lookout on the way down and were pelted with a continuous hail of small granite pebbles. On that first day, when the wind was high, my hands were cold enough that I threw a bunch of flies straight into the lake before I relaxed and focused more on the knots.

What I had never seen before was a spider in the snow (pic 2). This was as cool to see as the wild turkey, deer, bobcat (!, that was a first), and hawks (I never tire of watching them, or any of the animals). I wonder if this would be a good winter fly pattern?

My Flickr acct has more photos of the Arizona fishing in December (and hiking, etc., and also pics of Maine, like my icon).

Today, back in St. Louis, I'm just tying knots and reading up on salt water techniques. My local shop's casting lesson was canceled yesterday due to illness, so I hope all is well there soon. I need that lesson ASAP!

Best wishes.

[chemrat]

I refer to "my icon" above. Hmm, that's on another, relatively local, fishing site... 51 and losing it already.