Tying for winter and early spring pike.

[nomadic_pescador 0]

On the days when the weather peaks above 30, I find myself tempted to get the waders wet and see if I can entice a winter pike to eat a chicken feather. I've had fair luck this winter but I see our European friends just slaying the cold weather fish. In the late spring I usually throw a pretty hefty fly based off the Optic Minnows and the Bufords of the fly world. I don't usually find myself catching a great number of fish but the quality is primo. But what I'm wondering right now is what most guys do in the winter and up to early April for these fish. Are you guys down-scaling the bugs or do you continue to throw beefy flies all year long? Or do you just sit on the vise and dream your way through the winter. . .

[mikechell 0]

I moved to warmer climes, where there is little or no winter.

But my company laughed and laughed and sent me to Chicago for February and March.

A couple of years ago, they sent me to Boston for the same months. I borrowed a set of waders and fish every weekend I was there ... and caught nothing.

 

If I lived up North ... I'd tie all winter. No fish is worth getting cold for.

[WVUontheFLY 0]

I mainly try for a different esox, musky, but I usually throw a smaller pattern and work it much slower than I would in the spring and fall months. I will usually throw 8"+ flies the majority of the year, but during winter I drop it down to 4-6" flies and work them miserably slow to what I am used to for warmer months. I think they don't want to fight the food as much in the cold months and want something they can easily overpower and digest.

[nomadic_pescador 0]

I'm an Alachua county native so I understand where your coming from Mike. Time and ill chance have brought me North and as much as I do hate winter; I can't let a little chill keep me from the water. Some of the best steelheading days have taken place in the dead of winter while breaking ice from the eyelits of my rod. Quality clothes go a long way to make sure this can happen. Pike is just something an hour closer to the house.

[nomadic_pescador 0]

I mainly try for a different esox, musky, but I usually throw a smaller pattern and work it much slower than I would in the spring and fall months. I will usually throw 8"+ flies the majority of the year, but during winter I drop it down to 4-6" flies and work them miserably slow to what I am used to for warmer months. I think they don't want to fight the food as much in the cold months and want something they can easily overpower and digest.

I'm glad to hear that your catching musky in the dead of winter. I chase those all fall and spring myself but their water is froze over all winter so that'll put a stop to the fly chucking real quick. You can find the occasional lost fish in my river but you understand the hunt. I'm gonna have to try that size range; makes perfect sense. What kind of water column are you finding the fish in this time of year and are you tying synthetics or sticking to the bucktail patterns etc?

[WVUontheFLY 0]

I caught the last one in mid-December and have only gone out once since due to frozen streams. The areas I fish only get to about 8' deep or so and I am fishing in the 4-6' deep range and have been using more sysnthetics as I can tie with less material and getting a better sink rate even with a floating line. But if you get an unusually warm day I have found them in really shallow pools where the water is warmer. The flies I tie are mostly extra select craft fur and polar fiber type materials with some hackles and flash

[phg 0]

Here in NC, we spend all winter fishing for trout in the Delayed Harvest streams. Very few days you can't get out on the water, although you do sometimes have to put up with ice in the guides....

[corney 0]

I have to drill a hole through 3' of ice to fish for pike this time of year.

 

I have a shack out in front my house with a wood stove and a frying pan for the deer sausage.

 

Sometimes we even drop a leech pattern down there for $#|¥$ and giggles!

[troutguy 0]

phg do you or anyone else on this board ever fish the French Broad for pike or musky?

[Adam Saarinen 0]

Try stripping it real slow & lots of stops! I've just got'n into bleeding paterns because pike like to pick on the weak & injured! Have a look at Daniel D Holm's youtube channel flytying, eu. He has some fantastic bleeding pike flies! Best i've seen!