Delayed Harvest Troutfest

Nathaniel, Asher and I had a big time catching trout in the North Carolina mountains last week. With photos being our main objective, we went for easy pickings, hitting Delayed Harvest waters on the Nantahala and Tuckasegee rivers and Big Snowbird Creek. All had gotten an initial spring stocking, so the trout were plenty plentiful, with a few large fish in the mix.

We experienced weather ranging from ice in line guides and snow falling to sunshine and high 50s, and generally enjoyed just exploring the areas. Adding intrigue, the three stream stretches we fished are all quite different from one another in character.

North Carolina's DH waters are open only to catch-and-release fishing with single-hook artificial lures from Oct. 1 until the first Saturday in June. For folks who enjoy fishing with artificial lures and don't mind putting them back, waters managed this way in several Southern states offer great trout-catching opportunities. Fly-fishermen make the most use of these waters, but spin-fishing is completely fine, as long as each lure in your possession is equipped with only a single hook, and no soft plastics have any scent or flavor.

My boys and I do our trout fishing mostly with hard baits, especially Rebel Crawfish and Tracdown Minnows, sometimes mixing in some small jigs or spoons when the fish want something different. Rebel Crawfish were easily our top producers last week. The most productive specific Rebel Craw model was a Deep Teeny Wee Craw, although Asher got on the big fish really well with a Middle Wee Crawfish one day.

One thing worth noting about DH waters. Because they are so productive, they are also extremely popular. If you decide to visit, do so on a weekday, if possible, and arrive early. By midday during the spring, accessible spots tend to fill up and the fish get much more wary.

Spring Springing

Flowers pictured on a fishing blog mean exactly what you might guess: I haven't been fishing enough. The blooms that are getting ever more plentiful and varied in my yard also remind me that spring is coming on quickly and that fish of various kinds should be moving shallower and feeding readily.

I do plan to fish more soon. Nathaniel, Asher and I are headed for higher hills later this week to chase some North Carolina trout in Delayed Harvest waters. The DH streams, which are open only to catch-and-release fishing with single-hook artificial lures this time of year, always get a fresh stocking the first week of March, so there should be plenty of trout to try to fool. We'll likely hit a few different streams while we're in the area.

We also plan to do a little bit of stream fishing in the riverine upper ends of mountain lakes, just to see if anything is running the rivers. We probably won't spend a huge amount of time doing that, but maybe we can find a f couple of walleyes or white bass up the rivers. Of course, if some fish do cooperate, we might just stick around to more.

I'll let you know what we find!

Rain & More Rain

Rain is falling steadily outside my North Georgia home, as it did most of yesterday and is forecast to do all of today and part of tomorrow. That's not bad. While enough remain has fallen that most streams are apt blown out and many lakes and ponds are muddied up, the big surge will settle fairly quickly, and the rain will serve as a nice recharge for our streams and the lakes.

I'm supposed to do some photo work on Lake Lanier on Tuesday. As of today, the forecast looks good. Only a 20 percent chance of scattered rain. A couple of days ago it said 60 percent, though, so hopefully it stays at 20 or gets better. The lake's far upper end might get dirty from all this rain, but Lanier is so deep and rocky that the lower main body normally stays in good shape. Therefore, I'm guessing we won't have a problem finding good water.

Later in the week, I hope to do some small-water fishing farther south in Georgia. This rain has been fairly warm, and the week's temperatures look warmer, so small-water bass fishing should be waking up. I'm not sure just how plans will shape up, but I have several ideas that offer good promise.

This year has started slowly, fishing wise. I've fished a handful of days in Arkansas and North Carolina and have caught some trout, but I've yet to make a cast in Georgia or to catch any warm-water fish. Hopefully by this time next week the report will be much different. One way or the other, I'll be on my way to Oklahoma next week around this time, and fishing prospects look good on that trip. I suppose that's getting a little ahead of the story, though!

Fishing Licenses

Recent mail delivered the hard copy of a North Carolina fishing license and trout permit that I'd bought online a week or so earlier, and as I slipped it into my wallet I realized that I have half a dozen current annual licenses for different states. I get to fish in a lot of different places, so I buy a lot of licenses, but I think that's more active annual licenses than I am normally carrying.

