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.