With the colder months fast approaching I thought I would give you all a wee list of some of my best colder weather flies that I tie.
John Deer caught winter Rainbow.
I love winter fishing as it can be so much better than fishing in the hot summer especially these days as the summers are so much hotter yes hotter not warmer lol.
When mercury starts dropping around the UK this does not mean an end to your fly fishing season. In fact I personally think it’s the start of my season as I am not a fan of fishing in the hot summer especially these days as the summers are so much hotter. And, as a cold water species, rainbow trout continue to be active right through the shortest, coldest days of the year.
Provided the water isn’t iced over, saying that as long as you have a large enough gap in the ice fishing iced over fisheries has proven to be some of my most productive sessions.
You might need to ring the changes a little, whether that means exploring the
Depths, varying retrieve speeds fishing the indicator or following the wind mix things up as staying on the same set up all day whilst you’re not catching will lead to a blank. You might also want to pack an intermediate line unless you’re fishing a deep fishery when you might need a sinking line along with that flask of coffee lol.
However, the main thing is to get out there because, contrary to appearances, cold days can offer great fishing.
Below is a selection of my favorite flies for the winter but don’t be fooled into thinking these flies are just for winter fishing as they catch all year round.
Lure are not just for Christmas lol
P.S These are only recommended as 99% of my flies are great all year round so please checkout all my flies and feedback is very welcome and please excuse the spelling and grammar as spell check can only help my doesn’t cure my dyslexia lol.
The John Deer is one of my personal favorites since I made this fly up as a joke for my son in law who was at the time a John Deer tractor driver. This has accounted for 1000s yes 1000s of Rainbows. This lure is fished with any method you can think of from a slow figure of eight to supper fast retrieve and can also work really well under the indicator static.
Tip: Use the countdown method to find the depth of the fish when using sinking fly lines.
The deadly old man was a fly my father tied meany moons ago and to this day is still one of my go to flies through the year but does come into its own in winter.
Tip: Fish this lure with a very slow figure of eight retrieve and wait for it to be hit hard.
Such a deadly little fly this one. Mini lures in general are
excellent for winter fishing- and an ideal choice whenever you get trout
following but not taking, or nipping tails and not getting hooked.
Tip: If you get takes but not hooking the fish try nipping a bit of the tail of the fly off this means the trout start taking further up the fly and hopefully past the point of the hook
A must for the box for any testing winter session is the apps worm, this fly is packed with
movement. Best allowed to sink well and then twitched back slowly with the odd
larger pull.
Tip: Can be fished under the indicator this will help you find and keep the fly fishing at the right depth where the fish are feeding.
Now this was once a very controversial topic but to be honest has saved me many a blank. The indicator or bung as it’s sometimes called can fish so well all year round but is a killer in the winter months. These days any fly can be fished using this method but my personal favorite flies under the bung are Egg flies & Mop flies.
Tip: This is great for finding the depth of the trout and staying at that depth. Start by fishing deep and lift your fly up until you start getting hit’s then you have found where the fish are. It’s that simple.
The dogs bollocks what can I say other than they are the dogs bollocks great buzzer fished all year round.
Tip: There are essentially 3 different methods for fishing “Buzzers”
- The Bung or indicator (This is the best method in my opinion for the colder months).
- “Straight line” buzzer fishing
- “Washing line” method
If you would like more information on the other methods please don’t hesitate to ask.
Bunny leeches is one of my favourite methods if you fish drab colours (which can be really good) with no luck go for the more fancy colours as bright colours can be fantastic but be aware hit’s can be gentle plucks right through to very aggressive hit’s so you might have to hang on.
Tip: Use a very slow figure of eight retrieve and if you’re getting loads of takes but not hooking up try my mini bunny’s with the shorter tail you might start hooking for fish instead of the fishing pulling the tail.
The yellow dancer is probably the most popular lure there is on the stillwater scene. This Scottish invention was first used on the famous Newmills Trout Fishery in the 90’s and at the time was responsible for some huge catches and huge fish. It now comes in various guises and this particular version is as close as we can provide to the original. For best results fish on a floater or intermediate with a short pull and stop retrieve or a figure of eight. Quite simply you should not fish any stillwater or trout fishery without some of these in your fly box.
a great piece of information