Caldwell’s Chronicles – Winter Trout Fishing

I try to get out each week during the winter months for at least a couple of hours . Heavy rain and roaring gales put me off but otherwise I try to fish right through the year. Like many other activities, a short break may be a good thing but I cannot endure the thought of not fishing at all from October through to March.

Repetitive Strain

One of the reasons for the often discussed repetitive strain injury syndrome is a long lay-off, for example an enforced or voluntary close season followed by an enthusiastic and vigorous return to fishing. Muscles, tendons, ligaments and bones, if put under stress and injured, require time to recover. Failure to allow sufficient recovery time results in a prolonged injury that may take ages to clear up.

A fly fisherman who stops fishing in October, for example, and returns to the bank in March may initiate the injury by fishing for too long and too vigorously on the first day out. He notices an ache in his arm or around the elbow but ignores it and goes out again the next day or the day after. Suddenly the arm is painful and he is experiencing muscle, tendon and bone problems in his arm and cannot pick up his rod. Rest from the activity that causes the pain is the first rule of treatment and then I would strongly advise the fisherman to get professional medical help.

I’ve just had a little taste of forearm and elbow pain but mine was caused by a change of rods and it happened in just one three hour fly fishing session. My first preference for winter trout fishing is a 9 foot 6inch rod with an eight weight intermediate line. However, last week I tried a new rod and different tactics because I chanced to out on a mild day with little wind and frequent but short sunny periods.

I was using an Airflo M-TEC 10′ 0″ six weight rod with a floating line and this rod has a rather slim narrow grip, a ‘cigar’ handle, compared with my usual winter rods. I would add that the M-TEC has a really good action and gets plenty of line out on the water without too much effort even into a moderate wind. What I did notice after a couple of hours was that I was gripping a little too hard, perhaps compensating for the narrow handle, and I was beginning to register a vague discomfort in the wrist and on either side of the elbow.

The fault was not in the rod but in my grip on an unusually slimmer handle. I changed over to the heavier, bigger rod for the rest of the session and the ache had disappeared by the next day. It is well documented in sports injury journals that changes in the size and diameter of handles, for example, in tennis rackets can be a factor in these types of injuries. So, if you get a new rod with a very different handle to whatever you are used to, break the rod in gently and don’t fish on with an aching arm.

A buzzer under a ‘bung’

To get back to the point, I had decided to fish a buzzer on a fifteen foot leader suspended under a very buoyant Muddler pattern that I hoped would position my buzzer somewhere near to the shelving dam wall. I was hoping that cruising fish would spot my buzzer and take the fly. In the first half hour I had three inquisitive swirls around the floating fly but nothing on the buzzer.

I reeled in and took off the buzzer and the Muddler and replaced them with one dry fly, a black spidery pattern on a size fourteen hook that was made up for me years ago by Burnley’s self-styled “Prince of the Poachers”, Dave Reynolds. I added a little floatant to the fly and cast into the area where the curious trout had been interested in the Muddler.

There was a gentle breeze producing a small wave and I cast out about three rods length and let the fly settle on the surface. Then the fly disappeared quite abruptly; no splash, no swirl. The fly went out of sight and, on the instant, the line tightened.

The fish resisted stubbornly under the surface for four or five minutes then came crashing through the water into view. Two or three leaps followed and then it came to the net – a fit and healthy rainbow. It was one of last summer’s stockfish that had matured and added bulk and now weighed in at a muscular three pounds.

I was pleasantly surprised to catch such a good specimen on a dry fly in mid-January and I nearly landed another soon afterwards but this one slipped the hook before I could get the net under him. Back home, I looked through old notebooks and diaries and I think this was the first on a dry fly in January but, I hope, not the last. If the weather conditions are favourable next week I am going to start the session with a dry fly. On most days, a careful observation of the water will show evidence a one or two fish patrolling on or near the surface and this may be a better option than trawling the depths and just hoping to make a contact.