Winter Trout Fly Fishing It is winter time now. One step on the frozen porch steps first thing in the morning removes any doubt of that fact. Winter time brings on many thoughts, holidays, dark afternoons, football on TV and for me some of the best trout fly fishing there is. That's right trout fishing, winter steelhead fly fishing has been around a long time, and gets more popular every season. But the truth of the matter is trout fly fishing can be excellent, the crowds are down to non-existent, the scenery and wildlife are plentiful, and it makes those long days of early spring with non-stop rain and overflowing rivers more tolerable.

A Different Kind Of Catch Catching Them At 50ft below the surface of the ocean, the blood in the water draws ocean predators to our position. A nurse shark's synapses are stimulated as blood drifts into its nostrils while it swims behind us with lethal nonchalance. A silvery barracuda sails over my head, jaws working feverishly. Worse, I come face to face with a green Moray Eel known to attack human divers - its 7ft long body ribboning through the water, its mouth, lined with fangs as it stops in front of me, eyeing me with a hungry gaze. It wants the fish I have in my hand. Twenty minutes earlier we had assembled and donned our scuba gear under an electric, neon pink sky as squalls darkened the deck of the boat and made the water choppy. Wordlessly, my dive buddy falls backwards from the boat, hand clasped to regulator and mask, as I quickly follow.

Trout Fishing Ahh, yes. Trico time, the time of year accomplished fly fisherman throw down their rods in disgust. Take up the golf clubs, repaint the house, design the ninth wonder of the world. Anything but test their patience and skill against the dreaded Tricos and the super selective trout that feed on them. Called the ‘White Winged Devils' in the gentlest of circles, these tiny micro hatches can infuriate the most skilled of the fly fishing angler. Huge lunker trout hunker down in feeding lanes slurping up every Trico spinner except the pattern you are offering to them. And after several hundred tedious passes, after you have lightened your tippet, after you have changed your position after you have done everything but jump in the water and grab the fish with your bare hands, you give up in disgust, and wait for something larger and more tangible to come off the water. A nice Salmonfly hatch would be the ticket. But, alas there are ways to improve your catch rate during these prolific hatches.

Deep Jigging
I have caught a ton of big fish deep jigging. A big jig, a strip of bonito belly as a bait and a good drift can make for some....

FISHING TOURNAMENT TRAIL (Kansas City Star)
The Fishing Tournament Trail will be published each Tuesday of the fishing season. To report results, call (816) 234-4319 on Monday morning and leave name, location and date of the tournament and name, .