Cold Weather Trout

You think you are a hardcore fisherman? Do you love solitude and unsurpassed natural beauty in the winter wilderness? Are you willing to fight some very uncomfortable elements to get in on some potentially large fish and great fishing action? Yes? Well then, winter fishing for big browns might be your bag. The Ozarks have some great winter fishing opportunities that have the potential for very large to state record and even world record size trout. This past November an angler from St. Louis landed the new state record brown trout, 37 inches long, 24.75 inches in girth, and 28.8 pounds, from Lake Taneycomo. He caught it while fishing for rainbows using bait just below Cooper Creek. It’s not just the size of the fish but what’s even more unbelievable about this monster is that it was caught on 4 pound test line!

In the Ozarks there are ample fishing opportunities state wide including, but not limited to, Lake Taneycomo, Current River, Meramec River, White River, Roaring River, and the Eleven Point River. With travel times ranging from 30 minutes to 3 hours, a southern Missouri angler can be sitting at just about as good a trout fishery as there is to be had in Missouri. Most of these fisheries have adequate amenities for camping for the whole family. Access is more limited on the Eleven Point and upper Current than many of the other locations and thus they provide for a more pure wilderness experience, especially in the winter when very few others are around. Sometimes you can go all day without seeing anyone and sometimes you might only see a lone trapper. If you are nice, a trapper can be a treasure trove of scouting information. He can most likely tell you where in the river the big ones are laying since he’s been on the river every day for several days up to a few weeks running his trap line.

Using ultra-light or fly-fishing fishing equipment certainly seems the norm when fishing in the state trout parks and rivers. Those methods are effective and they do provide for a great deal of enjoyment when utilized during the right times and lighting conditions. However, when strictly fishing for bigger fish there are other methods employing heavier tackle to which big browns and rainbows are susceptible. Heavy tackle methods provide more of a sense of confidence than when reeling in a monster brown trout with an ultra-light rig and 4 pound test. Spin fishing with medium-heavy weight rods and reels strung with 8 to 10 pound test line is a great way to hook into an aggressive brown in the early morning mist or late evening shadows.

Utilizing stick baits such as a suspending Rapala # 11 is a great way to get a big trout’s attention. A suspending stick bait allows the angler to crank the lure down to the depths where the fish are laying without continuously dragging the bottom and hanging on rocks as is experienced when using a sinking stick bait. When employing heavier line it is advisable to use a stick bait with very good action. While it is more due to a function of weight and drag coefficient between lure and line, some speculate the action of the lure will divert the fish’s attention from heavy line. The truth is that fish generally can’t see well enough to see your line; however, they can see the shadow cast by the line as it streams through the water. This is what scares trout. So, it is advisable to utilize heavier line on dim, overcast days or in the dim early morning and late evening light and switch to lighter line during the brighter part of the day. A word of advice on heavy fishing line – while the new braided superlines have superior tensile strength over that of monofilament due to the woven gel-spun polyethylene fibers, those same braided fibers also provide for water penetration and thus, ice crystal formation in below-freezing temperatures. So, while use of this type of line in moderately cold temperatures can be an enormous strength advantage, in extremely cold temperatures it is functionally prohibitive. One final environmental factor of which to be aware is that some fly-fishing purists will turn their noses up at you when you throw that big Rapala hog zinging across the river. As they reel in their 14 incher they will likewise turn up their nose as you reel in a 10 pound Brown with your heavy weight rod and reel. But there aren’t too many of us hillbilly anglers that subscribe to elitist fishing ideologies. Fish and let fish, I always say.

This winter I hope you take the time to introduce a child to the outdoors by taking them fishing. It is a beautiful time of the year in the woods and at the water. It is never too late to help a young person begin to understand the true cycle of life and our responsibility to participate in it as a part of the whole. Good luck, be safe, and get a big one.