Winter Fishing Tips!

January 27, 2021

Hey everyone! As i’m sure most of you have the cabin fever as bad as I do, I wanted to give you a few tips/things I like to do to catch fish in the winter.

First of all, LAYERS! I always over dress my legs as I would rather be sweating under my waders than shivering. Redington, Orvis and Simms all make awesome under wader layers. For my upper body I go with all sorts of different layers. But try not to be too bulky and look like the kid from a Christmas Story.

As for the fishing, all winter long, I carry two rods with me on the river. One rod is a 10ft 3wt and the other is usually a 9ft 4wt. I euro nymph all winter long as I find it to be the most effective and I seldom have to mess with very small flies. I also prefer euro nymphing as it uses a much smaller diameter fly line and you typically aren’t shooting and retrieving line to bring water into the guides to freeze. The second rod is always ready to go with a midge dry fly as it isn’t uncommon to come across a midge hatch.

Im constantly looking for those deep and slow pools as every tip on the internet will tell you to, BUT fish live everywhere. Some of my favorite places to fish in the winter is the pocket water in between those slow runs. They are often overlooked and during those warmest hours of the day can hold a few fish. The euro nymph setup is perfect for targeting these areas as you can get your flies down in these spots and slow them down instead of having an indicator tear them down stream. You can also keep your line off of the water and have a more delicate presentation than splashing an indicator right on the fishes head.

Tune in next week for some more winter fishing tips!

Any questions? Want to book a trip for this summer!? Feel free to reach out anytime.
307-264-0785
byron@flyguidebyron.com

–Byron