Introduction to Winter Trout Fishing
Winter trout fishing is often avoided by many anglers. It's true that it can be very cold, and without proper preparation, it can become uncomfortable. However, despite their lethargy, trout feed all winter long, and there are still plenty of fish to catch during the colder months of the fly fishing season.
When fishing for winter trout, flies need to be small. Midges are often the only bug consistently hatching in the colder months, so flies should generally match a midge profile. That said, there are other flies, other then the mighty midge, that work well in winter, too. In this article, I will share my 12 favorite trout flies for winter fly fishing: why they work, what I like about them, and how and where to fish them.
Winter Trout Behavior and Habitat
Anglers should focus their attention on slower areas of the river. In colder months, the cold water is saturated with oxygen, and a trout's metabolism slows down. As a result, trout have less need to eat as frequently as they would on warmer days.
For anglers, this means you must present the fly with tactical precision to the fish. Most trout in the colder months are only willing to move an inch or two to take a fly. Additionally, because the water is highly oxygenated, trout can hold in slower areas and avoid faster, more turbulent water. For this reason, trout are often found in deep, slow pools, on slow flats, along slower banks, and positioned more shallowly in the water column and close to slow banks. Marginal-slow water can hold lots of winter trout.
Tips for Winter Fly Fishing
For winter trout fly fishing, downsizing your gear is essential. Small flies and slow, clear water often require you to use a smaller tippet diameter. For winter trout rigs, I prefer to fish with 5X fluorocarbon at most. Typically, I use 6X and occasionally even 7X tippet, depending on the water conditions and fish behavior.
A small indicator is also crucial. I recommend using a small yarn indicator for delicate presentations when nymphing. Yarn indicators are highly sensitive, making it easier to detect subtle strikes when fish aren’t aggressively attacking flies. They’re also ideal for a hinged leader configuration, which works well for shallow water sight nymphing on slower flats.
When nymphing, I always use two nymphs, regardless of the season. Two nymphs increase your chances of matching the hatch and mimic different stages of the hatch cycle that fish may be targeting, or two different forage item. Since winter flies are typically smaller, you’ll likely need to add weight to your nymph rig to get the flies deeper in the water column. Enough weight needs to be added to your leader to ensure that your nymphs skip along the bottom of the river bed. Bring a variety of split-shot sizes to adjust your setup based on the river’s depth and flow.
Despite the cold weather and low air temperatures, be prepared for midge hatches on both sunny days and cloudy days. I have experienced blanket midge hatches in both conditions, so make sure you are ready. These hatches often bring trout to the surface to feed, providing a great opportunity to fish dry flies. Make sure to stock up on a variety of both dry fly and nymph patterns to cover all scenarios.
Top 12 Best Trout Flies for January
Below are a few of my favorite fly patterns for the month of January—twelve patterns in total. When building a fly box for the winter fly fishing season, start with a solid foundation of patterns that are reliable winter trout flies. The three essential patterns I always include in my fly box are zebra midges, San Juan worms, and pheasant tails. These flies are effective year-round fly patterns and can catch fish in virtually any river in the United States.
Once you’ve stocked up on these versatile flies, focus on adding hatch-specific patterns tailored to particular fishing scenarios. With that in mind, here are 12 of my favorite fly patterns for fly fishing in January.
San Juan Worm
The San Juan Worm is an excellent fly for winter fly fishing because aquatic worms are present in rivers and streams year-round. This versatile pattern can be fished in any season. In the spring, most anglers use large-profile worms, which are ideal for fishing during spring runoff. Off-color water during this time calls for larger flies, making it easier for fish to spot the opportunity. However, in the winter months, tailwater fisheries are typically low and clear, requiring downsized flies to match the cold water conditions.
I prefer the flossy worm jig for several reasons. The flexi floss material mimics the profile of a small winter sized worm exceptionally well. When presented with a dead drift under an indicator, the flexi floss legs move naturally, enhancing realistic movement of the fly as it drifts along the bottom of the river. This heavily weighted San Juan Worm variation also works as an excellent point fly in a two-fly nymph rig. Its bead head adds weight to get the fly down quickly, while the thin profile allows it to sink efficiently through the water column.
