Hi all

Could anyone tell me the best tactics for winter for stocked rainbows

such as flies,depth,best retreives,static,nymphs,buzzers,dries etc

any help much appreciated

P.S rose 6 fish to a High Rider CDC Sedge but missed all the takes is this fly a sutible dry for winter of is it just the wake the fly makes in the water that intrests the bows

thanks all

People start getting the lures out again this time of year, depth and retrieve depends on temperature and conditions. My last two outings I had fish on a small brown sedge pattern. It's rare that I fish for trout after October and I usually start again early March. Winter time for me is used to fish for pike and perch with maybe the odd grayling trip. Not much in the way of grayling local to me.
Good luck.

Hi,

You don't really need to change your tactics too much in the winter. Yes some people (including me) reach for the lures most days, but ive seen big fish regularly caught on buzzers, and last year I had an out of season (returned) brown of about 15lb on a small CdC! On cold days you may need a bit more depth, but the fish are often more active in the cold weather!

Your wake issue is interesting, often winter bows will come and look at a fly creating a wake, but seldom take, preferring to slash at it.

One thing i would add though. In winter, if the wind is in the East, don't venture out. FOr some reason a cold east wind in the winter really kills the fishing in my experience. be interested to see if anyone else has noticed this to the same extent.

Cheers
Alex

When winter sets in feeding becomes very intermittent,they come on and off in shorter spells and its rare you find them feeding/taking solid all day like the summer months,They conserve there energy through winter months and become opportunists.
Buzzers especially okey dokeys in winter months do really well and using an indicator often produces good bags.It helps find depth and indicates the slightest of touch on your fly which are alot softer normally in winter.
Lures are always a good prospect aswell but bloodworms and okey dokeys would be my first choice.
Then theres always the blobs!

__________________
Kevin

BB, I would say the issue is the cold, and in winter an east or north east wind is invariably a very cold one.

If the air temperature is not likely to exceed the water temperature throughout a given day, I would now not venture out stillwater fly fishing (Grayling on rivers are a different matter...). The Southern waters you and I would likely visit will probably be spring or river fed, so the base winter water temperature will be between 5 and 7 degrees C.

By contrast, if it's a cold morning with ice in the margins but the day subsequently warms up quite nicely - winter days with little breeze are often like that - it can offer good fishing.

I have also found on winter days that there is a quite dramatic switching on of the fish around 09:30am or a bit earlier, and an equally dramatic switch off around 14:30 or 15:00. This has happened to me enough times on enough different Southern waters to almost say it's a given.

Be interested to see if Morayflyfisher has any different insight, as his fishery is in the North of Scotland...

__________________
"In wine there is wisdom. In beer there is strength. In water there is bacteria." - German proverb
JH based near Southampton

John, that's the most depressing post ive read for a while!!

I'd forgotten over the summer that many's the day we crunch through the frost to get to the lake in the morning, ears burning and finger tips frozen..
Cracking the ice from our rods every 10 mins as yet another cast comes back fruitless. turning our backs to the wind as it gusts up the lake... hoping those scudding clouds aren't going to turn to sleet, getting up in the pitch dark with the ice warning light on in the car, seeing the water clear but black with lack of weed growth, knowing that the milky sun just skimming the treetops is the best we're going to get... and then feeling the strong pull on the line, and not giving a monkey's about anything!

Hi John
Yes the temps up here can get alot cooler and easterlys are generally not too bad but that is due to the situation as the hills cover us from those winds.Our worst is a northerly which is always an absoloute freezing wind.During the winter the best times for fish taking are normally in the mornings from around 10is to 11.30ish and then they do tend to switch off from then untill around 2ish when they come back on,you can still catch inbetween those times but its not as prolific as the other times.the one thing which does help them switch on is putting the aeroaters on and they become alot more lively,possibly by the food sources which it churns up.But overall winter fishing for rainbows is just as good as summer months and there is plent yof good fishing to be had,except its alot colder and shorter fishing times,but the fish dont half fight alot harder in winter when hooked I have found.

__________________
Kevin

Morayflyfisher, your last sentence says it all in a nutshell. "Get out there" is the message.

BB, doesn't the hot tea or coffee/soup/nip from the hipflask taste good when you have a nice winter brace in the bag !

__________________
"In wine there is wisdom. In beer there is strength. In water there is bacteria." - German proverb
JH based near Southampton

Good stuff. I've never done winter fishing before, but my local small stillwater is going to be open this winter and I fancy giving it a go.

The loch is only 8 feet deep. I tend to fish nymphs/buzzers etc as slow the drift will allow on a floating line with 12 foot leader. That's as long a leader as my casting technique will allow but it seems to do the job in the warmer months. It was recently suggested to me that when the fish are deeper I'd do better fishing buzzers/nymphs on an intermediate line. I figured this wasn't really possible since, unless I retreived faster than I think proper for buzzers/nymphs, I'd just end up hooking the bottom the whole time and removing sludge/weeds from the flies. I also figured a floating line with a 12 foot leader in an 8 foot deep loch would be deep enough! Was thinking it would be great to get my flies into swimming pool and find out how deep they really do go with my set up... But as that's not possible, do you guys have any advice?

Your 12 foot leader will be more than long enough to tackle fish in an 8 foot loch. Fish the buzzers on the breeze as you have done in the summer and i doubt you'd notice any reduction in your success!