February 7, 2011

Rose Bowl SteelheadFINALLY, there was a little break in the weather. Since the balmy 1st of January, it has been nothing by cold, upon colder! There hasn’t been much in the way of snow, so access into many trails is still good. But, with all the slush and shelf ice pinching off the fishable water, there hasn’t been any reason to put the RAV into 4WD.

New Year’s Day was downright balmy. It opened at dawn with about 45F on the mercury, but fell steadily throughout the day. Only once or twice during the month did it flirt with the 30 degree mark. 15 to 22F was the norm with a few single digit days thrown in. Minus 5 to minus 10 overnight lows were not uncommon. Sitting in my RAV on the bridge overpasses, I could tell that putting on the waders would be fool-hearty.

Finally, the first week of February stacked a few 30 to 35 degree days back to back. While the shelf ice is still 4 to 6 inches thick near shore, the leading edges retreated to the point where a courageous soul could be tempted into a challenging game of “shelf-ice roulette.”

Super Bowl Sunday found me in two of my favorite winter locations, bottom bouncing nymphs and yarn flies. The first spot gave up a skinny 13-inch brown trout. The second hole rewarded me with a chunky 25-inch hen steelie. That’s not much action for 2 ½ hours of fishing, but it sure beats sitting at home watching all the Super Bowl pregame “hype”.

Crossdresser HexAs is my habit, I like to change up flies often during the winter. Interestingly enough, all three of my 2011 fish (the two in February and the one steelhead on January 1), all ate Bear’s Crossdresser Hex. Hmmmmm. Maybe I ought to post that recipe to the Fly Box.