Article notes:
Applies to fly fishing in rain-fed rivers in the UK.

Introduction

River trout anglers rejoice that February is a short month. Once March arrives it means only a few weeks until the river trout season is open for most of the country (unless you are lucky enough to be fishing in Wales and get an earlier start date).

It can feel like a long wait since October and as the season gets nearer, anglers will be itching to get out on to the rivers. All that excitement, enthusiasm and preparation can often result in disappointment as early season trout are notoriously reluctant to cooperate.

There is an old saying;

“It’s not worth casting a fly until there are leaves on the trees”

There are certainly no leaves on the trees on March 18th when my local rivers are open for business!

If you are new to early season fly fishing for trout or find yourself blanking every year, have a read through some of the information below, it might just get you an opening day fish!

Things To Consider

Water temperature.

Water temperature is probably the biggest factor that affects fly fishing for trout early season. Statistically, we are more likely to have snow at easter than christmas. Late march more often feels like winter than it does spring!

Put simply, the lower the water temperature, the less active the trout will be. The less active the trout are, the less they need to feed and consequently less likely to take your fly.

When trout are not feeding they are normally flush on the bed of the river behind a stone or maybe in a depression in the rock bed. They are very unlikely to rise to your dry fly or sprint after your swinging wet, you need to get your fly down deep and put it on the fishes nose.

7 degrees Celsius is a popular figure amongst anglers. Below that the fish are likely to be slower, holed up near the bottom and feeding less. As the temperature gets past 7c then the trout should become a little more active. When we hit 12c then things should start to kick off properly.

So in summary, in cold water, you need to have a deep fly that gets right in the fishes face. See techniques and tactics below.

Pick your time

In cold early season weather fish are far less likely to feed through the day and small windows of feeding are more likely.

The temperature is likely to peak around midday and on a good day, this may result in a small hatch of midges or large dark olives or some grannom caddis once we get to april.

The hatch of food and peak temperature may also stir up a few dormant fish and encourage them to feed.

So forget your early starts, stay in bed and have another cup of tea with your favourite fly fishing magazine.

Another point here is to pick your days. Avoid days when biting cold winds are ripping across the water – it often kills the fishing.

A stiller day with a bit of cloud cover is far more desirable. I have had some fantastic opening days even with a couple of feet of snow on the ground but the weather was steady and still.

If we get into a mild spell then things can be explosive. I remember one opening week when I experienced the biggest hatch of large dark olives I had ever seen. The river was boiling with fish so much that I felt them slamming into my waders as they tried to take the ascending nymphs!

Techniques & Tactics

Bearing the information above in mind, unless you have a rare hatch of flies that coincides with some feeding trout, you are unlikely to be flicking dries upstream. If you want to catch then more likely you will need to be upstream nymph fishing or czech nymphing.

If that’s not your cup of tea and you “only fish with dries” then either consider your outing to be casting practice or stay at home!

Doing well on a dry fly from the off is the exception rather than the norm on cold rain-fed rivers.

Czech Nymphing.

Use either a single czech nymph or a team of 3 depending on the depth of the river. With just a couple of feet of fly line out of the tip of the rod, cast the flies upstream and slightly across and let them trundle down the stream.

Always keep the rod tip slightly in front of where you line enters the water and watch the end of your fly line like a hawk as it travels downstream.

My two golden rules for czech nymphing are:

1. If you are not snagging the bottom every so often then you are not fishing deep enough. You MUST be getting your flies down to the stream bed, the fish are very unlikely to swim up and intercept them. So if you are not hitting bottom every 15 casts or so you need to add more weight. You can either tie on heavier flies or pinch a split shot 6 inches above your fly.

2. Strike at every stop, movement or pause in the end of the fly line. I use a hi-viz braided loop on the end of my fly line and I also grease this up with mucilin to help it to float high on the water. Any kind of stop or pause in this loop needs to result in a quick instant strike!

I spend lots of time teaching this method and see many people not striking because they assume it’s weed or a rock causing the line to stop. Assume everything is a fish and strike!

Upstream nymphing.

On shallower streams where normal nymphs will get to the stream bed then the upstream nymph method can be rewarding. Either a single or team of nymphs can be used depending on your casting ability. The key to upstream nymphing is to be able to pick the slack line of the water with your line hand and keep in touch with the fly without moving it. Avoid long snaking casts that will drag the fly and bring it up off the bottom. Far better to make tidy, short casts and keep everything uder control.

Just like czech nyphing, strike at every stop or pause at the end of the fly line. Use a hi-viz braided loop if required which you can grease up to help it float. Again, just like czech nymphing, your flies must be getting to the stream bed. If you are not hitting bottom once every 15 casts then you need a heavier nymph. There will come a point where the nymph becomes too heavy to cast which is where you switch to czech nymphing.

