I am hoping to get to go fishing this Saturday, which will be the first time since late June or early July. A friend said that it may be too late in the year to do any good, but I would still like to go.
Do you know any good choices for flies for this late in the season?
He also thought that they might be deep. I fish from the bank, so don’t know how that will go.
I have some of Rick’s midges that I want to try toward evening, or during the day if there is a midge hatch underway. It will be the first chance I have had to try them.
I also am planning to tie some weighted small streamers such as Clousers, buggers, or maybe even weighted boa leaches also.
Any advise will be much appreciated.
I have had two remodeling projects this summer, and have had several other obligations such that I almost did not get a chance to fish this summer, but am hoping for better next summer. My part of the remodeling should hopefully be finished this Friday!!!
Well…you’re in Texas, so the water temperature right now certainly isn’t as cold there as here. Skim ice has been forming on some local ponds overnight.
My experience with late- and early-season fishing is…you want to fish sort of deep (3’-5’, for example), and you want to fish SLOW. One great way to accomplish this is with a microjig under an indicator. Try a variety of colors until you find one that appeals to the fish.
I don’t know if this will work in Texas but this is what is working on northern Indiana lakes. Weighted flies size 10 and 12 fished on 14’ - 16’ of level 2# fluorocarbon leader (or all you can cast) fished in 6’ - 15’ of water while the boat is anchored in 20’ - 25’ of water. Fishing the deep side weedy breaks on the north or east side of the lakes so the sun can warm the water a bit. Our water is in the mid to high thirties now but after this week we are probably looking at mid to low thirties. Fish slow with short strips… Be watchful for fish taking the fly while it is falling. These will be very light bites. This works until ice-up when you can no longer use a boat.
If anyone wants to try something a bit unorthodox, I have an idea I’ve been kicking around for quite a while about a fly. Just gotta find the time to tie a few…
My go-to fly for crappie and bream in cold weather is the Carter’s Sculpin. I’ved caught fish here in Georgia in mid-winter with snow on the ground. Fairly easy to tie and very durable. Here’s a link to the pattern. http://www.warmwaterflytyer.com/patterns6.asp?page=12
Use two flies. Front one weighted, the back one not. Front fly should be about a 10-12, use something small for the trailing fly, say a 14 or 16 nymph of some sort. Which flies you use won’t matter as much as how and where you fish them. Find a steep bank on a main lake point. Fish there. Cast to deeper water and let the flies sink down. Start with a slow ten count, and keep going down until you begin hanging up. Retrieve should be as slow as you can stand (then slow down by half again and you may be slow enough). You can catch some really big 'gills this time of year. Buddy
Dave, I think you have made a classic mistake of people who are no very familiar with the Lone Star State. I have never been to Borger, but have a friend who is a native, it is just east of Amarillo. The last time I remember being in Amarillo was the week before Christmas. The temperature was 72 deg. as I drove up from Lubbock, 36 hours later as I was leaving the wind chill was minus 40 degrees. It was snowing and the snowflake arriving parallel to the ground. It’s the place people are talking about when they say “If you don’t like the weather, wait a little bit it will change.”
As far as bluegills and crappie are concerned, just think small and slow. Chromatids are great for 'gills, as are midges and small grubs/worms. Crappie are a littler more active in winter than 'gils, so small clousers and streamers work fine. Just be prepared for very light hits.
Smallmouth bass stay active all winter in the south. Just size down a bit and search a little deeper water with structure. Same for largemouths.
Winter is primetime for White Bass and Striped Bass (freshwater). The cooler water holds more oxygen, making the shad more active, making the stripes more active. They will be roaming in large schools searching for groups of shad to decimate. This can be some of the best fishing of the year. Jump-Fishing is especially good in winter. Just look for flocks of wheeling diving birds. If you look under them, you will see the water boiling as the Stripers and Sand Bass viciously cut to ribbons large groups of bait fish. Just get within casting range, match the minnows as close as you can, cast into the melee, and hang on. When they go down, just wait a few minutes, and they will come back up nearby. If you lose contact, just look for another school. My favorite patterns for this are Puglisi-style shad patterns, Polar Minnows in shad colors, and larger Clousers. Best colors are grey/white, all white, all grey, and chartreuse.
Winter is the best time for trout here in the south as well. My best pattern on the Hiwassee, Jacks, Ocoee and Conasauga Rivers are red and white Clousers in small sizes.
That’s exactly what they say about Iowa’s weather as well!
Given the latitude (but completely ignoring altitude), my thought was just that Texas’s Winter, such as it is, is comparatively shorter and milder than ours, so the water temperatures wouldn’t decline to the levels they do here…and so fish would tend to be more active there during the winter. They are active here as well, but you usually have to drill a hole through 10"-18" of ice to reach them.
I’ve had luck on milder winter days fishing a size 10-12 parachute tied with over-sized hackle in brown &/or black with a large, chartreuse and red nymph as a dropper. The nymph gets most of the hits but taking a big 'gill on a dry in December is fun. I think the key is to fish S-L-O-W-L-Y. I have taken 5 minutes to retrieve 10 yards.
There a guy here in GA that guides at Callaway Gardens, a resort south of Atlanta. In cooler weather they stock some of their lakes with nice trout and let their clients play with them. The photo below are some pattern he uses on the lakes for trout. The eyes are foam. Sorry I don’t have a pattern
Blue gill tend to like something either falling or moving while crappie tend to like some thing stationary and suspended or slightly moving. Crappie for some reason are hard for me because I like to to fish with a fly moving. I did manage 3 crappie over the weekend but I will admit I do not have the “crappie mindset”.
BBW, try a boa yarn leech sometime for crappies. Yellow has been my best producer. It is a fly you can keep moving…and you can move it SLOW without it sinking to fast. Crappies prefer to attack their prey from below, so a slowly moving presentation that pushes a bit of water and doesn’t sink much can be PERFECT in the evenings, after dark, or anytime crappies are near shore or suspended within 5’ of the surface.
Here’s my thought… Get some #12 Matzuo sickle jig hooks and tie some basic beadhead patterns on them. Fish em a ways under an indicator just like you would a jig-and-bobber rig. Bead, hackle fibers for tail, chenille body…
As the water has been cooling here, I’ve just been steadily downsizing my clousers and still catching crappies and white bass. As I said above, I usually go to soft hackles for gills when it gets cold.
