Winter Fly Fishing Options

[swizz]

A Tale Of Two Rivers

Got out for a couple days of winter flyfishing and thought I'd share some pics with those of you who might have a touch of the cabin fever.
My friend Tim and I flyfished two different rivers and had a blast!

The first river was like every flyfisherman's dream... great weather and beautiful trout that were most cooperative. The insect hatches were right on schedule and our fly boxes were well stocked with the proper ammunition. Some days work out just perfect, and this was one of them.

The second river, on the other hand, was most uncooperative and the temps never got above 10 degrees. The cold temps resulted in an all-day ice flow and allowed little in the way of controlled drifts essential for successful flyfishing. By 2:30 the ice flows had diminished enough to get decent drifts and maybe get a hook-up. I fought two and landed zero... we both left that one a little disappointed but stronger from the experience.
It was a hell of a lot of work that day and we managed to make lemonade out of lemons.

RIVER A

This is my friend rigging-up at our base station on the first river. It's probably about 9am and the sun's a shining. This was precursor to what would be a most excellent day!


Here are some Rainbows that came out to play... (first two are in-the-net shots, kinda trippy)




Outstanding gill plate color on this one




... and a few Browns showed up as well

[swizz]

RIVER B

This day wasn't anything like the first. Normally this river fishes very well for me in the winter but not this time. Frigid temps and bad ice flows really put a damper on the fishing productivity so I wandered around looking for photo opportunities killing time in hopes that the temps would warm and the ice flows might diminish. Well, it stayed frigid this day.. can't win 'em all. Some days you just end up paying your dues.
Here are some pics from that day.

Once in a while the river allowed a reasonable cast but had to keep our eyes peeled for icebergs, they can kill


grrrr


This looks cold but actually, my feet are at about 105 degrees on the inside... I have NiCad powered heated footbeds in these puppies!


....and I'll close with some frosty pics




Here are a couple of dendritic ice crystallization pics, they were everywhere. I always find these to be interesting.