Cool weather is welcome

Late fall brings on some great trout fishing

After a record dry and hot summer, fall has arrived in the mountains, bringing cooler weather and, hopefully, improved trout-fishing conditions.

Ronnie Setzer of Sylva, N.C., a master fly tier and life-long fly fisher, said November and December are two of his favorite times to fish.

“The water is cooler, and trout aren’t as easily spooked as they are in the summer,” he said.

Hatches are fewer in the winter, but some aquatic insects, including the Blue-Winged Olive and Caddis, hatch year-around.

“In the winter, darker colors and smaller sizes work best,” Setzer said. Brown, gray and black are the best colors for winter fishing, and the most productive sizes are Nos. 16 and 18. Blue-Winged Olive patterns, however, can be as small as Nos. 20 or 22, especially when hatches come off — on just about any sunny, warm day in the winter.

For late fall and early winter fishing, Setzer said, “All you need are three dry-fly patterns and three nymph patterns.” His recommendations for dry-fly patterns are a parachute Adams, a parachute Blue-Winged Olive and a brown Caddis. For nymphs, he suggests a bead-head Pheasant Tail, a bead-head Prince and a bead-head Hare’s Ear.

Setzer said the Prince is a very effective fly,  “because it imitates almost every aquatic insect in the water.”

Getting nymphs to the bottom is a key.

“To get flies down to where they are holding,” Setzer said, “add a little weight to your nymphs even if you’re using bead-head patterns.”

For additional weight, Setzer pinches on small split shot about six inches above the hook eye. You also can crimp lead on top of the fly.

Setzer said delayed-harvest streams offer good action in the winter. The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission stocks delayed-harvest waters in early October and early November. Hatchery-supported streams aren’t stocked until spring.

Other streams Setzer recommends are the Nantahala River in Macon County, Raven Fork in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and the Enterprise Waters on the Cherokee Indian Reservation.

“Cherokee waters are especially good in the winter because the streams are stocked at least twice a week,” Setzer said.

Roger Lowe of Waynesville, a veteran fly fisher and guide, often uses a dry fly such as Royal Wulff as a strike indicator and a bead-head nymph as a dropper during the winter.

“The nymph should be small enough so that it doesn’t drag the dry fly down,” he said.

Lowe ties a section of leader to the shank of the dry fly so that the dropper dangles about a foot below the top fly.

Lowe said it’s important to keep your rod tip down so that the nymph will stay deep.

“Keep your presentation slow to give a trout more time to study the fly,” he said.

“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 tree tops, water temperature drops quickly, and trout hunker down to wait out the cold.

Leaders for winter fishing can be 9 to 12 feet, according to how and where you’re fishing. Recommended tippet size is 5X or 6X. Most fly-fishing guides prefer fluorocarbon leader rather than monofilament. The argument is that the fluorocarbon is invisible in the water and is less abrasive and stronger than monofilament. It does cost more, sometimes twice as much as standard leaders. Most leaders come with tippets, but it’s less expensive to get a spool of tippet line and tie your own.

In South Carolina, the best streams for late fall and early winter fishing are the Chattooga and Chauga rivers, both near Mountain Rest in Oconee County. The S.C. Department of Natural Resources stocks 45,000 rainbow and brown trout in the delayed-harvest sections of both streams for the catch-and-release season that runs from Nov. 1 through May 14.

Karen Maddox, co-owner of Chattooga River Fly Shop in Mountain Rest, said the most productive flies for late fall and early winter are stone flies, Caddis flies and streamers that imitate yellow-fin shiners. Also, a flash-back Pheasant Tail nymph used as a dropper off a 20-Incher dry gets excellent results, she said.

Other delayed-harvest streams in South Carolina are Cheohee Creek in the Piedmont Forestry Center in Oconee County, Devil’s Fork and Howard creeks from Lake Jocassee to Limberpole Creek in Pickens County, and Eastatoee Creek from Lake Keowee to the Roy F. Jones Road Bridge in Pickens County.