Early Season Hatches

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Flies & Accessories For Early Season Fly Fishing

Czech Tan Bug – BUY NOW >>

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In this episode David experiments with a brand new fly pattern and fishes a static fly to midge sipping rainbows. It’s a cold winters day fly fishing at Barlow Trout Fishery in North Derbyshire but the fish still seem to be feeding!

Check out the podcast here

The post Fly Fishing Podcast – Small Winter Still Waters And Static Flies appeared first on Peaks Fly Fishing.

These small still waters can provide some fantastic fishing over the winter months but you may need to change your approach to maximise success.

Fly choice – My own personal preference is to fish buzzers, midges, and bloodworm patterns through winter as this is about the only reliable hatch that continues through the cooler months. That said, any natural pattern such as pheasant tails, shrimps or caddis can be successful. In my opinion, the depth and speed of the fly are probably more important. In the sporadic hatches and rises that occur during winter, dries can be successful too, try matching the hatch – the chances are it will be midges.

Cold water and fish metabolism – As the water cools, the metabolism of the fish slows meaning it requires less food. Fish, therefore, become less active in searching or chasing food. This means that you may have to fish with a static or very slow moving fly – stripping lures will not pay dividends for fish that do not want to chase their supper!

Static flies and slow retrieves –

There are a few ways to present a static fly:

1. Use an indicator. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea but it does a very good job in cool conditions. Set the depth of your fly to where you suspect the fish are feeding and let the fly and indicator just drift with the ripple.

2. New Zealand style. This is where a large bushy dry is fished on the surface and a length of dropper is tied directly on to the shank of the hook with a small nymph or buzzer suspended underneath. Many fly anglers feel more comfortable using this method as fish can be taken on the dry as well as the nymph. Check out our klink & dink fly – it’s perfect for this kind of fishing.

3. Sinking line with booby and a short leader. Using this method, the heavy sinking line should sink to the lake bed. A short leader of around 12 inches is used with a single booby fly. The buoyant booby will pop up just above the lake bed and can be fished static or with a very slow retrieve. This is a deadly method if the fishe are hanging around the bottom of the lake in very cold conditions. Keep the line nice and tight to detect the take and strike quickly to avoid any deep hookups.

Enjoy your winter fishing and tight lines!

The post Midges And Small Still Water Fly Fishing In Winter appeared first on Peaks Fly Fishing.

The best time to fish is normally when the river is just starting to fall and lose its colour but still has a good bit of colour to it, you may often hear these conditions referred to as “fining down”. In these conditions fish that have been holed up in the low clear conditions come out to feed with confidence. The colour in the water disguises both you and your casting and the fish often feed with confidence. Although you may get fish to take a dry in coloured water, upstream nymphs or wet flies often produce the best results.

If you fish chalk streams you may never face these conditions as the underground aquifers that supply the water act as giant buffers, delaying and filtering the water to an even temperature, flow and colour.

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You will often see fish rising in these sections as the slow current means easy pickings for the fish. Many beginners get drawn to these parts of the river, attracted by the rising fish only to be frustrated at the lack of success. Very slow moving sections of the river are some of the hardest sections of river for beginners to fish! There are a few reasons for this. Firstly, with a smooth, ripple-free surface the fish can see you much easier. With a lack of turbulence on the water, the fish can detect every clumsy cast and vibration in the pool and are easily spooked. They also have all the time in the world to inspect their food and in turn, your fly! This means they are likely to be more suspicious of an artificial fly.

Dry fly fishing is often the best way to approach these sections of the river but small flies, low diameter tippett and stealthy, accurate casting is often required.

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They can have a washing machine like effect on the fly line meaning it’s can be difficult present a fly in a natural fashion. The other point to remember is that as fish will always face up the current which in an eddy can mean they are facing backward in comparison to the main flow of the river. Another point to consider is that fish like to have a predicable line of current where they can intercept and pick of food in the current. In some eddies complex vortexes and swirling current means it’s not an easy place for fish to pick up their dinner compared to a nice straight piece of current flow. However where the current isn’t too complex, eddies can hold dead flies, bugs and nymphs in making easy pickings for trout and these can be good fish holding spots. On my local river, the back eddies seem to make great nursery areas for trout parr who feed on the countless midges trapped in the swirling surface film. I have had far more success fishing on the seam of the current of an eddy, where the straight flowing current meets the swirling water of the eddy.

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Riffles also make a prime lie for fish as they are the place where fish can get first dibs on the nymphs, bugs and other food tumbling down the river with the current, this means when fishing up the riffle it’s important not to neglect the very top of the riffle. If there’s enough water to cover fishes back then there’s a chance of a fish!

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