Jan 3rd & 4th, 2021 Environmental Conditions:
Precipitation: .15 (in the form of overnight snow)
Discharge: 135 CFS (steady over the previous 2 days)
Gage Height: 1.78 feet (mostly steady over previous 2 days)
Traveling/Fishing/Natural Conditions:
Sunday Jan 3rd, 2021
Left home with the ground being snow covered but the roads perfectly dry. The landscape with snow on the fields and trees was pretty fabulous for over 125 miles, all the way to Licking.
Met Steve Baker at the handicap parking lot in the campground. Steve had caught 2 drifting cracklebacks before I even got in the water. Was a little miffed that Steve wouldn’t bother to catch a fish for the camera.
After Lunch, around 12:30 the guys moved up the S curve above the bridge going to the campground. Fished that nice spot for 2 1/2 hours.
There Steve caught 2 more (1 on crackle back, 1 on San Juan worm) totaling 4. Dan caught 4 at that spot. 3 on glass bead head crackleback which didn’t float but went about 1 foot under the water. It fished less like a soft hackle in the film, but more like a “wet fly” a bit deeper. 2 fish were decent, 12-13” and one little one.
Dan’s last fish at the S curve, was rewarding. Grabbed a bug out of the air and matched the hatch. Saw a fish rising, targeted him and caught the 10” little guy on a size 18 blue wing olive. Fun.
Neither Steve nor Dan did well after 3 pm in the vicinity of the boulder. No bites even, for either of us right up to the 4 pm siren (A Sculpin doesn’t count, right?)
A surprising thing was the huge midge hatch that went on. Near the boulder hole the air was thick with midges, particularly after the sun had come out. Millions of midges hatching on Jan 3rd. Weird, right ?
Funny story: toward the end of the day, no luck, too lazy to change flies near the end, I was wade walking and drifting a fly along the stretch below the boulder to about halfway to the dam (known as Broadway). Along the way I noticed some daily tags in the water on the bottom. I thought, “some low class, careless bum just dumped his tags out and left them there, junking up the pristine stream.” On the way back upstream, I decided to use my boot to kick them up and grab them. I wondered who they belonged to, as I read the signature.
Well, you guessed it, oops, they were mine ! The tags somehow escaped from my pouch when I’d gotten into the waist deep water. I DID find several more that belonged to some other “low class, careless bum” and retrieved them for the trash can as well.
Semi-interesting: fish were rising all over, but many seemed to be chubs/shiners. A few were close enough that I could see they were not trout.
However, some of the rises were definitely trout rising to blue wing olives and midges. Do not be fooled by ALL little splashes.
2nd Day -Monday Jan 4th, 2021:
Braving the elements (cold, plus heavy fog) driving down Monday morning to torment the trout were Jim Craig, Vernon Preston, AL Harper, and AL’s buddy Russ Waggoner (future FATC member, maybe !?!?) to join DanStag at Montauk.
The group got on the stream 9:30-9:45. Jim Craig was coaxed into trying his hand at fishing the crackleback in the stretch just below Hudson’s corner, above what Kenny calls the ”aircraft carrier”.
The water was smooth as glass and very few fish were rising. Jim kept after it by targeting some fish against the far bank which stirred enough to tease him. He had several takes drifting and others stripping back but no fish. Jim has excellent casting skills and looks a natural at the crackle back in spite of non-cooperation by the fish. After the crackle back experience, Jim fished with soft hackle & mohair Leeches bringing one to the net for the morning.
Down at the power lines just above the fast riffles, Dan picked up 2 on a heavy zebra midge. Vern doggedly kept after them with no success. That spot (sometimes called “the barrel”) has plenty of fish there, but I suspect it gets the heaviest pressure in all the “Fly fishing” water above the dam to the spring. In addition, during the winter months the spot doesn’t get replenished with anymore “dumb” fish (as Kenny rightfully calls them). On several occasions fish swim toward my fly and then turn and RUN, not just swim away. Too heavy a tippet (5X) ?, hmmm…
Mid-Day 12:30 Lunch: Besides the satisfying fellowship (and commiseration) at Lunchtime, it’s a useful time to check in, see what is working, and not working, and where. Semi-intelligent adjustments can often be made with hope for afternoon improvements. After all, if 2 heads are better than one, how much better results can 5 great minds produce?
Using techniques for summer fishing as one normally uses was tough. It may have been from heavy pressure (thanks, again COVID). Not many fish were being caught by any of the non-FATC fisherman observed on the water, either. Any help was appreciated.
After Lunch, AL Harper and his buddy, Russ went over to the S curve above the bridge going to the campground. After trying some small midge patterns without much luck, the guys found themselves in the middle of a hatch (a hatch on January 4th ?!?!?). AL smartly switched over to a dry fly and caught 5 making an awesome afternoon. AL reported the hatch was small and appeared white in color but had some brown and possibly a tinge of red mixed in. ( Caddis, possibly, BWO ? ) We’ll keep an eye out for that early season rising fly next time out.
Jim Craig and Dan went up to the Blue hole (between the upper turn from the spring run and above the upper steps).
Vern Preston returned to the “barrel” just above the power lines and caught a nice trout on an egg (Vern calls them the “eyeball pattern”). See the picture of a very proud Vernon.
Acting on an earlier tip Dan fished with very light tippet (6X and 7x) and tiny, tiny flies’ size #20’s zebra and flash midges. Had three hits, broke off 2 (due to poor knots, grrrr) and brought one to the net.
Jim doggedly fished the area on lighter tippet (6X) and smaller flies netting 3 more on RS2’s and Manhattan midges (“Manhattan” more than just a great drink…).
On an interesting note, Jim was getting bit frustrated breaking off as the time to the siren was counting down. He quipped, “I wish the siren would just blow and put me out of my misery.” Nonetheless he tied back on and after a few casts, caught a nice trout (see picture). The clock on the phone read 4:01 as the picture was snapped. The smile on Jim’s face surely is as much from the joy of the fish, as it is from his tenacity paying off. The siren ending the day, blew about 15 seconds after Jim’s trout swam away. Kind of a magical, surreal moment, actually !
Although the hatch charts are pretty empty in winter, don’t be surprised to see bugs hatching on a trout stream anytime, especially on sunny or even partly cloudy days. Afternoon seems like the best chance for hatches. Soft hackle and dry flies CAN work in winter.
For the writer, in winter TINY is better in both flies and in tippet. Midges hatch all day, every day (IMO= in my observation) Will report back later…
Vern Preston, Jim Craig and Dan Staggenborg enjoyed a nice, spread out, Mexican fellowship dinner at EL Carnaval restaurant in Licking MO before the trip home in the dark, with lots of memories & thoughts to occupy the drive.
In summary, as long as there’s no severe wind or rain, the cold can be dealt with. Catching a fish or two somehow warms you up.
The quote of the trip, from a cartoon, was provided by Al Harper:
“Show me a man who [trout] fishes in winter and I’ll show you a Fanatic. Actually, a Fanatic doesn’t hold a candle to a man who fishes in winter.“ (-Patrick F. McManus)
submitted by DanStag (fanatic)
