Don't let the cold and wind keep you off the water.

I made a trip out to some local waters yesterday.  The temps were supposed to be heating up…  predictions were for Low 40’s.  I jumped in my rig, made the drive into the canyon.  The drive in quickly tipped me off on what the days conditions would be like.  My rig was getting blown all over the road.  Wind Drifted Snow was blowing all around.  Turns out, we were having wind gust up to 50 MPH…  tough conditions to fly fish in.

Because I made the trip, and I had plans to fish today, I decided to suck it up and make the best of it.  The first hole I came to had another fisher in it, good to know I am not the only crazy one.  We exchanged funny looks of skepticism about how the day would unfold. 

Moved down to the next decent spot on the river.  Got geared up, hiked down to the water’s edge….  Some fish were actually rising.  Not many, but a rising fish is a fish that can be caught…   I initially intended on swinging streamers, but because of the riser, my first fly was a small BWO.  My casting was not pretty, but I was able to get the fly to the approximate spot I had hoped for.  A few strips, and my fly was in the lane.  It took a couple of presentations, but eventually, that fish eat my fly.  The day was a success.  Now any additional fish were simply going to be the frosting on the cake.

I moved around a bunch, trying to evade the blowing winds.  I found no locations that proved to be unaffected by the persistent winds.  I gave up on dry flies and hooked a few on small streamers.    It was a quick day on the water, only spent about 4 hours fishing, but all in all a great day. 

I typically love winter fishing.  Small crowds, hungry fish and snow covered banks add a sense of quite  and calmness to it all.  With about five decent fish brought to the net, it was a decent day on the water.  The extreme wind made for some challenging casting.  

Caught fish on BWO's on a Ultimate dry fly leader and streamers on our Big Bug Leader.