The annual vs. short-term question is one I face frequently, and I often find myself comparing costs, looking at expiration dates and pondering possible fishing plans. In some states it's easy. I pretty much always get an annual for Georgia, Arkansas and Alabama because I know I'll be back often enough, and I get them at least semi-often in several other states. It's a bit of a guessing game, though, and I often guess wrong. Either I opt for annual and fail to make it back before it expires, or I buy a short-term, and then end up returning and needing another, and another, and another...Trout and saltwater licenses add another level of complications.

I don't mind fishing licenses. Much of the money goes where it should, and I'm very thankful for all that state fisheries departments do to provide access and create the best possible fishing opportunities. I'm admittedly no crazy about the structure in some states, and sometimes picking the best license seems like more of a game than it should be. For the moment, there are half a dozen states where I can fish without giving the license any thought!

New Fishing Car Appreciated

I've been completely happy with my Subaru Outback since I got it in June and have traveled enough to give its ride and useful space a solid test. I was extra happy to have it on Wednesday, though, because of the unexpected 6 inches or so of snow that I wrote about yesterday.

I don't know whether I needed the all-wheel-drive. My friend Tim Mead didn't have to put his Silverado into 4-wheel-drive. However, that was the very sort of circumstance that prompted me to buy the Subaru, despite having been very happy with the Ford Fiesta that was my fishing car before this one and took me all over the country. Between the twisty mountain highways and the rough Forest Service road up Big Wilson Creek, both covered in quite a bit of snow in places, I wouldn't have attempted the trip in the Fiesta, but the Outback handled everything nicely.

In truth, I was just glad to get my fishing car dirty and get it off the highway - even before the snow arrived. Now it looks like it has been much farther north, with an ugly coating of salt and mud. Better clean it off so I can go get it dirty again!

Surprise Snow

Snowy bank of Big Wilson Creek in Western North Carolina. Photo by Tim Mead

I guess I can't say the snow was a total surprise. The forecast I'd looked at had said there was a 40 percent chance of light snow Tuesday during the overnight hours, with a possible accumulation of an inch. However, when I peeked out he hotel window on Wednesday morning, there was already much more than an inch on the ground, and the snow was still falling steadily.

I didn't mind. Not at all, actually. Tim Mead and I had already enjoyed one sunny day of fishing the Delayed Harvest section of Big Wilson Creek in Western North Carolina, and the snow would provide opportunities for a completely different set of photos from the same section of stream.

Travel was super slow on the snow-covered winding roads, the fish bit better on the sunny day, and we cut our fishing time fairly short for a couple of snow- and cold-related reasons (including a clumsy slip on my part that left me with soaked gloves and one sleeve wet to the elbow in 28-degree air). Nevertheless, I got to spend an absolutely delightful day with a very good friend exploring a stream that looked very different than Southern Appalachian streams normally look.

The careful drive to the river on the snowy highways and slow travel through Wilson Creek Gorge, which is downstream of where we fished, only added to the adventure. We stopped several times in the gorge to take photos of the river as it crashed between snow-covered boulders and poured over icy waterfalls. Even the walk to the river carried an added sense of an adventure because of the snow.

We actually only landed one trout (a nice rainbow) on the snowy day, but fish alone don't make or break fishing days. Work-wise, the day was a great success because of the unique snowy photos I was able to get. Personally, it was simply fun.

Nantahala Play Day

It had been far too long since Nathanial, Asher and I had spent a full day together trout fishing, so our recent day of work and play on North Carolina's Nantahala River was extra fun. We left home dark and early, got to the river just about the time daylight was finding the gorge, and spent the day hopping from spot to spot to catch fish and take photos. Photos were the work objective, so we each kept a camera handy all the time.

We caught a bunch, and all three of us got a slam of rainbows, browns and brook trout during the day. Beyond the catching, it was just a fun day spent together by the river.

The catch-and-release season on North Carolina's delayed-harvest streams just opened a couple of weeks ago. What that means is that these stream sections are well stocked and the trout haven't gotten too educated. Fooling fish isn't an amazing accomplishment, but it's a barrel of fun. We like the Nantahala a lot because it's a beautiful stretch of river with a lot of variety in types of water, and it's just big enough that at any given pull-off, it is practical for two or three people to spread out a bit or even to fish side-by-side. It's also nice because a road parallels the river, so you can fish an area for a while and then move to another pull-off.

We're far from alone in liking the Nantahala, and it can get kind of crowded. However, the many pull-offs and the configuration of the river make it pretty easy to find a spot where you aren't fishing in a crowd. Arriving early also helps. We had the river to ourselves when we arrived, and we got to hit a few spots first. Fishing on a weekday helps a little. Maybe the best thing that can happen for the sake of less company is to have horrible weather (not the case last week), and in truth, wet, nasty days sometimes offer the best fishing action.

