The Ice Edge Pattern

Given yesterday's low of 9, a current temperature of 18 and more of the same forecast for the rest of this week, I can't help thinking back on a crazy cold day of fishing in the South Carolina Upcountry and wondering if the "ice edge" pattern has developed on any local streams.

It was a little less than the three years ago on the same morning that the Bassmaster Classic launch was delayed on Lake Hartwell because boats were frozen to trailers, and I was fishing the delayed harvest section of Chauga River with Bruce Stanton, who was visiting from Arkansas for some Classic-related business.

We both saw more ice than we'd ever before seen on a trout stream in the Deep South on that day, and that ice actually turned out to be the key to the day's pattern. Over time, Bruce and I figured out that the trout were sitting under the edge of the ice, right on the bottom, and feeding in the adjacent current. Once we solved the pattern, we did surprisingly well that day by casting Watsit Grubs and Fuzz-E Grubs upstream and close to the ice and drifting or hopping them along the bottom, parallel to the edge of the ice. The water was clear enough that we saw several trout come out from under the ice to grab out lures.

One added challenge that day was keeping ice off our lures. I've often dealt with ice in rod eyes and even on reels, but the air was cold enough that lures were icing up between casts, especially if we moved a bit between casts. The ice hampered the appearance and action of our lures, but even more importantly, it sometimes covered hooking points! I'm almost certain that both of us missed a couple of fish that day because of iced over hooking points.

I am admittedly curious what kinds of ice lines have formed on local streams this week and whether fish are using them, but I might not be quite curious enough to go find out first hand. Next week I supposed to be warmer!

Ice Edge Trout in the South Carolina Upcountry

"I've never seen that before."

I'm not sure how many times Bruce Stanton and I said that or something like it today, always related to the cold and its effects. It started with crunching through a wide rim of ice just to get to open water. The snowy banks and icy river reminded me of pictures I see of fishermen targeting brown trout and steelhead in Pennsylvania and New York and were not what I'd expect to ever see in South Carolina.

We also saw trout rising, something I've not seen with the water and air as cold as it was today. I guess they were eating miniscule midges or something in the surface film because we never saw any bugs come off the water.

The next "never seen that" was major icing on lures. I'd seen plenty of ice in rod eyes (had to clear that about every four casts much of today) and on reel spools and bails on other trips, but never on lures that stayed submerged much of the time. Our lures got so icy so quickly that we couldn't fish hard baits as effectively as normal, and even with jigs we had to clear the ice off the hooks every now and then. I'm pretty sure a couple of fish I missed today were because of a hook that was iced over and lacking a sufficient point.

On the positive side, we ended up utilizing a pattern that I certainly had never seen. The fish were holding right along the edges of the ice in the big pools, seemingly using the ice as cover and ambushing baits in the modest adjacent current. Once we figured that out, we were able to aim casts upstream and close to the ice line and work Lindy Watsit Jigs and Fuzz-E Grubs close to the bottom and close to that edge and found good success by doing just that.

I suppose it's not surprising that we had the river to ourselves, considering a starting temperature of 12. Fishing was good, though, and it was a fun day on the river. And in truth the extremity of the conditions for this part of the country and all the ice only added to the adventure.

For more on one of my favorite areas to play, visit Upcountry South Carolina.

Thursday Tips - Use Extremes to Your Advantage

I won't claim that Nathaniel and I mastered the fish at the Nantahala yesterday. We only landed three trout. However, I lost two others almost at the rod tip, had a few trout hooked briefly and had a handful of other hits. Given the long icicles hanging from the bluffs, the rocking river and the relatively low number of trout we saw in a few "indicator" pools that provide a decent gauge of what remains from fall stockings, I feel like that was decent success. The key to drawing strikes, I think, was taking advantage of the conditions we were served.

 

Very high water puts a lot of fish in survival mode, and it makes much of the river inaccessible. However, it also positions fish in certain protected areas and puts those fish in ambush mode. Virtually all our fish came from moderately small protected eddies behind boulders and in broader areas of moderated flow and most hit on the first or second cast to a given area.

 

Cold water was the other major controlling factor. Although the day wasn't too bitter, starting in the high 20s and rising into the low 40s, we're in the latter half of January now, and the last several days' lows have been very low in the North Carolina mountains. Stream-side rocks and rapids were ice coated and icicles dangled from the bluffs. When the water gets as cold as it will be all winter, slow and low presentations become critical. I caught one fish on a Rebel Tracdown minnow, which I was swimming slowly and steadily in an eddy behind a big rock. Most other hits were on a Road Runner Pro Marabou or a Lindy Fuzz-E Grub being dead drifted or twitched very slowly.

 

Any time you get extreme conditions, whether in the form or flood waters, ridiculously low flows, heavy stain, extreme hot or cold or whatever else, consider the limitations the conditions create for the fish and then use that understanding to your advantage. You'll catch more fish.