Put away your 6x tippet, #20 thread midges, micro-indicators
and tiny split shot. Walk past that slow glide and toe-up at the start of a
long riffle. Tie on a Di
rty Mop and swing it through. Swing it slow, twitch it,
jig it, let it sit there for a while.
 |
| This chunky Bow took a Dirty Mop like it had no choice. |
To be fair, this attitude may simply reflect the warmer
winters we’ve had over the past couple of years. Last year was remarkably warm
and fish were commonly moving long distances to chase down streamers in
January, February and March. While this year has been substantially colder than
last year, we haven’t experienced many nights of sub-zero temperatures and most
days have reached the upper 20’s (at least). Yesterday, Dan H. and I were
finding fish (both browns and rainbows) in the riffles and getting them to
follow streamers into the shallows.
Dan and I have spent a lot of time fishing the winter season
in Minnesota. Back in the day we fished in some very cold conditions (highs in the
upper 20’s) during cold winter seasons (these were typically the warmest days
of the winter). It seemed like all of the fish were hanging out together in
large groups in the slow glides and deeper pools. It was pretty easy to see
them and take them on a midge fished deep. In the last couple of years I just
have not seen fish hanging out in these large clusters. Has anyone else
experienced such a shift in fish behavior and distribution during the winter?
Have you modified your tactics? Is this one silver lining of climate change?
 |
| Dan working a run with Charlie |
Or, will fish take streamers day in and day out regardless
of temperature? A fish should not have to move long distances to eat a slowly
swung streamer, so this is possible. The problem here is that neither Dan nor I
have any interest in fishing when the daily high is below freezing (to old for this), so we
probably won’t be testing this hypothesis any time soon. Is there anyone out
there willing to fish streamers in very cold temperatures and during cold
winter seasons and report back (
Justin)?
Much credit for this change in my thinking and approach to
winter fishing should go to
Tim Pearson and his dedication to all things
streamer as well as
John’s obsession with targeting large trout, developing the Dirty Mop and giving me some for Christmas.