2 Favorite Catches from 2015

I tried to pick a single favorite fish from 2015, but the best I could do was to narrow it to two. Each had unique appeals, and I can't  quite decide. Both were big trout that I caught and released, but that's pretty much where the similarities end.

The first, a brown trout that grabbed a Rebel Tracdown Ghost Minnow, came early this summer from North Carolina's Linville River. I was on my way to a writer trip farther north in the North Carolina mountains and had time for a quick detour. I actually wanted to explore Linville Gorge, but the river was high from recent rain, and I decided that hiking down into the gorge alone would neither be prudent nor productive. Instead I settled to fish around a single river bend in a section of easily accessible hatchery supported waters on Blue Ridge Parkway land. I expected there might be a few stocker-sized rainbows around (which there were). What I didn't expect was to feel a crushing strike and then see a thick band of yellow at the end of my line. I was alone, with no net, so you can guess that I was a bit tense until I managed to land the fish. Next trick, of course, was trying to get a photo. I took a few quick close-ups to make sure I got something and then set up a single self-timer photo with the camera on a rock before I let the fish go, hung my lure back on my rod and continued on my journey.

The other, which is pictured at the top, occurred later in the summer, while Asher and I were on our Rebel Trout Trek out West. I think it was a Snake River cutthroat, although it might have been a rainbow. I wish I could say for sure. Whatever it was, it was a good one, and it hit a Rebel Wee Crawfish while Asher and I were wade fishing in the Delaney Butte Lakes in Colorado. Big trout are no surprise in those waters, but summer doldrums had hit when we were there, and it was the only bite we had in probably six hours of fishing. That catch had some landing drama of it's own. We had a net, but the first time Asher tried to net it, he realized it didn't fit very well. "The net isn't big enough!" he yelled as the fish flopped out and surged again. When I got it close again, he had to carefully scoop it tail-first so it went into the hoop tail-to-nose instead of being across it. He did a fine job getting it in the net and getting photos before we let it go.

Welcome Delay

I'm no more fond of delays than the next guy, but when you're talking about delaying the harvest of trout for half a year, I'm all in favor. The catch-and-release season on North Carolina's 30-plus delayed harvest trout streams opens this morning. In Georgia and South Carolina, the delayed-harvest opportunity begins next month. These waters, which are ever expanding in number, provide an outstanding cool-season opportunity for anglers who don't mind releasing their fish and fishing only single-hook artificial lures.

I'm a big fan of the delayed harvest concept because it makes great use of resources. Most waters that are managed this way offer outstanding cool-season trout habitat, but conditions deteriorate dramatically when the whether warms during the summer. Most cannot hold high densities of trout through the warm months, so it is only because of the harvest season that fisheries crews can stock these waters so heavily for the catch-and-release season. Two distinctive user groups of trout fishermen are very well served on waters that mostly received only early-season stockings or very light summer stockings prior to the development of this program.

Before you hop in the in the car too quickly, do check the stocking schedule, which is posted on the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission's website. Initial stockings are staggered over the first week of October, and it would be sort of sad to visit a delayed harvest stream for the first time any given year, with naturally high expectations, the day before they stock the fish!

I haven't made any specific plans yet, but you can trust that I'll have the car pointed toward North Carolina soon!

Real Web Research

Having noticed that I'd let a broad-shouldered trout get the best of me and break off my dropper fly, Chetola Lodge guide Dustin Coffey started walking downstream to where he had me positioned in the stream. Halfway to me he stopped and knelt for a couple of minutes, peering through brush along the steep creek bank as if he'd dropped something.

He smiled when he stood back up, sporting the look of a man who had found what he'd been looking for, but I hadn't seen him grab anything. Able to read the question on my face, he answered without me having to ask. "Spider web. I was looking to see what's on today's menu." 

When Coffey pulled out his fly box, he didn't do that typical pondering gaze across his flies. He was after something specific, based on what he'd seen in the spider web, and he found it quickly. I won't tell you what fly he grabbed. (He said it was a secret!) And in truth, what fly he tied on my dropper that day isn't nearly as important as the fly best matches the bugs you find in any webs beside a stream you are fishing.

I can tell you the fly he grabbed with such confidence worked really well!

