Had the itch bad today.
Called my buddy Bruce Ristow.
We met at 11:30am.
The first few streams we drove by were way stained and high.
We decided to give one a try anyway.
I took a stream temperature and it was 34 degrees.
We walked upstream and low and behold…
A new beaver dam from last fall.
We camped on the beaver dam. We fished it for about one hour.
15 browns later we moved on.
The browns ranged from 12 to 18 inches.
We caught about another dozen and were getting tired.
I took the stream temp again and it was 32 degrees.
We thought about hanging it up.
We both agreed we drove too far and were out there anyway…
WHY not continue.
That is just the kind of urban myth that I like people to believe in “that trout don’t feed in cold water”. Yea, keep on believing it. That way I won’t have crowds of fishermen out on the water with me when I fish the Yakima River during the winter.
Trout have to feed every few days, all year long.
During the winter in waters that are near freezing temperatures, you do have to get the fly to flow right by their noses but they do feed and will take a fly all winter. Nymphs and streamers are the main flies for winter with the occasional hatch that may bring out some surface action.
One of my best days on the Yakima River was on a very cold January morning. The air temperature was 9 degrees F, warming up to a balmy 16 degrees F in the afternoon. The water temperature was 32 degrees and there were large ice flows on the water. I caught my personal best Rainbow for the Yakima that day, a fat 22 incher. I also caught many in the 16 to 19 inch range. That was a great day. Most days are a lot slower, but there are fish to be had.
Keep the myth alive – Trout don’t feed in cold water.
Sounds like you all had great weather conditions for brown trout fishing. Would be hard to pass up miserable conditions like that, even if the water was a bit on the chilly side. Lots of action and obviously some fine examples of the species.
Not getting more information on the where and what was tried and what worked and what didn’t work is a bit frustrating, even though I understand that in many places there seems be a feeling that secrecy is necessary if one hopes to repeat a good experience. Kind of sad, really. ( Where would this Bulletin Board be if every one held all their knowledge on various subjects so tightly ?? )
Larry -
Yeah - I just fish in the winter for the casting practice. All those fish that take the fly are the super nice ones taking pity on an old guy out in the nasty weather. Can’t catch the mean ones that time of year, and if you did, they’d probably be so mean that they wouldn’t fight as hard as the nice ones who just want you to have a good time.
Water temp definitely makes a difference in where the trout will be and how active they are. Like you said, many days if you ain’t bouncing a beadhead on their snout, you ain’t gonna be catching much. Nice to hear that the Yakima gives up some good fish on occasion. I hear a lot of reputation for that river, but I never hear specifics that make it sound like the reputation is deserved.
—sagefisher—