If you enjoy solitude in trout streams and meet your wits against a big trout, you should seriously consider flying with them for the winter. From November to January you can find very generous activities throughout the Old Dominion.
So that you can take advantage of this exciting fishing, start in November and work your way through January, exploring the various tactics, flies and type of streams that will give you a good action.
In large creeks such as Great Stoney Creek, west of Edinburgh and the Bullpasture River in the gorge, there are many pleasant rainbow trout that feed heavily on small grains in deep pools just below the riffs when the water cools down in winter. A very productive way to fish in these areas is to enter the stream right below the riffs and throw streamers, such as the size of the pearl marauder 12 or the size of the olive stream Murray 10 right through the stream. After he plunges deep, swim back across the stream, removing him six inches every five seconds. By fishing all the way down the deep pools in this way, you can catch a lot of pleasant rainbow trout in large streams.
In November, “deferred harvest” streams, such as Passage Creek and Back Creek, are excellent. Watch the flat areas of the pools in the evenings, and you will often notice trout rising to drink natural midges from the surface of the stream. A very interesting way to fish for this trout is to use Mr. Rapidan Midge size 20 or RS 2 Pupa size 20 oa 9 feet 7X leader and go one on one with each growing trout. Be sure to use a cautious approach and tender presentation, because these trout are often very careful.
The “deferred harvest” streams can give you great performances during the day, fishing right under the riffs with nymphs, such as size 10 claims and size 12 and 14 Murray nettle larvae. Fish these ascending dead drifts along with two Scientific Anglers indicators, located three and six feet above the nymph on a 9-foot, 5X knotted tapering leader, to detect strikes.
At the end of November, streams of brooks can be excellent. Since this trout often did not finish spawning until mid-November, most anglers believe that it is not worth emphasizing them, catching them before.
You can usually catch this trout on dry flies from mid-November to the first or second week of December. Reliable flies at this time are the dead flying beetles of size 14 and 16 and the ant ants McMurray of size 16 and 18. From mid-December to January, you can catch trout in mountain streams on nymphs, such as red squirrel size 12 and size of bulge Zug Bug size 14 by catching them along the bottom of the stream in a deep pool. However, the action will be very slow due to cold water.
During December and January, the batti-bait hatches became very heavy on some streams of the tailings and large streams with streams into which large sources poured. These hatches are in the best condition on difficult cloudy days, because low light levels suggest that nymphs come out of the bottom of the stream. Since big trout prefer to eat on cloudy days, this is the ideal situation for you to get excellent fishing.
Explore different parts of the stream when the british hatch is on, because in some areas clouds of emerging duns and a lot of growing trout may appear, while another part of the stream can produce only a few flies without a fish in a hundred yards. I often met with this and never could explain it, because both sections of the flow, apparently, have the same bottom composition and flow rate.
During the start of the manhole every day, when the adults are sparse, you can catch a lot of pleasant trout on a blue mask with a blue wing 18. Place yourself about a hundred feet downstream from the source that enters the stream and the fish upstream, using the 9 foot Leader 6X. After the shell nymph is heavily used as a slow rise and lower movement of the rod of the rod, as the current pushes it downstream. Your goal is to make your nymph look like a real white nymph floating from the bottom of a stream. To help detect a trout strike, remove it a little faster than the current pushes it. Also use the two Scientific Anglers indicators on your leader to help see a smaller portion of the trout.
As soon as the hatch is in full swing and you see a lot of growing trout, go to the dry sizes of the Beatis Parachute Dry 18 or Blue Wing Olive dry 18 and go one on one with each trout.
Many of the detained collection streams, tail waters, as well as empty and stream trout streams through the state have areas where the trout feeds mainly on natural beetles and shrimps in winter. These are usually downstream sections of the stream, from where rich sources flow into them.
In some cases, for example, in Big Stoney Creek at the Lanz Mill, these springs flow into streams from streams, and it is easy to find lush green vegetation along the coast. My favorite way to flush out these areas is to flow into the stream about a hundred feet downstream from the source and climb upstream ten feet from the coast looking for a trough when I walk. This feeding is detected in one of two ways. You may notice slightly splashing agitation on the surface of the stream created by the trout's tail when it turns to take shrimp and correct errors from aquatic vegetation, or you may find a short stream of discolored water flowing downstream, because trout roots are errors from the bottom of the stream, where grass is attached.
In any case, I use the same tactic. I move carefully close enough to actually detect the trout. From here I observe how he eats for several minutes to assure that I did not scare him with my approach and did not make sure that I precisely determined its location. As he continued to feed, I threw my 16-foot Schenken-Kress-Booth above his location and watched him almost as my fly drifts downstream to him. When I see him turning to take my fly or “white one,” when he opens his mouth to take it, I quickly grab the hook. This is a very exciting fishing, so do not hesitate if you get a little mad when you start using this trick. Seeing that a 20-year-old brown trout, feeding on natural kapchik beetles thirty feet from the water at a depth of two feet, can make the most experienced angler nervous.
In some of our large trout streams, these sources enter the bottom of the stream, and you often discover them unexpectedly when you fall into the stream. The stream immediately below them will be cooler in summer and warmer in winter than the rest of the stream. When you discover that these underwater sources carefully mark them with a physical object, such as large steam trees or unusual boulders in the riverbed. This way you will know exactly where to catch them the next time you are in the stream, because by the time you make your way close enough to feel the spring, the first time you have scarred a trout.
These bottom flow springs are easy to fish. Walk into a stream to land forty feet upstream from them and twenty degrees to the side. There are usually more natural shrimp, and then push bugs, so use a shrimp size of 14 on a 9-foot 5X leader. Throw down and cross at a twenty-degree angle so that your fly falls near the top of the spring. After your shrimp shells do use very slow extraction to scan it along the bottom of the stream. Extend your throws gradually and make your way downstream using the same angle and perform an action on successful hits until you have completely covered the entire area downstream thirty feet from the spring. At the slightest hint of a fight, install the hook quickly, but carefully, because big trout are often served here.
Winter trout fishing can be one of the most difficult and enjoyable fishing throughout the year. Try it, and I believe that you will agree.
