The early trout season opens January 3, 2026; and now is time to start preparing for your first winter outing to help make it successful. You’ll need to know the following things if you haven’t fished in the winter time before. First: it’s cold-35 degrees is warm weather-and there’s snow cover on the ground-we stand out like a sore thumb.
To address the cold, show up with the proper insulating layers-merino wool long underwear tops and bottoms, expedition weight merino wool socks, stretch fleece pants, ¼ zip fleece top, windproof primaloft jacket, stocking cap, fingerless gloves w/ foldover mitten, and black nitrile gloves to keep hands dry. For fishing tackle, pre rig your rod/reel/line/leader system at home with warm fingers, pre rig 2 fly dropper rigs ahead of time so you only need to tie 1 knot when changing flies, and spray your rod guides w/ PAM to minimize guides icing up.
You can do the following to avoid standing out in the snow. First, stay as far back as possible from the spot you plan to fish, and avoid fishing from high banks. A white snow camo jacket-think hunting stores/snow goose hunting apparel can also be helpful.
Unlike spring, the time of day and temperatures that fish best are different. The winter time fishing window is generally between 9:30 AM and 2:30 PM. This is because the water needs a chance to warm a bit, and generally by 2:30 the afternoon snow melt occurs which drops the stream temperature and shuts the fish off. Cold air temperatures make fishing challenging that includes rod guides icing up, everything happening more slowly due to cold fingers/limited dexterity, and lastly a shock to the fish when it’s taken out of 40 degree water and exposed to cold air. Concerning fish exposure to cold air, if the air temperature is below 28 degrees avoid fishing due to damage that can occur to fish’s gills when exposed to cold air.
Fly selection for winter is very simple because there isn’t as much food in the streambed this time of year. We’re primarily fishing subsurface with nymphs and streamers. Popular patterns include scuds w/ an orange or pink hotspot, zebra midges, mini leeches, and thin mints. Use fluorocarbon tippet for subsurface in 3X-5X sizes depending on fly size. There’s some occasional dry fly fishing opportunities with midge and little black stonefly hatches on warmer sunny days. Good patterns include gray or black parachute midge, skittering zelon midge in size 20-22, and little black stone flies size 14-16. Use 5X-6X nylon tippet on your dry flies.