Week of December 1st 2024: Cold Snap
Week of December 1st
I’ve said before and I’ll say it again - Yikes! T-Day leftovers are in the fridge and it's time to break out the hats, gloves, wooly socks, and layer up.
Despite 21 calendar days until winter, overnight temperatures will dip into the 20s several times this week and already the fish are reacting. Reports, and a few snatches of fishing myself, suggest the temperature change has slowed down the aquatic insect activity and trout metabolism.
Drifting nymphs and streamers may be the ticket in the coming days. With low flows continuing, a stealthy approach will be important, too.
It’s back to basic patterns: Hare’s Ear, Pheasant Tail, Blowtorch/Frenchie, and Buggers - plus other small streamers.
The warm weather was welcome, despite the drought, and people enjoyed a good fall fishing season supported by the stocking.
Many folks took advantage of the mild weather and headed north, past the Catskills, to chase steelhead trout. It is a good idea to bypass the Catskill region giving the low rivers there a break from fishing until further notice.
I made an annual Trout Unlimited trip to the Salmon River with some familiar and new folks. I am happy to report the fishing was really good and most people in the group got into these powerful, challenging fish. Many people caught fish using egg patterns, a few came on stoneflies, and most - the newest and latest and greatest for the region, as evidenced by the center-pinner and spin-caster’s success - the squirmy wormy! Yes! Worms were the ticket - for most people - this year.
While our group tried to remain true to tradition and standards, boundaries were pushed. No fly caster that I saw went so far as to throw the massively thick sometimes cheese scented rubber worms as our friends with bails and balsa floats were. I am not happy to report, but I remain honest, that I have yet to land a steelhead. I had a nice one on and there are witnesses!
Ugh. It hurts to write and was humiliating to experience, but I will return with what I learned. I wonder if the conditions will ever be as prime as they were two weeks ago. Regardless, there is no point in dwelling on missed fish. My gratitude is for the time spent with people passionate about fishing. The main reason to go.
Sorry for the digression. South Branch Outfitters has all that you will need for a great steelhead trip - including accommodations (in case you didn’t know). If you need advice on how to land one, come during Conor’s shift - he is crushing up there!
The tactic for steelhead and winter fishing for trout is not too dissimilar. Nymphing with a tightline or an indicator has become the tactic most anglers focus on most of the time. Fishing with a dry fly seems suddenly quaint and niche to younger or anglers just starting out with YouTube as their first guide.
The newest member of the SBO crew, Kevin, loaned me Nymph Fishing for Chalk Stream Trout by G.E.M. Skues. Kevin is an avid reader and someone who enjoys old books. If you didn’t know, so am I.
Writing in 1939, Skues explains how the tactic of fishing with a nymph is frowned upon and even doubted as a reliable technique. The purists he takes on would like everyone to only fish under very strict conditions with a dry fly. Conditions such as: the trout must be actively feeding, the fly must match a visible hatch, the cast must be upstream. Some of these guys are still calculating the breeze and how much wind would whisk water off their silkworm “gut” leader as part of their cast.
The tone of the text is defensive, at first, as Skues explores the content of trout with his “marrow scoop” and porcelain baby plate and builds patterns he details later in the book. It seems he has to convince his dry fly colleagues that a fish, that is not actively feeding, will take a nymph at all. They do! The Internet Archive as Skues’ treatise on nymphing here. It is an interesting argument to read, but hopefully one that has been put to rest. In my estimation, the techniques and tackle change with the season and conditions. Every one can find their favorite and simultaneously hone multiple skills.
Watch the teeth on the now-holdover Jersey trout.
Stay warm, folks! Think rain and stay positive - Bubba is coming.
It’s perfect, somewhere! Roy B.