Monday, January 12, 2026

Stream Fish in Winter? In a MinneSNOWta winter??

(Apologies for no recent posts. I have a "part-time" retirement job that seems to keep morphing into full-time, despite my best efforts to the contrary. When I have the time to hit the water, the weather and other commitments scheme against me, and when everything else should be good, I don't have the time. I'm trying to make that change this year.)

Three of my favorite podcasts, "Dead Drift Outdoors" on YouTube, and "The Backcountry Fly Fishing Podcast" and "Casting Across" have all recently posted on the topic of winter stream fishing. I haven't done that in quite a few years, but I am going to try one of these weekends soon. I am doing my research, and will include equipment lists, safety considerations, and general suggestions about where to go in the snow in a future post and Old Ranger's Backcountry Podcast on YouTube.

Ross at "Backcountry FFP" is based in Colorado, and his casts (pardon the pun) reflect that. He hits the water at altitudes over a mile regularly, and therefore his approach is different than that of Matthew at "Casting Across," who is a pastor in Vermont, the "Green Mountain State." Both of them are different than mine here in the Lake Superior watershed. Jon at Dead Drift Outdoors lives in the Southern Tier of Upstate New York, where I grew up and, with the addition of the western Adirondack Mountains, where I learned to fish. Those streams, some of which I'm fairly sure I recognize from back in the day, are very similar to the ones I fish today in Northwest Wisconsin and Minnesota's Arrowhead region.

Earlier this week, Jon posted a video of fishing a stream in the Southern Tier, his first this year, and I really enjoyed it. I am (hopefully) re-posting it here, and I would encourage you to check it out, like it, and subscribe to his YouTube channel. His podcasts are top-notch, filmed beautifully, and highly informative as well as entertaining. I am also posting links to "The Backcountry Fly Fishing Podcast" and "Casting Across." You should check those out as well. You'll be glad you did.


Dead Drift Outdoors:



The Backcountry Fly Fishing Podcast

Casting Across