Winter Fly Fishing on the Smith River in Bassett, Va

Hope everyone had a great holiday season, and time well spent with friends and family throughout Christmas and into the New Year. I am back again with another blog installment highlighting the Smith River and its Winter fishing seasonality.  I have alluded to in prior articles a general overview of fishing throughout the four seasons here on the Smith, we will call this one “Winter”, but speak on the varying temperatures it has produced. Christmas Eve brought us a high of 72 and great fishing this year, followed by a cold trend of temperatures the following week. We are blessed and fortunate to have stability within our ecosystem and the production of viable fishing opportunities throughout, here we will outline and discuss the positives of Winter Fly Fishing on the Smith River.

We will start by highlighting the stability of flows and temperatures from Philpott Dam and the consistency it creates in holding patterns for our fish. Granted right now we are on lower flows receiving 73.6 cfs flowing out the sluice gates making our raft lines a little thinner but still viable and productive. Thus opening up prime wade opportunities at the moment. Regardless of the amount of water being positive or negative, what it does promote is the consistency of the flows and our fish not receiving sudden or drastic fluctuations between flow levels. Along with the consistency in the flow, we have a consistency in the temperatures associated with it as well; 46 degrees F out of the Dam and 45 degrees F in Bassett. These consistent factors of flow and temperature have produced trends in our fishery that we can identify specific holding lines through and spend more time fishing the positive water as I like to refer to it as. Another main component that gets spotlighted during the winter along with these holding lines is the Energy Economics of these fish. Winter time metabolism slows down therefore these fish will be looking to spend as little energy as possible in relation to the amount of food they can potentially receive and with that in mind, we can further identify positive water and how we’d like to fish it.

The relationship between these fish and their location within the run. Yes our fish like current and know food availability can be associated with that, however they do not want to spend their energy fighting the current in search of food, where as now into the winter they may push back off of the heads of the current and find themselves positioned further downstream towards the back of the run and potentially deeper in that pocket as well. Simply waiting for that opportunistic food availability in such a manner that it is better suited for them and sustainable to their energy excursion with the trade off of calories gained.

Calories gained and preserved throughout the winter season aids in a large portion of their survivability and growth the relationship between burning calories against the current or actively searching for food resources, in comparison to sitting off to the side waiting. Typically I see more feeding patterns aligned with the later, in which these fish will hold further back into a deeper, slower pool staged up to eat opportunistically. This opens up my favorite technique and approach for targeting these fish, the almighty streamer play! Streamers become a large tactic in our winter program solely based on the properties outlined above and the relationship of calories obtained and calories used. The opportunity for a fish to feed once, at a larger scale, and receive more calories per energy used rather than staged up eating pennies on the dollar with smaller macroinvertebrates. Our system will still possess macroinvertebrates and they will continue to be a food option for our fish but in the winter they are more dormant and non-active as compared to volume and activity we see from them into the spring summer and early fall seasons. Therefore without their larger presence it really promotes that streamer play even further, for both the fish and the angler. While the prospect for eating larger food resources may strengthen during this season, along would follow the size demographic represented. Like annotated in prior articles sometimes in the winter we see a trend in our numbers decrease with the fish activity but see the size demographics increase with larger fish on the prowl looking to regain calories lost during the spawning season and maintain that necessary calorie intake, and again achieving this feat in one large eat versus staged up and feeding 10’s to 100’s of smaller macroinvertebrates.

With those warmer days we have been blessed with throughout our winter season, those days can often promote an evening hatch and give anglers dry fly fishing opportunities throughout the winter months. Though it is often sporadic, it can be a productive method for catching fish keyed in on specific flies or feeding in specific water columns. The Smith is notorious within the region for its hatches and ability to catch fish via dry fly presentations, typically that is associated with our Spring/Summer Sulphur hatches but can extend into our Winter fishing programs as well.

Stockings strengthen that mid winter lull with the donation of fresh fish to our ecosystem 

In conjunction with those aspects of Winter Fly Fishing discussed above, we are midway through our Department of Wildlife Resources (DWR) Stocking Schedule. We recently received a fresh batch of stocked fish temporarily increasing our fish population, granted the survivability surpassing the rooster tails, power bait, and stringers is limited; we do see some extend and survive into further regions of our river and hold over into locations. These fish, though not maintaining the merit and status of our infamous wild brown populations, they are a great boost in the mix to have and aid in maintaining numbers throughout the winter season.

As always, I greatly appreciate all the support and look to share the experience floating down the Smith, several prime weekend dates are still available and can be found on our website or by giving us a call!

luckystripsflyco@gmail.com

276-732-0517

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