Hot fishing in cold weather

BRANSON, Mo. – The first surprise came as a fish struck seconds into my first cast. Dumb-founded, I made a belated “why bother” hook-set so hard that fly line cleared the water and draped my body like tinsel on a Christmas tree.

I did better when another trout took my next offering. I eventually unhooked the foot-long rainbow and held it under water several seconds before letting it go.

A bigger surprise came when I lifted that wet hand into last week’s cold air and steady wind. “Bone-chilling” would be an accurate description and my fingers were half-speed at best when another trout took a fly a few casts later.

Carolyn Parker, my friend and hostess that afternoon, wasn’t surprised by anything I’d experienced.

“The fishing’s been good, as it is most winters,” she said. “It should stay good maybe into May. In a lot of ways, this is about as good as it gets on this river.”

Winter wonderstream

Parker is co-owner of Rivers Run Outfitters, a fly shop and guiding operation near Taneycomo, with her husband, Stan. The Parkers have studied the fishery intensely since moving to the Ozarks from eastern Kansas about 15 years ago.

“By this time of the year the dissolved oxygen levels are back to being high again,” she said, referring to oxygenated waters coming from beneath the huge reservoir. “That helps the fish a lot, plus you don’t have the crowds that are here, all over the water, like several months ago. The fish are still here and they’re still feeding and you can also get pretty consistent (water) conditions.”

While the water conditions the past couple of weeks have been consistently Arctic-like, Parker said she’s fished many past February days in shirt sleeves or a light jacket in years past.

Last week my wife, Kathy, and I had a cabin in the Big Cedar Lodge complex, in hills south of Branson. Frigid or not, I was going fly fishing with Parker.

As we bundled up, she assured me that while the conditions above the water were abnormal, what was going on under the water would be the same as ever.

“We’ll catch fish,” she said as we left the shop, “and possibly quite a few fish.”

Parker was surprised by the number of anglers at the river, though I only counted a half-dozen in about a mile. Four, she said, were down from the Great Lakes region and tickled to have found some flowing water when there was so much ice at home.

Three of the four caught trout within the five minutes it took us to ready our gear. Parker and I headed upriver, to one of her favorite stretches. At her suggestion, I began fishing with a pair of nymphs. No bigger than a pea, they were to imitate the minuscule sub-surface creatures on which trout predominantly feed.

On the river for fun instead of business, Parker picked up a rod and had a fish on her first cast,too.

Rather than nymphs, she was casting a streamer. That’s a bigger fly designed to replicate several of the species of small fish or crawdads that live in the river. About two inches long, it doesn’t draw as many strikes as nymphs but usually attracts bigger fish.

We traded rods frequently, but mostly for comfort.

Actually the conditions were more of a challenge than the fish. At least when fishing with nymphs, one hand or the other could be thrust into a pocket or tucked into waders for 20 or so seconds every cast as the current carried the tiny flies on a natural drift. Both hands stayed exposed while using streamers, one continually pulling in the frigid, wet fly line to give the stream a darting action.

I stopped fishing several times to wrap my hands around steaming cups of soup and coffee Parker had brought and I commented the superb flavor of both. We both laughed when she said it was probably more the setting on the trout stream, and need for warmth, than the brands of the liquids.

After a few hours of fishing, I estimated we combined to catch at least 30 trout . The average was better than a foot. Our best, caught by Parker, was 17 inches. She assured me better fish were swimming nearby. A little later one of her customers proved her right.

Quantity and quality

Mostly a bunch of die-hard locals, Parker knew most of the few anglers on the river. Norbert Belz, a soft-spoken and friendly shop regular, had the hot hand on the river that afternoon, both for quantity and quality.

On one walk to a thermos I wasn’t surprised to see him fighting a fish. As I poured the cup of coffee I was surprised to see he was still battling the same trout. Parker answered his soft call for help and brought her oversized net.

When I reached Belz, a swirl at the end of his line showed the scarlet swipe three-fingers thick and as long as my forearm of a big rainbow trout. Knowing she’d probably just get one chance with the net before the fish would probably break the line or tear out the hook, Parker timed her move perfectly.

We took many photos of the exceptionally thick 23-inch male rainbow. Eventually, Belz held it under water a few seconds and the big fish strongly swam from sight. He never complained about fingers I knew must have felt frozen.

“That’s another thing about winter fishing, is it’s so much easier on the fish,” Parker said. “It’s so much easier to release them in great shape.”

Now I’m not surprised she so enjoys her winter fishing so much.

This story was originally published March 1, 2015 at 8:14 AM with the headline "Hot fishing in cold weather."