Unknown to most, March is a secret season on the Eagle river here in the Vail Valley corridor. And this year is especially fun given the amount of snow and continued cold weather. a few faithful clients of ours were up to the challenge so we spent a half day winter fly fishing on some open water up Valley. Properly dressed with weather in the high 30s, the boys and I made many drifts in the slow to medium speed water which proved successful on a cool midday excursion. The fish ate well with sun on the water. Midges of various sizes were present in the air on the water surface and crawling across the snow. small black zebra images were the ticket as well as tiny soft hackle pheasant tails, most likely being eaten as active baetids getting ready to emerge. Funny enough, leading off with a pink hot spot jig got eaten vigorously in some of the soft seams in the faster water too. The bite was sporadic but a “power hour” window provided the bulk of our fish in the net. This took place between 12pm and 1pm. Choose your time and fishing locations carefully and be safe while wading the Eagle River in winter!
