Winter Fish and Flies

Goings on.... Much of this winter has been uneventful, some fly tying and ice fishing has been done which is our usual winter hobbies to pass time until the weather warms up and we head west for steelhead. Next week River Bug is headed to Moosehead and East Grand for some ice fishing, and in two months we are headed to Pulaski for a 4 day steelhead adventure. This year our crew has expanded to 9 for our venture west. As always this trip will be an absolute blast. This winters weather has recently brought in some very cold temps so we haven't been out doing much winter fly fishing recently. I did guide a full day wade trip in late November that felt like winter fishing. By all means it was a very good day of late fall/early winter fishing.

November Brown The only successful days of winter fishing I had this year was Christmas eve and January 13th. Both days I caught 12 inch brook trout nymphing. Fly tying The past 6 months we have also been tying a lot of articulated streamers and sculpin patterns using sculpin helmets from Flymen Fishing Company. These flies are fun to tie and most importantly they crush big fish! Most of our ties are on the smallish to midsize patterns because real big flies are difficult to throw all day. I have found that articulated streamers in the three inch range are not only easier on the pitching arm but they also are big enough to interest big fish but so large that they scare off trout in the 12 inch range. Here are photos of some recent ties.