I should really go fishing.
Post your first fish of 2025 here
- Thread starter Evan B
- Start date
Bambooflyguy
Legend
You waited until the colder weather is coming…….more warm clothes and anti freeze!
Anti freeze; Old Overholt Rye! Best ever.
Bambooflyguy
Legend
Did you catch the squid on a dry in a lake???
Bambooflyguy
Legend
Crown Royal is my go to anti freeze…….year round!
I don't think I will make it at all... that being said it is all dependant in wife recovery and doctors/PT
-1 degree at my place this morning.. these reports are keeping me sane.
Sheese….12 degrees….do you bring a battery pack and some electric pipe heater cable to keep your line guides open ?
SovDog
Steelhead
I think I’ve settled on my cold weather rig for now which is an integrated 240 gr SA Scandi Lite line on my 9’ 6wt. I don’t shoot any line and just spey cast the head and sinking polyleader so there is no water dripping through the guides to freeze and the shorter length rod makes it easy to clear the ice off the transition area with my gloves. Using SH instead of DH also means I can keep one hand in my pocket and alternate sides to stay warm. Worked today anyway for the half hour I could bare in 33 degree water.Sheese….12 degrees….do you bring a battery pack and some electric pipe heater cable to keep your line guides open ?
Modest_Man
Steelhead
Dredging worms in the cold yesterday. Barely any one on the water for a holiday.
Very jealous.. nice one! I was considering going, but the recent dry cold conditions kept me home..
I had not been out since Sept 2nd. I managed to get out twice during the last week of January. On the 27th with a Tenkara buddy just off the road at a location I haven't fished much and we were both blanked nymphing in low water conditions. It was cloudy and 24° with no wind but cold makes everything more difficult. I wasn't dressed right (heavy outer layer, expedition weight baselayer), I had to search to find stuff, and just didn't have an efficient workflow. My hands ached with the cold, I was having trouble with knots...
I have now significantly raised my predictive CFS threshold levels for that stream.
Two days later sunny and 22° with no wind. But I was dressed better with the expedition baselayer, a midweight fleece vest, and a primaloft puffy along with the same merino buff-wool baseball cap-fleece Inca chullo hat I'd worn Monday. I had a lightweight GTX wind-rain shell but didn't need it. I hiked in over a mile and as expected from my past journal CFS notes found good, moderately high water conditions. Water 38°. I had added a pair of cheap nitrile dipped garden gloves that provides good grip and dexterity for tying 5X tippet underneath the Thinsulate insulated fingerless gloves I had worn on Monday and my hands were warm, and working. It was slow and I got nothing working a nymph deep through a bedrock trough run that always holds fish, into pocket water.
After thoroughly working the pocket water, I rigged up a 2nd longer rod with a reverse hackle wet fly for the next riffle-run that usually produces fish, but nothing. Then working my way downstream through a slow run to another riffle-run-deep trough I hooked and landed this pretty little guy
here
Then I turned around to see where I had come from; beautiful.
I fished another quarter mile downstream through the riffle-run-deep trough with the wet fly and made a 2nd pass with the nymph. No fish so I decided to start back up towards the car. I fished 3 spots that have been productive over the years, but no more fish.
The interesting thing was the water I normally find fish didn't produce, but moderately deep almost featureless water did.
But I was just happy to finally get out again on a cold, pretty winter day.
Happy 2025 Y'all!
I have now significantly raised my predictive CFS threshold levels for that stream.
Two days later sunny and 22° with no wind. But I was dressed better with the expedition baselayer, a midweight fleece vest, and a primaloft puffy along with the same merino buff-wool baseball cap-fleece Inca chullo hat I'd worn Monday. I had a lightweight GTX wind-rain shell but didn't need it. I hiked in over a mile and as expected from my past journal CFS notes found good, moderately high water conditions. Water 38°. I had added a pair of cheap nitrile dipped garden gloves that provides good grip and dexterity for tying 5X tippet underneath the Thinsulate insulated fingerless gloves I had worn on Monday and my hands were warm, and working. It was slow and I got nothing working a nymph deep through a bedrock trough run that always holds fish, into pocket water.
After thoroughly working the pocket water, I rigged up a 2nd longer rod with a reverse hackle wet fly for the next riffle-run that usually produces fish, but nothing. Then working my way downstream through a slow run to another riffle-run-deep trough I hooked and landed this pretty little guy
here
Then I turned around to see where I had come from; beautiful.
I fished another quarter mile downstream through the riffle-run-deep trough with the wet fly and made a 2nd pass with the nymph. No fish so I decided to start back up towards the car. I fished 3 spots that have been productive over the years, but no more fish.
The interesting thing was the water I normally find fish didn't produce, but moderately deep almost featureless water did.
But I was just happy to finally get out again on a cold, pretty winter day.
Happy 2025 Y'all!
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WOW. VERY IMPRESSIVE!
Hungry fish + unseasonably warm weather + midge hatch = lots of fun.