High Mountain Springs Can Offer Great Winter Fishing

There is a little known spring that comes in to a creek around where I live. It consists, mostly, of slow moving beaver ponds and two foot wide channels that connect them. It does not get wider than that in spots, but you get my point, it's tight. These kinds of spots can be very rewarding and frustrating to fish. Although these brown trout can be aggressive and are not picky, they might quite possibly be some of the most spooky trout I have cast to. That is part of the attraction for me. You crawl to within a long cast to the trout's lie. Surrounded by trees and willows you have to hit a toilette bowl sized spot with beaver chewed sticks coming out in all directions. It's a beautiful thing when you make the right cast and actually hit the target without a dimple in the water. All it takes is one loop of line wrapping around one of the many sticks around your feet and the cast is blown. The all to familiar sign of wakes erupting a dead calm pool, is all that you are left with. Today I threw small streamers and the pattern I chose did not seam to matter much, although the color brown did seem to work the best. For winter fishing it was a blast. I can't tell you how many fish would wake out of shallow water or the bank ice to chase a fly. There were even times were 2 or 3 fish would be going after it at once, wakes coming from all directions in the shallow pond and as they draw down on the fly, one fish spooks another leaving you holding your limp line. Finding open spring water in your local creeks can be a surprisingly rewarding winter task. It won't hurt your casting and approach either.