He is sitting on the Head River Keeper's finger by the river Lathkill. This picture was taken one January a year or two ago. Our main fly of high summer, the Blue Winged Olive, is here seen having a try for life in the middle of winter! Nature surely brackets her exposures quite widely to get her perfect pictures.
Other flies too make their entrances on winter days. Mild days will usually produce a nice crop of midges and the grayling will take these dainty victuals with alacrity. Really harsh days with sleet on the edge of a biting wind will sometimes see the appearance of that treasure of English trout streams, the Iron Blue Dun, in veritable fleets of little, dark-sailed ships. The fish lock onto them in earnest with grayling prepared to rise up through several feet of water just to eat flies we normally mimic on size 18 or even 20 hooks.
It's the same recipe for success that you follow in summertime. Only this time, you might have set out to fish with heavy nymphs for your winter grayling but by staying observant you can often gain great opportunities to change over to the dry fly, making your season last just that little bit longer and remind you of what is to come when the days once more lengthen.
What happens with winter fly life in other parts of the world, I wonder?
Regular Rod
Bwo's is about all we see in western Colorado in the winter and not super often, winter fishing brings almost no dry fly action unless its unusually warm, then you may get away with a gnat as a midge cluster..
ReplyDeleteother than that the winter fishing is awesome using midge larva/pupa's
RR I was fishing the Wye last Friday in the vicinity of the black barn. I watched what seemed to be quite a large emerging insect drifting in the flow towards me; it seemed unable to free its wings. A couple of feet in front of me the inevitable happened; a decent fish rose and took it!
ReplyDeletePuzzled as to what this large emerger might have been I watched the water for a good ten minutes but didn't see another. The only airborne flies I saw were the occasional Olive.
Have you any idea what it might have been ...?
Andrew
Hello Biggerrfish, that's very interesting. You have much colder winters generally than we do. What species do you target in winter? We leave trout alone, as over here they are in breeding mood until a week or so after Christmas and don't come into season until All Fool's Day.
ReplyDeleteGrayling are the blue riband quarry for the winter fly fisher here, with those occasional days when we can enjoy Sport with dry flies - if we can see that the rising fish are not trout!
Hello Andrew, you mention that the fly seemed quite large. If it was about the half inch mark then I'd guess (only a guess) that it was probably a Large Dark Olive, Baetis rhodani. Would a size 14 or a 12 Grey Duster have been a decent fake?
Regular Rod
In Michigan we see not bugs till the snow is melting so we through nymphs, streamers or spinner fish.
ReplyDeleteThe Average Joe Fisherman
http://averagejoefisherman.blogspot.com/
Hello Ryan
ReplyDeleteThis must of necessity result in the anglers of Michigan developing a wider skill set than we generally need in Derbyshire. We probably have it easy in comparison.
Regular Rod
fishing for trout and nothing else! the browns are doing a little spawinig but will be done soon and ready for the taking the rainbows are in spawn in spring and finishing on fools day, then the cutthroats join the party in the summer,
ReplyDeleteTrying not to disturb the spawining fish, I juggle the species and find the ones eating flies..
Yes the winters are cold and its not unlikely to fish for seven days and never see the 35 degree mark. however the fish eat and eat and eat!!
Hello Biggerrfish
ReplyDeleteI like the observation in your last sentence...
:)
Regular Rod
RR I wish I'd had the sense to take my camera out of my pocket; my imagination may be working on me but I would say the emerger was the size of an Ephemera danica !!!
ReplyDeleteIt might even have been one!
ReplyDelete8o
Regular Rod