Freezing air liquid water fishing

[askel]

Hello guys and gals,

I'm planning a trip to lake Baikal this March. And I know that young Angara river never freezes. And there are tons of greylings feeding on freshwater shrimps.

My question is, what would you choose in terms of line and leader (sinking vs floating) in conditions where air temperature is freezing cold and fish feeds at five to ten feet depth?

My current opinion is OPST 200 gr + various sink tips for #5 9'0 Sage XP.

Thank you
Alex

[Bernd Ziesche]

Hi Alex,
I recommend to use a thin fly line (lowest possible line weight), huge rings and maybe you want to make sure to have some silicon fat available as well. Otherwise you may fight the ice in the rings not the fish.
Regards
Bernd

[askel]

Hi Bernd,

Thanks for your suggestions. They made me think about another problem I didn't even consider before. The larger rings are on saltwater rods only. May be it makes sense to use #8 rod.

I'm still unsure how to make a fly to go that deep considering the current is so strong that this part of the river never freezes. May be it was a stupid idea to begin with.

[Paul Arden]

Hi Alex,

Take this with a pinch of salt because I’ve been pretty good at avoiding winters for most of my life. At 5ft I reckon you can French Nymph it. Will help prevent some of the problems with the line getting iced up on the rings. And FNing can allow you to get deep fast.

10ft fast current? Needs a HiD sinking line. A few years back I fished with Sasha on the Gacka very early in the season. He had some line made by Barstool that had a hiD tip, intermediate rear taper and a floating running line. Hard to beat that configuration for these conditions. Unfortunately I don’t know the name of the line and it’s a few years back so it might not be available anyway. But a line something like that would be perfect!!!

Cheers, Paul

[askel]

Hi Paul,

I couldn't even find any reference to a line you described. Google would mostly give me something like https://relationshipsnyc.com/shop/spagh ... otti-1970s when I search for "barstool fly line"

Well, looks like the ice will be the biggest problem. Anyway, I'll take a rod and try to do my best. If it doesn't work no worries.

Thanks,
Alex

[Paul Arden]

Ah Barstool, barstool, long story involving God.

[Lasse Karlsson]

This feels so so so so weird doing

https://www.airflofishing.com/buy.cfm/f ... o%20/60239

Please shoot me!

Cheers
Lasse

[Paul Arden]

I believe it’s owned by a different company now. I still think their lines are overly heavy and don’t shoot but that’s another matter

[Lasse Karlsson]

I know they are owned by an American company now, Mayfly, but it still feels weird

Depends which lines, the wannabee shooting head ones shoot quite ok they are also thinner than some other lines claiming to be the thinnest of all

Cheers
Lasse

[Nick]

This stuff
https://loonoutdoors.com/products/stanl ... -off-paste
Works for keeping ice off your guides. Having a clean fly line is also important, otherwise it will stick to the frozen guides.

These days I just go skiing when it’s that cold though!