The winter has evolved into one of my favorite times to fish in central New York. All of my favorite places to fish including the tributaries of the Finger Lakes, Lake Ontario and Erie Tributaries and the many beautiful inland trout streams each offer unique and rewarding scenery and fly fishing opportunities. There angler pressure is much less as when it is warm, when at times popular areas can be overwhelmed with hoards of fisherman. When I fish the winter, I usually start out swinging streamers or wet flies, before I move to dead drifting flies. I’ve had some really great experiences in the winter catching big browns, rainbows and steelhead on a swinging fly. Swinging flies is easily one of the most satisfying ways to catch any fish. Each fly fisherman’s journey progresses in its own way. Many will stick to fishing solely during the dry fly season and learning to match the hatch, some will fall in love with nymph fishing and its deep slow presentation and productive nature. My personal journey started fly fishing the tiny alder strewn tannic streams of the southern Adirondacks and the pristine crystal waters of the Tug Hill Plateau. During those early years catching a trout seemed like a dream come true. The trout, was very elusive and beautiful, and to hook one on a fly rod and bring the fish to hand was a special experience. My grandfather was the main influence on my early fly fishing and how he fly fished was exclusively swinging wet flies and drifting dry flies. I watched what he was doing and what flies he used and tried to mimic those techniques on other outings with my dad, who didn’t fly fish, as a result my early fly fishing involved swinging flies on a mono leader and floating line or dead drifting dry flies.
There are many ways present a swinging a fly. One simple set-up I use consists of a 10 or 11 foot 7 weight rod, an 8/9 weight floating weight forward line, a 9 foot tapered monofilament leader, a 3 foot tippet and a weighted or bead head fly. I always try to use a tippet of 8 pound maxima or greater which helps absorb the shock of an aggressive take and helps fight a big fish quickly. One presentation that has been effective, is to cast across or just slightly upstream keeping in mind the down stream spot you want the fly to swim the fly through. As the line drifts down stream put some subtle mends in the line allowing the fly to sink and keeping the fly line relatively straight(remove bows in the line). As the line moves downstream follow the line with the tip of the rod. When the line gets to about a 45 degree angle downstream of you, gently tighten and cease mending the line and let the fly swim across the stream. fish will often take the fly as it first starts to move across the current. Try to envision the fly under water while also watching the fly line so you can swim the fly through areas where you predict fish to be holding. When they take using this technique there will be no doubt its a fish.