Wind, Water & Winter Fly Fishing
The first chill of winter comes as a surprise. The shock of walking out the door only to be blasted with a cold wind instead of the warm blanket of sunshine summer brings. A steaming cup of coffee, the compensation I desperately seek. I realize in the blink of an eye, yet another year is coming to a close and a tingle of regret tickles its way down my spine. Wishing I spent more time on the river, more starry nights in the mountains, more days with my backpack glued to my back with a steady bead of sweat. I immediately miss it all. I scold myself as I tick off the list of winter activities I have compiled over the years. Skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, fishing, and then my mental calculations trail off as the list comes to a sorry end. The river is my solstice; I greet the water with a grin on my face like a long-lost friend. It’s muddled depths narrowly escaping the ice that encompasses many of our favorite fishing spots.
Fishing is a challenge during the wintertime, especially in our stomping grounds of northern Colorado; you must be more creative. We narrow our options down to two spots as yet another new year approaches. Fish in town or fish beneath Lake Estes Dam, today we opt for beneath the dam where the water remains warmer temperatures as it flows freely from the reservoir. The upside of this area is the hefty trout that spend their winter months in these waters. The downside is that all of us fly fishing enthusiasts are condensed in this short stretch of fishable river. On the weekends, you find yourself standing shoulder to shoulder in the chilly water in hopes to enticing a trout. The solitude is what brings me to the water, but as we know, humans adapt, and so I will adapt. Reminding myself that, come summer the sweet isolation that keeps bringing me back to the water will arrive yet again.
But for today, I am here, and I am going to fish. After securing a solid spot on the river, I let out my line, double check my flies and weight, and watch them unfurl in the wind. It takes a moment to get back into the rhythm, the feel of the line whipping through the air and landing where I intended. That doesn’t always happen, and I am the first to admit that I am always learning. The river offers something new in these winter months. It’s part of the reason I love fishing so much, two steps in any direction and your tactic changes completely. The trout that is happily feeding in a swift current underneath brush is highly inaccessible except for a bow-and-arrow cast. The timing and technique required in these constricted situations are much different than on an open stretch of water. Moving to another side of the river to better access the deeper pools in these colder winter months, requests something different altogether. A roll cast might be the best solution here. Another thing to consider when nymphing is if your indicator needs to move up/down the line, which allows the midges and nymphs to sink to the correct depth and remain there longer. All of these thoughts stream through my head as I fine tune my technique, the wind whipping around me becoming background noise. The pure focus of placing the right fly, in the right spot, at the right time, takes hold. A then without a moment to lose, my indicator dips below the surface, and I set the hook — the art of fly fishing.
“In the depth of winter I finally learned that in me there was an invincible summer. ”
The wintertime provides an opportunity, to grow and learn more about a river that changes so much throughout the year. Just as we are always learning, the river is continually swelling or shrinking, guiding us to newly created eddies and pools that materialize in the blink of an eye. The quiet chill of a cold wind, the whisper of the snow through the pines and the knowledge that spring will be here soon enough.
-Kathryn
