Favorite Winter Fishery?

[Envenomation09]

I have always struggled with most of winter fishing. I rarely catch fish and its often quite uncomfortable. I have found that smaller creeks fish well in the winter. What is your favorite winter fishery?
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[Joe_Dizzy]

Any tailwater fishery from a bottom-release reservoir. Discharge temps are fairly uniform year round and fish well... even through winter.

Learn to love midges. Wade shallow. Fish a short line.

Check out Pat Dorsey's book - Fly Fishing Tailwaters - it's a game changer.
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[ddmoogs]

The ogden usually treats me well.
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[night_flyguy]

Xcalak, Mexico is my new favorite place to fish in the winter. But since I still have to work for a living, I like to target whitefish on the Weber in the winter. Better success than chasing trout and usually surprised with a nice brown.
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[Envenomation09]

How and where do you like to fish for whitefish on the Weber? I've caught a few on the Provo using eggs.
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[UmanBYUfan]

Middle Provo is always good. Winter is nice because there is less pressure. Like others have said before, small nymphs are where it's at. Get those sunny days and you can have a small midge hatch. That's always a treat.
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[gstott]

Up here in Cache Valley I usually fish the Blacksmith Fork in the winter. There are plenty of whitefish to keep me busy if the trout are being difficult. I also like to head north to the Oneida Narrows. If you can get find concentration of fish you can have some fast action. Granted they're mostly 8-12" rainbows, but there are some bigger ones thrown in as well as the occasional brown, cutthroat or even smallmouth.
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[CarlF]

Bear River below Oneida is interesting. You can throw a small streamer and catch smallies hand over fist.

April two years ago I was very fortunate to be in a big pool during a caddis hatch....I probably pulled out six or seven small planters on consecutive casts up there.
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[Envenomation09]

Where and/or how do you like to fish the blacksmith fork? If it isn't too much to ask that is. Thanks for the info. The bear sounds like fun.
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[gstott]

The only bad thing about the smallie action is that during most of the warmer months, when they're more active, you have to deal with the high flows and tons of debris in the water. It makes it tough to get a cast back in without a salad on the other end of the line.

During the colder months you can really score big when you find concentrations of fish and figure out what they want. I've found spots not much bigger than a dinner table that I've pulled 20-30 out of. I've never caught giants out of there, but it can be fast and fun fishing. There are some better ones in there, but I haven't managed anything over 18".
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[gstott]

I usually go up a bit higher where it opens up more. It seems to fish better for me during the colder months where it can get some sun. If it's a warmer day I usually fish a dry/dropper rig with maybe a size 16 tungsten head dropper of some sort. I mostly fish my own pattern I made up, but most common nymphs do well like caddis larva, pheasant tails, prince nymphs, hare's ears etc. I fish this rig in the pocket water, but I'll switch over to an indicator rig for the longer, deeper runs. This is usually where I find concentrations of the whitefish. They're actually bigger than the trout in there, so I don't mind spending some time giving them some exercise []
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