Winter in the mountains is a time of stark beauty, a time when the dominant colors are blue, gray, brown and black, a time when streams run full and clear and icy cold, a time when a warm, sunny day is an event and a blessing for a trout fisher.Although spring is undoubtedly the ideal season to fish for trout, winter also has its merits. What most anglers discover is that they catch fewer but larger fish during winter. The downside, particularly during the bitterly cold months of late January and February, is that the fishing can test an angler’s mettle and patience. The key to successful winter fishing is to use more nymphs and fewer dry flies. Nymph fishing requires much more finesse than top-water dry-fly fishing, and strikes are more difficult to detect.
“You have to slow your presentation and concentrate on the slower water in the deeper sections of a pool,” said Roger Lowe of Waynesville, a fishing guide and owner of Lowe Guide Service. “Nymphs will be the best flies to use from now until spring. Dry-fly fishing will be limited to the warmest part of the day — between noon and 2 p.m. — when the sun is on the water. The numbers may be fewer, but you’ll find a better quality of fish.”
With fewer hatches coming off, nymphs are the type of food that trout, particularly large trout, see and prefer. When a big nymph floats past a trout, all he sees is one big mouthful of protein. Also, in the winter, brook trout and big brown trout are coming off their fall spawning fasts, and they’re usually hungry and aggressive.
Lowe said he often uses a dry fly such as a Royal Wulff as a strike indicator and a beadhead nymph as a dropper. “The nymph should be small enough so that it doesn’t drag the dry fly down,” he said. For a No. 16 to 14 nymph, Lowe said, a No. 12 or larger dry fly should be used.
Lowe said he ties a section of leader to the shank of the dry fly so the dropper dangles about a foot below the fly.
A big advantage of winter fishing is less competition. Streams are less crowded; only the hearty get out in cold weather, and the bigger fish are more active.
When fishing a nymph, keep the nymph close to the bottom of a pool or run and fish at a slower pace. Everything slows down in the winter. Strikes are more subtle, sometimes little more than a slight hesitation of the line.”
A highly recommended method is to work upstream and let the nymph dead-drift to the bottom and strip the fly in short spurts. If you see a trout following the fly but not taking it, freeze. If the trout starts to turn away, give the line a jerk. That will make the trout think that the nymph is trying to escape, and it will usually strike.
Willie Cope of Sylva, who guides mostly in Great Smoky Mountains National Park streams, is a proponent of dead-drifting.
“Dead-drifting a nymph through a deep hole or run is the best tactic for this time of year,” Cope said. “It can be very productive to suspend a nymph three to six inches above the bottom of a streambed, letting the fly drift through runs and riffles.
“Pay close attention to the drag and the effects it has on your drift,” he said. “The less drag, the better you’ll do. This is where mending line really comes into play.”
Lowe said he uses bigger nymphs in the winter, No. 10s, 8s, even 6s.
“I’ll cast a large nymph such as a Woolly Booger across the current,” he said. “When the line straightens out, I lower the rod tip and work the nymph through the water in short strips. It’s important to keep the rod tip down so the nymph will stay deep. “Sometimes, you have to keep casting to the same place to get a strike. Keep your presentation slow to give the trout more time to study the fly.”
Kevin Howell of Davidson River Outfitters near Brevard agrees that the most effective method of nymph fishing is to get the nymph down deep.
“Sometimes you have to put the fly right in the trout’s face to get him to hit,” said Howell, who uses a weighted nymph rather than a beadhead and bumps it along the bottom of a pool.
“Some anglers add weight to the leader, putting lead weight about six inches above the fly for a yo-yo effect,” Howell said. “I prefer to crimp the weight right on top of the fly. That gets it down to the bottom.”
Winter fishing also can be frustrating, because trout will suddenly turn off, and nothing you throw to them will get a strike.
“Weather, more than anything else, dictates the quality of fishing,” Lowe said, “and the time of day when you’re fishing is more important than the pattern you use.”
Once the sun drops below the treetops, water temperature drops quickly, and trout hunker in to wait out the cold.
Not all winter fishing is limited to nymphs, however. Warm, sunny winter days can produce small but productive hatches of midges and, periodically, Blue-Winged Olives, which can be found on mountain streams almost any time of the year.
For winter dry-fly fishing, patterns should be small, nothing larger than a No. 20 or 18.
For dropper fishing, use an orange or olive Stimulator as an attractor and a small Winter Midge or Griffith’s Gnat as a dropper. The second fly should trail about 12 to 16 inches behind the main fly. Be careful not to “drown” the dropper.”
Winter does have its drab, cold, dreary days, but it also has those beautiful warm, sunny days that make a trout fisher’s heart sing. When those precious days show up, you can bet good money that the trout will be
hitting.
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