Announcements | The Troutbitten Podcast | Winter Fly Fishing

PODCAST: Winter Skills Series, #7: Problems and Solutions — S6, Ep7

by | Feb 26, 2023 | 3 comments

 The Troutbitten Podcast is available everywhere that you listen to your podcasts.

** Note **  The Podcast Player, along with links to your favorite players is below.

My good friend, Austin Dando, joins me to address many of the troubles with winter fishing. In this Winter Skills Series, we’ve been through the tactics, with dry flies, streamers and nymphs. We’ve talked about how to stay warm out there, and we’ve saved this topic for last.

There are a host of reasons that anglers stay home in the winter. Some are legitimate — there’s no good solution for the problem, and you learn to deal with it the best you can. We talk about some of those. But other perceived problems really aren’t much of an issue at all, if you have a plan and a solution. We address a few of those too.

We Cover the Following
  • Ice in the guides
  • Access
  • Visibility
  • Regulating heat
  • Falling in
  • Freezing reels
  • Finding trout
  • Staying versatile
  •  . . . and more
Resources

READ: Troutbitten | Category | Fly Fishing in the Winter
READ: Troutbitten | Winter Fly Fishing — Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes
READ: Troutbitten | Fly Fishing in the Winter — Ice In the Guides
READ: Troutbitten | Fly Fishing in the Winter — Something Is Always Gonna Hurt

Here’s the podcast . . .

Listen with the player above, or . . .

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. . . and everywhere else where you listen to podcasts.

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podcast.troutbitten.com

Next Time

Season Six of the Troubitten Podcast concludes next week with episode eight. So look for that one in your Troutbitten Podcast feed.

Fish hard, friends.

 

** Donate ** If you enjoy this podcast, please consider a donation. Your support is what keeps this Troutbitten project funded. Scroll below to find the Donate Button. And thank you.

 

Enjoy the day.
Domenick Swentosky
T R O U T B I T T E N
domenick@troutbitten.com

 

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Domenick Swentosky

Central Pennsylvania

Hi. I’m a father of two young boys, a husband, author, fly fishing guide and a musician. I fish for wild brown trout in the cool limestone waters of Central Pennsylvania year round. This is my home, and I love it. Friends. Family. And the river.

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Every winter our rivers go through changes, and the trout follow suit. Regardless of how much water flows between the banks, I encounter a predictable slowdown in trout response at some point. Call it a lack of trout enthusiasm. Or call it hunkering down and waiting for warmer water. However you look at it, the trout just don’t move as far to eat a fly.

For some, the solution is a streamer — to go bigger. Get the trout’s attention and add some motivation to peel itself from the river bed and move to a fly. It works — sometimes. (everything works sometimes.) But just as often you’re left with an empty net and more questions than answers. I do love fishing streamers in the winter though. I use it as a chance to build body heat, to warm up by walking and covering more water. But my standard approach is a highly targeted pair of nymphs, right in the trout’s window. Served up just right, you can almost force-feed a trout that didn’t even know he was hungry.

Fly Fishing in the Winter — Ice in the Guides?

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Nothing about having a winter system or using a specific nymphing rig makes any difference if the guides of your rod are frozen. And every fly fisher who has stepped into a winter river with the air temps below, let’s say, twenty-five degrees has dealt with some kind of trouble. Every angler has his own advice about eliminating guide ice too. And here I guess it’s time to give you mine . . .

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What do you think?

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3 Comments

  1. Doug Puryear on February 27, 2023 at 6:05 pm

    Thank you for talking about the falling. It was about 23°, my belt was tight to keep my waders from filling if I fell. I lost balance and sat down in 15 inches, water came into my legs anyway, but mainly they filled with air and tipped me over on my back so I was flooded all over. I couldn’t get my feet down because of the air My beautiful, comfortable warm flannel shirt, soaked through of course, and by the time I finally got back to shore, I couldn’t get it off. I would have died, except for some reason for the very first time I had packed a quilt. That may be a good tip

    Thank you for your great podcasts. you have taught me a lot

    Reply
  2. Tom Welsch on March 4, 2023 at 2:20 pm

    Re: Cold Weather Gear Bag
    If your car uses a key fob, with or without a key, suggest you carry a spare (I know they’re expensive but . . .) in the gear bag, or somewhere in the car because if you lose your fob or key, or perhaps take a dunk, shorting out the fob you’re carrying , you may be left with no way to get into the car or to start the engine even if you can open the door. Secondly, you should carry a bare metal door key that doesn’t need a fob to unlock the car door. That way you can lock the car to fish and still be able to unlock it even if you lose your key fob or take a dunk – the bare metal key can’t short out, and you’ll be able to get to your spare fob in the car. Cold weather can be life threatening, particularly if you’re wet. Gotta plan for the worst.

    Reply

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Domenick Swentosky

Central Pennsylvania

Hi. I’m a father of two young boys, a husband, author, fly fishing guide and a musician. I fish for wild brown trout in the cool limestone waters of Central Pennsylvania year round. This is my home, and I love it. Friends. Family. And the river.

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