Cold water tips...

[reelteacher]

As air temperatures drop and water temperatures follow suit, it is always important to remember the fish are cold blooded. They will be eating less and less and smaller and smaller meals. Most of the large insects have hatched and died and the young of the year insects are just starting to hatch and become active. These baby insects, primarily mayflies, caddisflies and midges are extremely small. You must begin to employ super slow retrieves and movements to entice subtle strikes from most piscivorous predators. The fish will continue to eat through the freeze period, but I have found best success on sunny afternoons and calm days, when I can detect the tiny strikes using an indicator. Almost all fishing now is done below the surface. Only on rare occasions have I experienced any surface takes during these cold months. The fish are just not aggressive enough to pursue food at the surface of the water, plus, the surface waters will soon become colder than water at the bottom. Water is most dense at 4 degrees Celcius or 39.2 degrees Fahrenheit. (This is why ice floats at the surface.)

Good flies to use are size 16 or less, with some sparkle and a little weight so that it sinks slowly in still waters. If you are fishing current, I will use more weight to get the fly down before the end of the drift. Although, I want to use as little weight as I can get away with, because too much weight makes the fly appear unnatural and unappealing to the fish we are pursuing.
Colors I prefer for cold water are red or black. White is sometimes good on bright days, but red and black have always been best for me.

A good strategy to try is to pick a deep hole, where you know or have a strong belief fish are holding, and fish the area very slowly and very thoroughly. Fish this time of year tend to form tight groups and very rarely venture too far from the school. This was illustrated to me many times as I went ice fishing with my father. One ice hole would produce 4 times the fish that other adjacent holes would produce and sometime no fish at all! The fish get locked in together and stay put. To be successful, you have to get the fly right in front of the fishes face and keep it there! It's tough work and not everyone enjoys this type of fishing, but I always enjoy the challenge and sport of it. Usually if you catch one, others will follow! Just keep trying!

Have fun and good luck! Remember... a bad day fishing is better than anyday not fishing. (At least until ice locks up the surface.) Then, I'd rather be tying flies and dreaming of springtime.

Now get out there and fish!

[Tippecanoe Fly Fishers Admin]

You and you dad's casting must be really good to put a fly in an ice fishing hole ;D

Thanks for the advice though. I tried fishing slow in the Wildcat last week, but I think my fly might have been too big.

However the guys fishing with me caught stuff spin casting for bass, with a normal retrival. But hey a broken clock is right twice a day right?

[reelteacher]

I attended Chad's Smallmouth Fly-tying class last Saturday and he told me some pretty interesting things about cold water bass. As a guide, he has much more experience than I do on this subject, so I will share a few of his tips.

First, big isn't always a bad idea. Bass will feed in cold water but not often, and so you just have to find a bass that is ready to eat. Cover a lot of water. You still need to fish your fly very slow and right on the bottom, in the deepest holes in the creek or river. If you aren't getting snagged then you aren't deep enough. Dull color flies, like brown, olive, and purple with little or no flash work best. Wooly Buggers and big half and halfs about 3 - 4 inches long will produce strikes from big fish ready to eat and looking for an easy meal. Chad told us that when fish are not in an aggressive mood lots of flash, like crystal flash and flashabou will actually put them off. Drab, dull flies produce many more strikes in cold water. Once you've drifted your offering several times through a hole with no strikes, move on to the next hole. Don't keep fishing the same fish. It is likely fish are there, they are just not ready to eat. Keep moving to find the fish that is ready to eat something. Move from hole to hole and don't waste time in shallow or fast moving water. The fish are slow and lazy, they will be sitting in a deep eddy, using as little energy as possible. Most common food forms for smallmouth are crawdads, creek chubs and baby sucker minnows. Match the hatch and you should catch one or two.
Chad also said November and December are when the biggest bass of the year are caught. His biggest bass last year came in December, 22 inches and 5.5 lbs! so don't be shy... Get out there and fish! I almost guarantee you will have most of the creek to yourself, so take a camera just in case!

Good luck and tight lines.
Regards,
Dustin

[radioflyer]

My wife and I went down to the lake (parke co) to put the boat to bed for the winter and I took my 5wt down to the boatramp. The miller moths were landing on the water where they'd flutter for a minute and quit. Another minute or two a gill would slowly rise and take the miller. I tied on a small hairwing and fished it slow and then still. Took several gills but had to be really patient for the strike...but they did and the day was great. Beautiful fall day on the water with some strikes. Life doesn't get better than that!

rf

[kdthomps]

Good advice here, thanks! This is my take:

Most of the warm water (warmish) fish I've caught in the winter have been on large flies. I've always assumed a big, slow moving meal would be the ideal target for a fish trying to conserve energy, to maximize the energy consumed for energy spent. BUT it also makes sense that matching the hatch (I read many places that the majority of a river fish's diet is aquatic insects) would be a good strategy as well.

Tough choice, I'll be trying both!