Frozen fingers can be worth it
Mood swings, being lethargic, short tempered? These are all signs you need to go fishing. Winter can be tough for fly anglers and thats why I love the Platte so much. You can fish AND FLOAT the Reef almost everyday of the year. Now before we can discuss that I do need to mention the following.
Theres usually a few severe cold snaps with weather hovering around 0 degrees that causes ice jam blockades. When these are present I don’t recommend floating. Pushing boats around and over these ice jams is dangerous. It is doable but significantly sketchy. My friend Charlie Poole who guides more in the winter then probably anyone else broke his leg a few years back pushing his boat over ice. I could go on and on about the perils of this but I really only need to mention Charlies accident to deter anglers from doing this. Just not worth it guys. When thee conditions are present Its usually so F’ing cold to go fishing anyways, and don’t forget landing fish in these really cold temp’s is bad for trout. Their gills can freeze and will make it difficult for the trout to recover. While the science on this is mixed, and Im not trying to be over dramatic because most of them will swim off, I personally don’t like fishing in these temps for that reason.
So bottom line is, you can USUALLY float and fish the reef in winter but during those brutal cold snaps just tie some flies and drink beer! Wait for it to warm up.
Every winter is different, some are colder then others, but all of them do have windows where weather is pleasant and fishing is good if not great. January and February can be a fun time of year to get the river to yourself. Even with bright blue skies, fishing can be good. The trout for the most part of holed up in deep slow water. I usually call these deep winter holding spots, the “meat and potatoes” of the runs. The nice thing about this is that there are usually some many fish corralled into these spots it can make finding the fish easy. If you hit a fish try to remember as close as you can where it was. If you get a couple more drifts through that spot you’ll usually hit more fish. Easy enough. Find em and stay on em. Considering this meat and potatoes scenario winter gives us, if you floating through the reef and the water is fast and shallow, i.e. under 2 feet thats not the water you wanna fish. Winter fishing is a lot of work. Back rowing the meat and potatoes and pushing through everything else. The in between water that is not deep is time to hang out and put some gloves on till you get to your next deep spot.
Get em on the bottom
Keep in mind when targeting these deep slow spots, your drift is going to be slow. A lot of the best spots for big fish on the reef in the middle of winter are (and I know Im beating a dead horse) the deep slow stuff. So your drift if going to be slow. I tell my guest that I know these drifts aren’t always the most action packed thrill ride of a drift, but its cold out, thats where the fish are! Stay with the drift keep it on bottom and if you think a trout even farts on it, set the hook, eats can be very subtle some days.
The inner spin fishermen in me usually comes out in the winter. Long wrecking ball leaders and getting my rig on the bottom of the river is my gameplay. While you don’t need to dredge (although that does work), if your not hitting bottom at all & not hitting fish, slide your bobber up or add more weight Most of the time I fish this time of year I’m rolling with anywhere from one BB weight (.4 grams) to a AAA (.8 grams). Granted thats a big window and its easy to do when your on the river most days and know how deep everything is. So if you kind of know how deep it is, I usually tell people to error on the side of too much weight around a AAA split shot (.8 grams), and if this is hooking bottom too much slide that bobber down and shorten up. So overall fish heavy and change your depth. I also like a lot of weight for slowing the drift down and allowing it to settle deep. Fish are lethargic this time of year. Cold water slows their metabolism down and there by reduces their feeding. So, keep in mind, yes the fish are corralled into these deep winter holes, but they are not at Golden Corral eating three plates worth of food for breakfast, lunch & dinner.
Fishing deep and covering the bottom of runs and holes, allows anglers to target large groups of fish. Trying to hit the fish in the face with your rig is your goal in the winter. Yes thats usually the case whenever your fly fishing, but my point here when fishing in cold temperatures the fish are lethargic. They are probably not swimming 3 to 4 feet out of their way to eat something. But if you get it in front of these fish, yes they will eat. So by getting your rig in as many fish’s faces as possible your probability for catching fish rises. And as already mentioned, the fish are in the bottom of the meat and potatoes of the runs, holes, and pools.
For leader length you can have days where you just leave it at 5 feet and it will work all day. When this is not the case I tinker with my depth. Usually keeping around .6 to .8 grams of weight on to get my rig down and settled, I tinker with leader length to keep my flies on the bottom, whether thats a bit shallower or deeper. Some guides roll with 9 foot leaders all day and can crush it. While this is effective, I have found it to be tiresome. Constantly recasting with these wrecking ball rigs just gets old to me. But if you don’t know how deep to fish and your guesses of leader length prove to be ineffective, keep it long and heavy. Hooking bottom somewhat often isn’t the worst thing in the world. If your on bottom your gonna get fish. Your trying to strike a balance of fishing the bottom without getting caught on it.
In general on the Reef, guides are trying to get as long of drifts as possible. Constantly telling their guest to leave it in the water, stop recasting, stop recasting, stop recasting, DUDE LEAVE IT IN THE WATER! Now here is where the balance comes in. If you rig is hitting bottom every 5 feet and getting snagged, yeah thats too long of a leader! But hitting bottom every 12 to 15 feet is ok sometimes. Yeah I know that requires recasting, but if your recasting without getting stuck on bottom, stop. Leave it in there till you hit a fish or your dredging. If I had to give anglers a default length of leader to fish with in January & February I would say 7 to 8 feet with .6 grams of weight.
As far as what flies to use, I usually stick with worms, eggs, leeches, and midges. Usually an orange or chartreuse egg, with a red, purple or wine san juan worm will get you plenty of fish. Red annelids (reef worms) and leeches are what I switch to if these go to’s aren’t getting as many eats as I think I should be getting. These flies seem to work best when fished deep and slow with those long 8 to 9 foot leaders. Midges can be the ticket too. If I am fishing bugs, I usually fish lighter and not as deep. Somewhere around 5 to 6 feet with a BB (.4 grams) of weight. Only bugs I fish in the winter are midge patterns and pheasant tails.