-More about fishing in the North Carolina High Country

Something About a Hook

If you target trout in a place where the fish sometimes gain some measure of maturity, I'm guessing you can relate. There's just something about a hooked jaw that makes a trout more of a trophy, and the more accentuated the hook, the more special a fish becomes. In fact, while extremes certainly can change things, I'd say that a noteworthy hook and striking colors tend to trump size in making a particular fish memorable. You might mention a fish's size first, but you continue to refer back to and think about a trout's crazy maw and brilliant colors.

I suppose it's a lot like a banded duck, which is no more difficult to call and shoot than one that isn't adorned with leg jewelry. Those distinguishing features just tend to make certain fish and game animals extra special.

I caught a bunch of big trout fly fishing the Refuge section of Boone Fork in the NC High Country region last week, but the brown pictured above was certainly among my favorites, and I don't think I need to state the reason why!

Golden Opportunity

Despite MANY big trout in the Boone Fork run where I enjoyed the opportunity to fish yesterday, including a few browns and rainbows that I'm sure were more then 30 inches long and with double-digit weights, the golden trout grabbed my focus. Not that the other trout weren't intriguing or seriously fun to catch. They were. I'd just never caught a golden trout before, and with those golden backs, they stood out in the runs and made it painfully obvious that I was drifting flies over or through several of them. I'd also heard that they were the toughest customers of the four trout species that swim in the Refuge, and that only fueled my desire to catch one.

Don't get me wrong. If no golden trout had cooperated, I'd have still had a blast catching big trout on a fly rod, especially considering the fact that quite a few fish blasted 'hoppers or beetles on the surface. Still, they are so visible that every time one charged a fly and did not commit, that built the desire to catch one even more. I also had a few that actually hit and that I failed to hook.

When I finally set the hook and saw a big mustard colored flash beneath the surface I was delighted and hopeful to successfully land the fish, and when Chetola Resort guide Dustin Coffey slid the net under my first golden trout I was delighted. That first of two golden trout I ended up catching was far from my biggest fish that day. In fact, a rainbow I caught a little later was the biggest stream trout of any kind that I've ever caught.

Still, the golden was my favorite, and I'm thankful for the opportunity to catch couple of them and to add No. 21 to this year's fish species list.

Plans on the Fly

Today's High Country fishing plan had been to float the South Fork of the New River and flyfish for smallmouth bass. Then came the rain. Yesterday afternoon's rain showers turned into thunderstorms that kept regenerating and continued into the morning, and the normally clear South Fork turned into chocolate milk. Obviously that the river less pretty for floating. More importantly to our plans, it tends to put the fish in shutdown mode until the water begins clearing at least a little bit.

The plan was for us to go to the RiverGirl Fishing Co. outpost in Todd, North Carolina, which is right on the South Fork. Instead Kelly McCoy, RiverGirl founder and namesake, came to our group, and took us trout fishing farther up in the New River watershed. Even well upstream, the water was higher and more stained than what McCoy had hoped to find. That meant different flies and a bit of added challenge in wading conditions.

She also hadn't planned to try to guide three people on a single smallish stream. She adapted exceptionally well, though, taking everything as it came, and taking time with each of us to make sure we were doing all that was within her control to catch some fish.

I caught a few fish, a brown and a couple of rainbows and brown, and one of the rainbows definitely was a wild fish. (That one flopped out of my hand before I could get a photo, of course.) As important as catching fish, I learned a lot that I can apply for future stories, and I really appreciate McCoy adapting to accommodate us.

Surprise Brown

I'll admit it. I mostly stopped at the Linville River to look at the falls, with thought that I might hike down into the gorge to fish a bit just below the falls. The river was pushy from recent afternoon storms, so I wasn't convinced I could get around enough or that it would be worth hiking down into the gorge.

 

So I checked out the falls from a couple of vantages and was on my way toward the next stop when I noticed a little spot with easy access to hatchery supported waters and thought I might be able to fool a stocker rainbow or two. Sure enough in the second spot I cast to from the bank I had one on for a moment. That convinced me to grab my waders and hit it a little harder.

 

I basically fished through one big bend for a half hour or so and had missed three rainbows and was coming up on a spot where I planned to get out when something hit my Rebel Tracdown Minnow hard. After a couple of minutes I got a glimpse, and several tense minutes later I managed to land a beautiful brown trout. It was just me there so pictures are limited to a few bad close ups and a self-timer shot, but I'm thankful to have gotten those.

