Why We Fish In Winter

Long, puzzling looks from passersby are commonplace when you’re standing thigh deep in rushing water in the middle of winter – yes, you have to be slightly “off” to enjoy getting out there on the river in January, February or March.

Perhaps its the possibility of hooking in to a kaleidoscopic beauty or buttery brown behemoth that keeps us coming back. It’s also the promise of moving water that reminds us that better, and warmer, days are ahead.

The water’s cold (36 – 38 degrees, on average), so your session may be short, depending on your fortitude. Needless to say, dress in many layers.

The action can be fickle at times (so not much different than normal trout fishing), but hooking in to one will snap you out of your winter stupor. Sometimes the fish are big – bigger than anything you might catch for the rest of the year.

Yesterday (nearly 60 degrees in Pittsburg) may have seemed like spring is nearly here, but we’ve all lived up north too long to think that winter is done with us permanently. Surely there will be a foot of heavy, wet snow to surprise us in the next month to keep us honest.

The solitude of fly fishing is never as apparent as when you’re fishing in the winter – sometimes, your footsteps are the only ones to the river on that day, or for several days. Then, there are days when a friend is across the river from you, delighting in all of your successes and failures – it’s still fishing after all and what would it be without some good natured ribbing.

Yes, the “real” fishing season is coming soon, but I have to say that I like winter fishing just as much, if not more.