With a foot of snow in the forecast for today I thought about staying home and tying flies. Then I went fishing! The park still had a few inches of crusty snow on the ground and water levels continue to be around seasonal average. I hoped to see some fish rising to midges so dedicated the entire outing to fishing midge patterns. With no risers spotted I used the zebra midge.
What a day to be fishing! I don't usually fish with gloves but I was glad to have them today. My hands got numb on a few occasions and now I'm trying to think of a good way to dry my hands while on stream. Handling fish really sapped the heat!
This colorful trout but up a decent little fight. You can barely see the size 18 black zebra midge sticking into his beak! In this spot fish were stacked up in slack water below a muddy flat, feasting on midges no doubt.
This colorful little guy had purple cheeks and a nice red stripe on his side. He must've eaten somebody's fly because he had some tippet sticking out of his butt:(
I ended up catching around a dozen trout, all rainbows, in about four hours. None were exceptionally large but what these fish lacked in size they made up for in pretty colors. They all came on the zebra midge fished deep below a small indicator. The snow began and picked up throughout my outing and by the time I hit the road to come home the roads were covered with snow!
I'll be working and tying flies this week but stay tuned-I'll be fishing the winter opener next week in snow shoes!
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