Frosty Nights and Sunny Days

Winter is just behind of the corner. How you know? Frosty nights with northern lights, our reindeer coming back home and sunny chilly days with great dryfly fishing. This all is happening just before snow falls and season is ending totally. Fishing season in my region is short comparing many others but now we have one of the highlights.

Frosty nights, temperature can drop close to -10 celsius allready and small ponds are freezing over. First sign of coming winter, well not the first actually. First is when trees are changing colours and leafs goes bright yellow, purple, red and so on. Then frosty nights and heavy winds hopefully to drop leafs fast. Then autumn fishing season is starting. 

Fishing is not so good at the same time when leafs are falling, rivers are full of leafs and fishes are closing they mouth. But after that, Oh man, game is on and fishes are on. Trouts are starting to spawning so you need to watch where and how you wade but that you should be doing all the time. Often fisherman walk over the fishes just because the better spot is on the other side.

But graylings: they are hungry and getting ready to winter time. Frosty nights are on your side with sunny day afterwards. In the morning when sun is starting to warm, it is normally around 10 am, there is some hatching, maybe small light colour mayfly, gnats or something. But sun is doing it’s magic. This is your time before afternoon when wind is rising because sun is warming air. When wind is coming, you need to find calm place to continue with dryfly or just change for nymhps. Graylings are normally on this time in calmer waters so you won’t hook trouts so easily. Trouts can do they sexythings in peace.

Also fish get they food from insect which are dropping from trees and bushes. Sun is warming insect but they are still freezing and not so good with their movements. So if you find deeper spot under trees, just place your fly and see what happens. Sometimes you need to hit on leafs to imitate real stuff. That is what it makes it fun, not easy fishing. You need to be accurate but not distance casting now. Rivers where you can fish in this time are small ones.  About 10-15 meters wide and like I told, fishes are on same side where you are, not on the other side.

If dries are not working just go with nymphs or small streamers. You can be a real man and use pink colours flies. Graylings seems to love pink and purple in autumn time. Well I have notice that they love pink all the year round, which is funny. We don’t have anything similar in our waters but let’s not tell that to graylings. Just remember to avoid orange beads, trouts loves those and they have they bedroom time.

Probably there was nothing new to you but I do love this autumn fishing, having break by the river, making some coffee in open fire and most of all having great fishing. Normally by the way just you and maybe your friends, in this time there is no other fisherman on the river.

Have a nice weekend and go fishing if you can

Cheers, Mika from Finland

Ps. Couple of years ago we went to check one of this small rivers and it’s sidestream, which is about 6 meters wide. It is about 1 meter deep and calm water. We caught about 20 graylings which were bigger than 40 cm during two hours fishing. When moving to fish faster stream we caught some trouts so we had to abandon that part. Nowadays it is one of my secret rivers.

Pss. Forecast is promising cold night against Sunday and sunny day. Maybe it holds and I go enjoy last fishing day of the season. Time will show.