 

After taking a few photos, I measured the trout against my rod, let it go in good condition and stepped out of the stream to continue in my travels.

 

My kind if side trip!

Fishing Week Celebration

National Boating & Fishing Week is going on right now. It began with the weekend and continues through next weekend. With that I mind, I'm headed back to the North Carolina mountains tomorrow for a few days of fishing.

OK, maybe that's not my main reason, but it sounds like as good an excuse as any.

Whatever the reason, I'm looking forward to exploring the North Carolina High Country region and fishing the streams that head up on Grandfather Mountain. We'll mostly fish for trout on this trip, but Tuesday's plan is a float trip down the upper New River for smallmouth bass. Looking at the agenda, it looks like each day's fishing trip will differ from the others quite a bit in character. The common denominator is that we'll be fly fishing.

My agenda for the media trip that I'm attending begins mid-afternoon tomorrow, but I believe I'm going to blast out dark and early and do a little exploration along the way.

Hopping Rocks, Finding Bugs, Dodging Storms & Catching Trout

Catching fish is a primary objective on any fishing trip, but when it's a trout trip, for me at least, the day can be as much about where the trout live as the fish themselves. Trout fishing provides a handy excuse to explore a creek or river gorge and enjoy all those little things like climbing giant rocks and turning over little ones to see what is living beneath them.

Asher and I just returned from a couple of days of North Carolina stream play that I suspect offer a fair foreshadowing of the Rebel Trout Trek, the big trip that we will take together that summer.  In two days, Asher and I fished in five different streams, each quite different from the rest in character. We probably spent more time driving or walking than fishing, and we made a couple of detours to explore waterfalls and other stops along the way. Some of the fishing was highly productive. Some was fruitless, in large part because of a giant and untimely thunderstorm/hailstorm that turned normally clear streams into chocolate milk.

Between casts, we gazed up bluffs and searched out bugs on banks and logs, and unfortunately noticed far too many worm cups, flip flops and drink cans that had been abandoned streamside or discarded in a creek. Between streams, we rode through rural valleys and small Appalachian towns and got a better feel for the area. We also rode through that previously mentioned storm and saw hail pile up on the sides of the road like accumulating snow. Having made it through the storm without incident, I can be glad for it because it added to the adventure and to our memories from those couple of days.

This week's trout trip also resembled my expectations for the big trip that's ahead in the sense that we basically went dark to dark and while we certainly were having a big time exploring the creek, we also were highly intentional about learning and about taking a lot of photos. Our top priorities throughout the #RebelTroutTrek will be to learn about the waters we are exploring and to document our findings thought photo, videos and blog posts.

I'll keep up with the trip on this page, but the main places to track the fishing and the coolest stuff we find will be on the Rebel Lures Facebook page and on Rebellures.com.

Split Shift Pond Play

Asher and I ended up fishing a split shift on the pond yesterday. We originally only planned to fish a couple of hours because of a mid-afternoon plan unrelated to fishing; however, the bite was so good that we couldn't resist slipping back out there after we got home from the other activity to fish the final couple of hours of daylight. Our rods were already rigged with what had been working, and the cameras and other gear were likewise handy, so running back over there was quick and simple.

Fortunately, the fish were right were we had left them and acting the same way. In fact, we caught more in the evening than during the first shift. Together, by our best tally, we caught 30 fish, which is more than  Asher and I had ever caught together at the pond. Most were bluegills, with good quality overall, and we also managed to catch a handful of bass.

Asher did almost all of his damage with a Rebel Bumble Bug, which is a lure he only discovered yesterday and that now seems to be one of his favorites. He would let it rest initially after a cast and twitch it a time or two, giving fish the chance to attack it on the surface, and then reel it back slowly so it wobbled barely under the surface. Most hit it on the retrieve.

I caught almost all my fish on a tandem rig, fishing a Rebel Micro Pop-R with a Prince Nymph on a dropper about a foot and a half beneath it. I caught some on each lure, but most took the nymph. I believe, the popper draws them in and then they see that easy looking meal dangling in front of them and simply cannot resist it. Often right after one slaps at the popper but doesn't quite take it, the popper darts under like a cork. Whether it's the same fish that does both in most cases or whether the strike attracts more fish, I'm not sure. I just know it works really well.

I also know that Asher and I will be back to the ponds with the same rods rigged the same way soon. However, our next stop might be in a trout stream. North Carolina's delayed harvest streams will open to the harvest in a little less than a week, and we might just have to give a couple of them one final shot during the catch-and-release period. The #RebelTroutTrek is only seven weeks away, so we need to be well practiced with trout fishing and travel!