Woolly Bugger
I don’t usually fish streamers much in the winter, but one of the best flies for covering multiple fishing scenarios is the classic Woolly Bugger. This versatile and effective fly is a staple for winter trout fishing, as it can mimic a variety of prey, including baitfish, crayfish, and leeches.
The Woolly Bugger can be stripped slowly to imitate the aforementioned forage items or swung gently through deep holes. Depending on the weather and the fish’s mood, presenting streamers in a slow and deliberate manner can be an effective tactic for catching winter trout.
My preferred method during the winter months is nymphing small, weighted woolly buggers under an indicator. Using a woolly bugger as the point fly in a double nymph rig helps get the flies deep into the water column while offering trout a larger meal option. When rigging it as my point fly, I add 20 to 24 inches of 6X fluorocarbon to the eye of the hook using an improved clinch knot. At the end of this additional tippet, I typically tie on a zebra midge pattern. Sometimes, trout will eat the larger woolly bugger out of curiosity, because it appears to be a substantial meal. Carry natural several different sizes and colors: black, olive, and brown are good choices.
Black Hare's Ear
Small black winter stoneflies can become a key part of the menu during the winter months. These stoneflies thrive in highly oxygenated water, with January being the prime time for their emergence. When midges make up the majority of the insects hatching, the larger, high-calorie stoneflies are hard for trout to resist. Your winter fly selection should include small stonefly patterns in different sizes, just in case you're lucky enough to encounter a hatch.
A small black hare’s ear, fished as your point fly in a two-fly nymph rig, is a great option. I typically prefer to fish heavier flies first. A larger black hare’s ear with a tungsten bead head is an excellent all-around stonefly imitation. The heavier weight of the larger fly eliminates the need for split shot. By reducing knots, split shot, and the surface area of your indicator, fly anglers can decrease drag on your flies, allowing for a better, drag-free drift.
Pat's Rubber Leg
I wouldn’t go anywhere without a Pat’s rubber leg. Stoneflies, even when they aren’t actively hatching, are present year-round and offer trout an easy meal, even if only opportunistically. Pat’s rubber legs are also fantastic flies for the summer months and have replaced the classic girdle bug as the go to stonefly pattern. Carrying a wide variety of sizes in this standby pattern is a wise decision.
I typically choose small black rubber legs in sizes 8-10, but sometimes I opt for brown or blond-colored variations. With the addition of permanent markers, you can alter the color of the fly, making it versatile and adaptable to different situations. I prefer using a rubber leg as my point fly in a two-fly nymph rig and attach the second fly by tying a piece of tippet to the eye of the hook rather than the bend. I believe that adding the tippet to the eye provides a better drift.
Perdigon
The perdigon has its origins in the competitive fly fishing world. With its no-frills, simple design and heavy tungsten bead head, it gets the fly deep and into the trout's strike zone. Make sure to have a variety of these flies in your fly box. Perdigons are one of the hottest nymphs around, and the main reason is simple—they work.
I love to sight fish for specific trout in shallow water. Walking slowly along banks in the winter, looking for trout in slower, shallower marginal areas, can be an extremely effective tactic. Sight fishing to these fish, up close and personal, can be just as exciting as dry fly fishing. I like to use a small parachute adams or a classic grizzly-hackled dry fly as my point fly and rig a perdigon in a dry-dropper setup. This setup allows me to cover both the surface and sub-surface levels of the river.
Jig Zika Midge Pattern
Winter is an excellent time to get tactical. Rigging flies for sight fishing to specific fish is effective because it allows you to avoid wasting time fishing vacant water. Euro nymphing with heavy tungsten flies enables you to place the nymphs directly into a trout's feeding lane.
The jig zika midge pattern is essentially a zebra midge tied on a jig hook with a heavy tungsten bead. You can fish this fly in a similar manner to the perdigon, as described above, but I prefer to use it as a tag fly in a Euro nymph rig. When presented deep and just a little faster than the current, it’s difficult for trout to resist.
You can see our article on euro nymphing and an in depth description of how we rig the leader HERE
Pheasant Tail
There are few flies in the fly box that compare in effectiveness to a pheasant tail, and there are many variations of this pattern. Each has its own unique attributes that work well in specific scenarios. By far, my all-around favorite version is the jiggy tungsten CDC flashback pheasant tail nymph.
