I live in California where the weather is usually pretty nice, but now that it’s winter I’m really struggling to get wild coastal rainbow trout to hit lures. During the summer, I could catch trout almost every cast using spoons or spinners, but now they rarely touch them.
I mainly fish creeks, and in winter the trout will eat a worm under a bobber or a worm slowly drifted with a split shot. I prefer fishing artificials, so I tried fly fishing, but they wouldn’t take my flies either. I’m guessing I’m not matching the hatch well enough. I recently ordered some nymphs that look like the bugs I see under the rocks, but I’m wondering if winter trout will hit anything else besides super-natural presentations.
I also tried fishing plastic crappie minnows and actually got plenty of bites, but I kept missing hook sets. I’m not sure if they’re short-striking, just mouthing the bait, or if my hook setup or timing is off. I have the same issue with single-hook spoons and spinners. Any tips for improving hook-up ratio in winter, especially when fishing barbless hooks, which are required in some of the creeks I fish?
Is this mostly because it’s winter and their metabolism is lower, making them less aggressive? Or am I missing something with my lure or fly approach?
For reference, I’m fishing a 6’ ultralight rod with a size 1000 reel spooled with 6 lb mono. I use a small snap swivel when throwing spoons and spinners, and I don’t think that’s what’s spooking the fish. I also have a worm farm at home, so if I really want to catch fish I can always grab worms from my compost bin, but I’d prefer to figure out artificials if possible.
Any tips for winter creek trout fishing are appreciated.
Posted by Intelligent-Limit104
2 Comments
they are in calorie conservation mode with the colder water. They will be sitting on the edges of current seems picking off aquatic insects and such that drift by, with little energy wasted
With flies in winter, you’ve gotta get em low and slow, go for the same type of drift you’d use with your worm and split shot rig. Egg flies or beads work great in the winter IF you have a fall steelhead or brown trout soawn season.
For the flies themselves, I think of it 3 ways. Find a size/shape match for the most common nymph you see under rocks, those are probably the nymph the fish see most frequently even if they aren’t hatching. The fish know them well, there’s always a few drifting around. On my river in the rockies, thats a brown size 16 or 18 mayfly nymph, and they work year round.
Or, if there are hatches they’re probably small midges or very small mayflies, so those are the season specific ones fish are used to keying in on. Those are the ones that are most active, those are the ones the fish are seeing most frequently this time of year. If you see a hatch actively happening, try to strain the water. A paint can strainer over a net works great for this. Get yourself to a thin spot in the creek where everythimg gets funelled through and figure out the size of whats hatching. Match that with a zebra midge or RS2.
Thirdly, try to match the largest nymph you see under rocks. They might not be common, they aren’t hatching, but the fish have seen them, they know what they are, and a big stonefly is equivalent to dozens of midges. They want as many calories as they can get with the least work. They probably aren’t seeing them frequently right now, but the fish know them and want to eat them.
Or, dead drift/jig them a small streamer pattern, trout magnet, or curly tail grub, something an inch long or less, there are tons of tiny minnows that we never really see because they run for cover long before we’d get close enough, but the trout see them all the time.