You can’t outrun the cold air now. It’s here and it’s here for a while, unless you live in Florida or other warm climate areas of our globe. But if you live in the Midwest, on the East or out West in America; the cold is here. But there’s still time for fishing until the waters freeze over and then you’ve got ice fishing if you live in Minnesota or other Northern destinations.

The challenge with cold weather fishing is not only how to keep your hands warm but also how to catch fish. While many give up on fishing, there’s still plenty of fish to be caught, you just got to go deep and slow down. While many fisherman will get out their small jigs in order to catch those chunky bluegills and crappie feeding down deep; I go a different route. I get out my fly rod for some exciting and fun fishing on the surface.

With the cold weather, the weed beds at the lake near my home have started to retreat and die. During the summer, it was impossible not to get tangled up in the weeds on the surface unless you used a weedless top water or a spinning bait. But now that the weeds are below the water, I get out my fly rod and tie a #12 dry fly onto my tippet and drag it across the top of the weed beds to get some rise out of the fish hiding out down there.

Because there’s still a chance of hooking into the weeds, tie your flies onto a tippet of at least 4x or 5lb test. Because the weeds are weaker, you can usually pull your flies loose with a stronger tippet rather than loosing them. For panfish like bluegill and crappie, I usually go with a #12 size dry fly like a Elk Hair Caddis or a Royal Coachman. Just toss it out over the weed beds, twitch it every few seconds and let it sit. In no time at all, you’ll either be hooking into a bunch of fish or you’ll get cold. If you aren’t getting any action move on to different parts of the weed bed. Sooner or later, you’ll find the sweet spots.

If you’re after some bigger fish like small mouth, large mouth or white bass; try a larger dry fly or a streamer like a Wooly Bugger or a Clouser Minnow. If you’re seeking fish down deeper and don’t want to resort to a jig; try a sinking tip fly line with a streamer or wet fly. Again, the fish are slower and don’t want to chase the bait during the cold months, so slowly retrieve your fly. Nothing beats battling chunky pan fish on a 4 or 5wt fly rod. Happy fishing, warm thoughts and tight lines.

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For other great Hardy reels and other fly fishing reels, rods and gear click on the picture of the Hardy Zane Ti reel above.

But what if that next fish is the big one? What if this whole time you’ve been fishing in the wrong spot and if you go down the shore a little bit rather than heading home, you snag that big one? What if you change your lure and go smaller? Will that entice the “just one more fish” to bite?

You may never know unless you go by the rule of “just one more fish”. Maybe you should switch from your spinning rod to a fly rod. Maybe a clouser minnow on a fly rod will get that big small mouth to bite. You know he’s down there. You anticipate him biting everytime you reel in your line but he doesn’t bite. You don’t get frustrated, you just get more curious as to what that fish is thinking. Sure, your supper is getting cold and your wife is getting perturbed but there’s a big fish down there and you’ve got to catch him. Fret not, as fishermen we’re all in the same boat and we understand our love which others may call a disease or addiction. It’s the joy of fishing. It’s the excitement of the hunt for the big one and it’s just one more fish.

Some of my favorite rods to fish with are my ultra-light rod and my 5 weightt fly rod. With the ultra-light rod, a little Rooster Tail usually gets some action. When you want to catch fish, go after the little ones. Run a rooster tail along the banks and the cover where the “bait fish” congregate. You might not catch a trophy but you’ll catch plenty of pan fish. Just get yourself a decent ultra-light rod and reel with about 4 pound line on it and plenty of Rooster Tails, grub spinners and other ultra-light lures and go have some fun.

And if you love top water action, nothing beats a fly rod and a dry fly. It doesn’t much matter what type of dry fly as long as it’s fuzzy and floats, pan fish will go after it unlike the picky trout. A decent 4 or 5 weight fly rod with floating line will work but if you want to have some fun grab yourself a 2 or 3-weight fly rod and reel. With a small weight fly rod, those tiny pan fishes will feel like big bass. Wooly buggers, streamers and other wet flies also work really well for catching pan fish.

The ultimate reward of ultra-light fishing is when you do hook into the occasional small mouth or other large fish. So if you’re feeling out of luck on the water or you just want that smell of fish on your hands, grab your ultra-light rod and reel or your fly rod and have some fun. Because in the end, fishing is all about having fun.