Smaller varieties of the pheasant tail imitate B.W.O. mayflies. Blue-winged olives can appear out of nowhere, even in the dead of winter, so it’s important to be prepared to take advantage of the hatch. What I like most about the jiggy CDC pheasant tail is the CDC collar, the jig hook, and its ability to get down quickly. The CDC moves in a realistic manner, trapping air bubbles in the collar of the fly. This mimics a mayfly nymph starting the emergence process, trapping air bubbles between its nymphal shuck and skin. The jig hook orients the hook point up and away from potential snags.
I fish the Jiggy CDC Nymph in almost every subsurface configuration: two-fly deep nymph rig, dry-dropper, or tactical Euro nymphing.
Holo Midge
Sometimes, you need a little flash to get a response from fish. In these scenarios, the attractor qualities of a fly pattern can be an asset. The holo midge is my go-to fly when this is the case.
The holo midge features a holographic body and crystal flash wings. This pattern was developed on the San Juan River and is a variation of the famous disco midge. I’ve had great success fishing this pattern on the Blue River and Taylor River in Colorado. Regardless of where you fly fish, if midge larvae or midge pupae are on the menu, this fly is effective. It can be fished as a trailer fly in a two-fly nymph rig or even set up as a dry-dropper for slow, shallow water nymphing situations.
Purple Haze Midge
When I was guiding, if we were having a tough day, my go-to change in the fly rig I was fishing was to incorporate a fly pattern with purple in it. Seven out of ten times, the change would produce results. There are many theories as to why the color purple is so effective, but regardless of the reason, it seems to work.
The Purple Haze Midge incorporates silver wire, purple holographic tinsel, a dark thorax, and a black tungsten bead. This pattern blurs the line between a midge larva imitation and an attractor pattern. I think it covers the best of both worlds. Fish it deep along the bottom of the river through slower, deeper water as a dry-dropper, deep nymph, or on the tag end of a Euro-rigged leader.
The Mop Fly
As anglers, we often think of midges as very small creatures that are hard to see and can be difficult to fish. We sometimes forget that crane fly larvae are also midges. These oversized midges are large food sources found beneath many tailwater spillways.
The mop fly is a fish-catching machine, and it imitates a crane fly larva exceedingly well. The jig hook and tungsten bead configuration make the mop fly the perfect pattern to be the bottom fly in a Euro nymph or Czech nymph rig. The fly maintains contact with the bottom of the river throughout the entire drift, and the mop material moves back and forth, creating lifelike motion.
Pro Tip: If you fish heavily pressured tailwaters with large fish during the winter months, sight-fish the largest mop fly you can find to target specific fish. Other anglers are likely fishing only small flies, and an oversized mop fly imitating aquatic worms or a huge crane fly larva will attract and catch big fish!
Beaded Scud
Don’t forget to consider freshwater shrimp and scuds. In many tailwaters across the United States, scuds and other small crustaceans make up a valuable food source for trout. In many of these rivers, the largest fish in the system can be found just below dams, engorged and overly fattened on shrimp.
Scud patterns are critical to have in the fly box. The beaded scud imitates these grass-dwelling creatures very well, and the weighted bead head helps get the fly down. I like to fish scud patterns downstream of grass beds with current moving through them. Nymphing scud patterns along the bottom of the river or incorporating them into the tag end of a Euro-nymph rig will usually get the job done. Scuds can be found in many different colors, so it’s a good idea to have a few of each: cream, pink, orange, brown, gray, and olive are all effective colors.
WD40 Emerger
Flies that cover multiple hatches and have that "buggy" profile are characteristics of some of the best flies of all time. The WD40 is one of those classic patterns that covers both midge hatches and B.W.O. hatches with a single pattern. In addition, the unweighted version can be fished effectively in a variety of setups.
Fishing the WD40 deep under an indicator with a point fly and some added weight imitates a mayfly emerger or midge pupa. Dress the WD40 with floatant or Frog's Fanny, and it can be fished in the surface film of the river. Targeting rising trout with a thin-profile emerger pattern like the WD40 is an effective tactic when midges are actively hatching and fish are rising. Brown, black, and olive colors are all great choices for matching midge and mayfly species.
