Steelhead
Winter Egg Patterns
Fly
Fishing Adventures
My
Grandfather's Water|
West
Canada Winter Browns | ||||
 A
few years ago a section of the West Canada Creek opened all
year to anglers willing to brave the cold weather in hopes of hooking up
with some wintertime brown trout. Yes, the winter steelhead fishery in
Central New York is well known, but the idea of landing a trophy stream
brown in the winter is very new. There is something about fly
fishing in the winter that brings a feeling of adventure to a fly fishing
excursion, especially fishing during a snow storm. Now we have stream
browns as well as steelhead on the list of potential winter adventures.
Snapped a picture of
this brown on the snowbank before release. FliesThe West Canada Creek has an abundance of stoneflies in various stages of development, which creates various sizes. Small black stoneflies appear along the banks on the snow in March or a wintertime thaw. There are also some very large nymphs in the water, so larger imitations are also effective. The releases from the dam throughout the winter and spring dislodge some insects and stoneflies typically hatch when the sun is bright, but an old-timer once told me that stonies, as he called them, will also migrate on overcast days. This helped explain why fishing in the winter on a sunny day on the West Canada is not nearly as productive as an overcast day or in the midst of a storm front. Stoneflies imitations in black sizes 4-16 are productive here. Other effective patterns are Black, dark olive or Grizzly woolly buggers and small black leaches or Zonkers around a size 10. Also, caddis larvae in green or olive can be effective.
This pattern is a steelhead pattern and surprisingly, has worked for West Canada Browns too.
Techniques For a fun winter fly-fishing adventure try fishing some stoneflies on the year round fishery on the West Canada Creek. |
The water is often flowing around 900 cubic
feet per second during the winter months. When the water is high
fish the pools deep and slow. Dead drifting a stonefly imitation is
productive, but also try swinging the fly after it has completed the dead
drift. You may be surprised how hard these browns will hit a swinging
fly. If the water is low fish the faster water. The browns will move
up into the head of a pool to feed during low water periods. A
nine-foot rod is best for winter nymph fishing with a floating line, 8-10
foot leader and 4-6 pound tippet. A cluster of small split shot (3 or 4)
attached to a tag left where a 2 to 3 foot tippet is connected, will get
the fly down in the swift current.
