As the “humor” tag insinuates, this is a satirical look at the pessimistic perception out there among many about nymph fishing. If you want a more serious perspective, head over here.
It’s wintertime, which means that your trout tactics have to change. Across the country, most fisheries will see a significant decline in hatches as the air and water temperatures decrease. So out with the boxes of dry flies, and in with the nymphs.
Let me be the first one to express my condolences.
But the real wrinkle that gets thrown into your angling plans has to do with where the fish will be. Nymphing in the summertime might include an obligatory dropper under a big, puffy hopper. In the fall, you can send chunky stoneflies tumbling over shallow boulders. Not so in the winter. Come December, you’ve got to get deep.
Real deep.
“How am I even supposed to get a fly down that far?” you ask, incredulously.
Good question. I don’t think that it is possible for mortal fly fishers playing by the rules. However, if you’re not nymphing you’re not trying – or something like that. And deep winter nymphing requires thinking outside of the box to hook up with fish that really aren’t hungry to begin with.
Here are three suggestions for getting your bug deep enough to trick some poor, seasonally depressed trout into eating its feelings:
Fishermen – and especially fly fishermen – are creatures of habit. One only needs to visit the Henry’s Fork two years in a row at the commencement of the salmon fly hatch to see the same anglers from the year before, in the same spots, maybe or maybe not catching the same fish.
Out behind his house, Steve Christopherson’s shop is filled with tools and storage bins. There are miscellaneous odds and ends lying about. But everything in his shop goes into creating custom fly rods. The shop is where Wayward Angler rods are built from the components on up. For the past twelve years, Christopherson has been building fly rods for himself and individual clients.
