Here’s a winter trouting tip for y’all: try some adaptive dredging. When nymphing my favorite large streams this season, I’m often faced with changing habitats as I work upstream. I’ll quickly adapt my nymph rig to the pool condition in front of me. Here are my quick and easy adaptations to varying winter waters.
First, the bugs. My favorite winter patterns are small weighted eggs, heavy sexy Walts worms, or tungsten Pats rubberlegs for a lead/anchor fly and lighter Frenchies (silver or copper bead), France flies (black or brown beads), or tiny pheasant tail nymphs as droppers for picky fish.
Next, the techniques. For pocket pools in boulder fields and the fast runs among them, I’ll start with a Euronymphing rig with a long piece of tippet, maybe a couple feet longer than the average depth.
When I move upstream to a fairly shallow, flat pool, I’ll simply twist on a Lightning Strike slotted football indicator to that tippet, at 1.5 times the water depth, and fish the indicator rig.
When I move up to a deeper pool, I’ll substitute an Airlock indicator for the smaller football float. Again, I’ll place it at 1.5 or even 2 times the water depth and fish the suspension rig. Sometimes the Airlock goes on the colored sighter line above my tippet or even on the leader above the sighter. (The Oros brand indicators work well, too)
When I wade further upstream and hit the next batch of pocket water, I simply remove the indicator and go back to contact (Euro) nymphing.
These rigging changes are quick and easy and keep me fishing rather than rerigging. Give them a try and see if adaptive dredging works for you, too, this winter.
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