Exploring New Water

Yesterday's biggest trout, a pretty Wilson Creek rainbow. Photo by Asher Samsel

Exploration often involves more than wading up a new creek. It typically begins with web research and a big of map study and often involves things like making wrong turns and learning that a road that looks like the rest of the roads on the map turns to dirt, climbs a pretty substantial mountain and gets scarily soft and slick for Ford Fiesta travel after a morning rain. It also involves discovering spots where a road beside a river truly provides access and where the road is actually 50 feet above the stream, the banks are wooded and the river is deep enough float your hat from bank to bank.

Asher and I did a little of all that yesterday as we explored the delayed harvest section of Wilson Creek in Western North Carolina. We also learned more about the river's character and how it varies through that stretch, where it can be accessed and how the fish use the river (or at least how they used it given yesterday's conditions). I learned a lot that will aid my approach next time And there definitely will be a next time. While the river is a pretty good trek from here for a day trip (nearly four hours, each way), I was sufficiently impressed with what I saw that I'll definitely return.

While learning and discovering, we also managed to catch some brook trout and rainbows, including one dandy rainbow that nabbed a Rebel Tracdown Ghost Minnow at the head of a long run. I had 2-pound-test, and the net was in the car, well up a steep bank, so landing the fish was almost as intense as navigating the slippery parts of the road.

As anticipated, it definitely was good practice for Asher and me for this summer's Rebel Trout Trek. Asher kept a camera with him and did a good job with it, and he stayed enthusiastic all day, despite the long drive at each end. I'm looking forward to discovering all sorts of things together this summer, and understand that some of those discoveries will begin with wrong turns.

#RebelTroutTrek

Trout Trek Practice

Asher and I getting rigged on a trout outing a couple of months ago.

I suppose you could call Monday a practice day.

Asher and I have trout on the agenda, and the planned destination is a North Carolina stream that is 3 1/2 or 4 hours away. Assuming we do it in a day-trip, leaving stupidly dark and early, fishing all day and driving home late, it'll be pretty good practice for this summer's Rebel Trout Trek. Maybe I'll even stop on the way home, find some wifi somewhere, and post a quick blog and/or a few photos. Trout Trek days won't all be that long, but to cover 8,000 miles and get in plenty of fishing, they will tend to be full. And we'll do 24 of them in a row.

Being a bit of an endurance test is only a single similarity between Monday and our planned summer trip, though. The nature of the trip is also very similar, with Asher and I fishing together and wading public waters to see what we can find at a destination that will be new to both of us. Like with most places we'll explore this summer, I've done a little homework and anticipate a good fishing opportunity. I really don't know, though.

Also similar to the summer plan, the main work objective is to gather photos, video clips and story material, but an equally important objective is to spend time together playing in the creek.

#RebelTroutTrek

Chill Challenge Embraced

December fishing on the Nantahala River. Photo by Asher Samsel.

Duluth Trading Company proposed a Chill Challenge -- a test of one of their Flannel Shirt Jacs against the elements during my winter fishing excursion. Two rounds into testing, the Shirt Jac has moved to the top of my favorites list for when I need a seriously warm layer that fits comfortably. Beyond casual coat wear on cold mornings around town, which it also works well for, I've used it for a few days of trout fishing in the North Carolina mountains and for a recent ice trip to northern Minnesota.

The trout outing brought snow and sleet on two different days, and pretty cold brisk lows. My hands reminded me of the cold when I fished without gloves, but I was how impressed by how warm my body remained. Same story in Minnesota, where lows hit close to zero and the highest high in a few days was somewhere around freezing. I admittedly wore an insulated ice suit for kneeling on the ice and fishing in fresh falling snow, but the Shirt Jac provided the most important body-warming layer.

The DTC Flannel Shirt Jac seems somewhat heavy when you simply pick it up because it combines 8-ounce flannel as an outside layer and 200 gram fleece as an inside layer. The cut must be perfect, though, because it is amazingly comfortable to wear despite the weight in hand.

Of course, the Chill Challenge has only just begun for me. Existing winter plans include trout in Missouri and more ice-fishing in Minnesota and most likely will include several days in local trout streams and on nearby ponds, plus some other ice fishing, possibly in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and/or South Dakota.

Lots of unknowns about fishing plans for the rest of the winter. What I do know is that I'll remain plenty warm!