Fire and Ice: A Fishing Report
Seeing the motif of Fire and Ice (or hot and cold) at work here, I decided to let it guide the narrative of this fishing report. I was suffering from a case of cabin fever, brought on mostly by the lack of being able to wet a line for quite a while, so when the opportunity came to get out for a few days, I jumped at the chance. I headed over to some of my favorite places on the east side of the Range of Light…also because they are some of the few that are open to angling this time of year, to be honest.
The first day I spent at a creek, whose name has something to do with temperature, and is know for it’s rather prolific BWO hatches. The day was sunny, but cold and breezy, and while I was able to get into a bunch of trout using nymphs, there was no surface activity to be had that day. Here is a small sampling of the residents:
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My first fish of the day
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A solid 16” rainbow that liked tiger midges
Day two was rather miserable at the start. Snowing, windy and COLD!
Appropriate gear was needed to comfortably fish that morning.
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Yeah, but the tip of my nose was still frozen…
I fished a hole that I had plenty of luck in on prior trips, but all I caught were these:
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It’s fun to catch fish, but I was there for trout, and after a dozen or so of these things, I was getting rather frustrated.
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YOU SUCK!
I finally got into a nice brown, which is what I was there for in the first place.
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The snow finally stopped and the sun came out, but it was still well below freezing and after a while, my reel started to freeze up. Fortunately, it wasn’t windy and the long anticipated baetis hatch came off with a vengeance. The BWO were popping and the fishing was hot! Since my reel was frozen, I packed it in and broke out my Tenkara rod and spent a couple of hours casting dry flies to actively rising fish. It certainly made the earlier harsh conditions worth it. BTW: I had the place to myself the whole day.
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Not huge, but plentiful
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Plenty of these to be found as well.
I next day I spent on a stream in the same general area, but had to use different tactics. This was a place for streamers, not dry flies. Again, it was cold, ice along the sides of the river and frozen mud everywhere else. I left early, not wanting to get stuck in the aforementioned mud on my way out.
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Nice rainbow.
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The views were pretty good, too.
I did hook into a HUGE rainbow, that pulled so hard on my reel, the friction warmed up my gloved hand, but alas, it came unhooked just as I was trying to net it, but it looked to be about 20 to 22 inches. Sorry…no picture.
The fishing was solid, but this issue had to be taken care of a lot more frequently than I would’ve liked:
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No wonder I couldn’t cast!
Heading home the next day, I drove north to another well-known stream that also has some solid BWO hatches. I found a pod of rising fish and caught a few, this being the largest, topping 17”.
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My cabin (and fishing) fever now better, I’m glad I had the opportunity to get into some hot fishing, despite the cold conditions.
