Get Frosty: 5 Tips for Catching More Early Winter Trout

November 9, 2025 By: Kubie Brown

The author with a fine winter brown, which fell for a nymph fished right on the bottom. Photos: Kubie Brown

See all the detail here on MIdCurrent:  5 Tips for Winter Fishing

Winter fly fishing requires a certain amount of masochism. You’ve got to take pleasure in the pain. From stingingly numb fingers to slipping and falling along icy banks, chasing trout in the early winter is often about testing yourself and finding out just how much you can endure. Yet the fact is, with the right preparation, the right spot, and the right flies, you can catch enough trout in the early winter to make a bit of suffering worth the effort.

Early winter trout are in a transition period. The fish’s body temperature and metabolism has begun to slow down in the icy water temperatures, causing them to move en masse to specific areas of the river where they can rest and feed with very little effort. While this means you often have to search around a bit to find fish, it also means that once you find the trout, you can find a lot of them. However, fishing early winter trout still takes a certain amount of endurance and technical know-how and there are few things you need to keep in mind to ensure those frosty days on the river worth the effort.