Of frazil ice and other winter fly fishing challenges
There are two schools of thought about winter
fly fishing / One is the classic mentality / Match the hatch / In winter /
Aquatic insects / If and when they do hatch / Are quite small / To give you an
idea about how small / Some are even called midges / So Germanic and practical
/ Compared to fancier names / Like those given to mayflies / Order Ephemeroptera in ancient Greek / But
still pretty fancy in plain English / Albeit not as exotic as hummingbirds /
Like Green-breasted Mango / Like Bahama Woodstar / Far more pragmatic and
descriptive instead / Like blue winged olive / Big slate drake / Ginger quill
spinner / Pale evening dun / Dark hendrickson / Gray fox / Sulfur
The other approach to winter fishing is to go
big / To offer the fish a big meal / So big within reason the trout cannot
refuse / Present to them the largest plausible prey / Fish are cold blooded of
course / Even fish like trout who must thrive in cold water / But it takes
effort to eat / So make it worth their while / This is the other school of
thought / The other approach to winter fly fishing
I sometimes net a perfect wild brown / Too
exquisite for this world / Deep post-spawn reds / Kype-jawed for defense /
Release him and sit on a rock / Feeling some sense of guilt / The water is 34
degrees / The air is 36 at best / It takes such effort to suit up / To leave
the house / To fish in winter / Yet this trout left security / A log jam or
rocky shelf / A massive mid-stream boulder / Swimming with what its cold blood
could muster / Not for a tiny mayfly / Or a midge / But for a large golden
stonefly / Or a minnow pattern / Like a sculpin / A real meal / The largest
plausible prey / Yet hardly a real meal at all / Mostly manmade materials /
Repurposed natural ones with very specific names / Things like ice dubbing and
cul de canard hackle and zonker
strips/ A 4mm slotted tungsten bead / All triple whip-finished / For security /
A drop of head cement / For extra security
And so the guilt / The sitting on a rock / In
winter / Thinking about effort / Security / About cold blood and peril and
death/Imagining that swimming in frazil ice / For me / Would be akin to
breathing gelatin