Winter Fishing At Roaring River State Park

[timsfly]

Fishing has been great, the water is low and clear now making for some really good winter dry fly fishing.

Caddis, Blue wing olives, midges and even a few ants and beetles are showing up on the warmer days.

Having this kind of warm winter really makes for some comfortable fishing, lots of the afternoons are

light jacket to shorts and tee shirt weather, fantastic for winter fishing.

San juan worms, are still working as well as ever, the lighter colored ones are doing better for me most

days.

Pheasant tail nymphs, gold ribbed hares ears, copper johns, sow bugs, scuds, brassies, zebra midges

just about any small gray to olive nymph is working well right now, size is important, most fish will hit

a #16 or smaller nymph quicker than they will the larger sizes, right now.

Woolybuggers are working everyday, olive, black, tan, white and dk. brown are all good colors right now.

We are catching a lot of big fish right now, on bigger streamers, now if you are going to fish the bigger flies

don't expect big numbers of trout, you'll catch bigger fish on the average most days.

Dry flies I'm fishing are #16's and smaller, use 7X tippet with the dries, I'm still using 4X most days, but

I'm sticking to the bigger flies, if you are using regular sized buggers and nymphs 8-16's I will use 6X tippet.

The upper part of the park is holding more and bigger fish, but if you are looking for less people go to the lower

sections of the park, fishing is good and #'s of people are way down compared to the upper end.

If you are going to use a spinning rod, you'll need 4lb or smaller line, glo-balls are good, jigs in 1/32 and smaller

are good right now, use same colors as the woolybuggers, small 1/16th (single hook spinners) or smaller in black, brown, chartruse

or olive have been good.

[Jack Jones]

Thanks for the report Tim. I've got tomorrow off and was going to head down there. Hopefully, the hook up will be as good as your report. I don't necessarily need size, just some old fashioned catching.

[timsfly]

Well the hatches weren't as heavy today, but still a good blue wing olive hatch about 2:00 and lots of midges.

I caught all mine today on the cream mega worms and small egg patterns.

[Fly Fishing Fantasma]

Thanks for the report tim. I'll be continuing to watch this page since I am planning a trip Feb 10th and 11th. This will be my first winter trip down there and I am looking forward to doing some hog hunting! My biggest trout so far is only about 3.25 so I am hoping to beat that this trip. I've been to your shop many times and just got signed up on this forum..man its great!

[Jack Jones]

I went out today and it was GRHE all the way. Wind was hell though. Had to time it in between gusts to get a cast off. Of course, with the wind came leaves on the water and I fouled up quite a bit. Still, the weather was warm enough and it just felt good to be out. I probably pulled in about 7-8 stockers in the three hours I was there.

[CEE]

The wind has been a big factor since last Saturday. Lots of leaves and tangles to contend with, especially yesterday! Good thing the fish down in the lower campground have been cooperating.

I usually started with #18-22 purple or black zebra midges first thing in the morning, and switched to #16--20 olive emergers ~10 am. ~12 I'd switch to #18-22 parachute or spinner BWOs.

Waterlogged dries or soft hackles that float just beneath the surface film, seemed to work better for me than high-floaters.