Dave’s Strategy Session - December 2025
By Dave Shuldes
shuldesd@gmail.com
Less Means More with Winter Fishing
As fall winds down in Southwest Idaho, diminishing daylight means most everything else related to fly fishing begins to shrink as well (except the size of the fish). Tinier insects, smaller flies at the vice, and lower/slower flows in our local tailwaters (the river water below dams). Summer and Fall Caddis in size 14-16 give way to Blue-Winged Olives (BWO) size18-20 and Midges size 20 and smaller.
These are very positive developments for an experienced fly fisher! First of all, go ahead and sleep in. There is no rush to get to the river at dawn. Let the day and the river warm up. Lower flows mean improved access to wading and to fish. The fish are in more predictable locations. The experienced, larger fish will be present and often hungry.
I like to keep my patterns simple in the winter. Several years ago, I was browsing in a local fly shop, and a visiting tier introduced me to the “Old Guy Fly.” There are just 2 materials and a hook. The tapered body is made by wrapping UTC 70 thread very slim and flat at the abdomen. A small bundle of white snowshoe hare’s foot provides both a wing and some substance to the thorax as the narrow UTC thread wraps it in place. I like to use brown-olive thread for BWO’s (#18-20) and black thread for midges (#20-22). Some tiers will add a very tiny tag of midge flash as a tail. This fly is an apparently a local creation as I can’t find any on-line references to tying the pattern.
I also want all stages of the entomology life cycle covered - adults (dries), emergers and nymphs. My favorite for BWO’s is the Barr Emerger, another simple pattern that uses a combination of wood duck and Flashabou as a wing case & legs. There are great YouTube videos available to follow.
For nymphs, I have really found improved success with adding body segmentation. My favorite technique for the abdomen is a Houdini Weave with narrow diameter UTC wire in silver and black. These flies, generally size 18-20, have a 2mm tungsten bead head, a tiny amount of black peacock ice dub for the thorax, with sparse white Antron and midge flash combined for a wing. The Houdini Weave technique can be found on-line.
No matter which stage of the life cycle you are fishing, the location on the river I will look for are shelves below riffles where the water deepens and slows. I typically only use dry flies if surface feeding is seen. If using a dry pattern, cast quartering upstream and use a drag-free drift. I like to use powdered floatant like Frog’s Fanny on the white rabbit wing, which will provide a nice visual reference as it drifts through the run.
When searching blindly for fish, 90% of my time is spent with tight line nymphing. The Houdini weave nymph is typically my point fly (the fly at the far end of the line) and perhaps a Barr Emerger one size larger than the dropper (the fly closer to the rod). There is approximately 10-12 inches between the 2 flies as they tumble near the bottom through the rocks on the relatively tight line set-up.
I have caught nearly all of my largest rainbows on the Boise River in town and on the South Fork of the Boise when fishing sometime between November and March over the years. Barring a major snowstorm, the lower flows and improved access to the river and fish make for an exciting opportunity. Less is more!
