Winter fly fishing can be some of the best fly fishing all year in the driftless area. There are tons of benefits to fly fishing in the winter. Less anglers to compete for water. No bugs. Significantly less weeds, limbs, things to hang your fly up on. I love it. We traveled up near the town of Dorchester, IA to fish Waterloo Creek. This is a very solid stretch of water, and from what I’m told, it basically all holds trout. We are fishing our Econ 101 906-3/4 Outfit. A surprisingly high quality rod and reel outfit for the money. We got to the water around 8:30, and after a difficult walk through 10-12 inches of snow for about a half a mile, we got to the hole I wanted to start our fishing day.
Today I went with a double fly rig with a size 18 bead head pheasant tail up top and a size 18 bead head zebra midge. We used 6X tippet all day. The first hole we fished with no action. I walked up the stream and tried the next hole, again with no action. After two holes with no action, I changed the black zebra midge out for a red zebra midge. This was the little adjustment that changed our luck. We started getting into fish right away after this change. Check out the action onYouTube at https://youtu.be/S_LrIDn5_Wc.
Today was a special day. All in all I was able to bring around thirty trout to net in around four hours this morning. I was also able to catch a rainbow, brown, and brook trout all in the same day. Pretty cool experience for sure.
Red Zebra Midge Getting Worn Out!
After a slow and difficult hike back to the Jeep to warm up a bit, polish off come coffee, and have a little lunch, I made my way down the water this time trying out some new water for me. The pools in this water are deep and gorgeous. After my exploring, I made my way to a giant pool I saved near where I parked to fish my last session. The trout were very happy in this hole, it produced around a dozen fish. After around twenty or so casts, promising that this was my last cast, I threw the red zebra midge for one last voyage. After a perfect drift, the indicator sank, and the fight was on. To my surprise a pretty little brook trout came to my net. This was my first brook trout in 4-5 years, which was fantastic. Catching a rainbow, brown, & brook trout all in the same day has to be some sort of grand slam.
Today’s morning off from work was a very peaceful time to recharge the batteries. Now it’s time to get back to the real world, and I pointed my Jeep south and raced back to civilization where there is cell phone coverage. Until next time!
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