# 89 Summer is almost over but fishing isn’t

  Summer is almost over but fishing isn’t as I sit here putting my thoughts on paper I fondly look back about all the wonderful times I have shared during this summer season,

SUMMER GAZE

  Let’s talk about what is next for the season of fly fishing. The next few minutes will depend greatly on your geographical local, but here on the Front Range of the Rockies seasons are currently in the process of changing seasons, so your fishing needs to change with it.

  Summers coming to an end does not mean you have to stop fishing; you just need to adjust how you fish. If you are new to this sport this might be the first time you have attempted Winter fishing, so let’s talk about it.

  With the coming of Fall it means that wet wading is no longer an option, and you need to start thinking about staying warm, and changing the way you fish. When the weather changes you focus more on staying warm and dry, and the good news there is an entire industry to support you, things like “smart wool” and “Gore-Tex” are now your new best friends. Having worked as a Ski Patroller I have learned the hard way to stay warm in a harsh environment, and the key is “base layers”. Having a good base layer, then a second layer over, and lastly a shell to keep weather out is going to be your new focus, but I’ll talk more about tis later, today I’m going to focus on two critical components; feet and hands.

COLD WEATHER HAPPY HANDS

  Let’s look at the cold hand for a minute; when you are fishing and your hands get cold it can really shut your good time down. Losing function of your fingers due to cold can suck, you are not able to tie on a fly, trouble grabbing your line, and just plain miserable. Good news there are a few tricks I’ll share that seem to help to combat this, and first is latex gloves? Yep, I said it, Latex, (or Nitrile) gloves as a base layer on your hands will help keep the water off your skin, which will help keep fingers warm, and then use a thin wool glove over the Latex. This combination of gloves really does help keep you warm, my only complaint is that I sweat under the latex, so my hand is wet, but it’s not that cold. Next time your fishing plans include a cold winter day, put a few pairs of Latex gloves in your pack, and let me know your thoughts.

  Next up on the list is going to be your feet. Your feet getting cold is downright miserable, you lose feeling, then you lose coordination, then they start to ache then they go numb, and you begin to shiver, and stumble because you can’t feel your feet, this will turn a good day into a bad one real fast.

  With all, I found a solution completely by accident. Few years back my Wife and I were at Costco for weekly trip and on the shelf was a pair of heated socks? I studied the pack age for a few minutes, and then Wife said “put them in the cart, and they can be from Santa” the socks went in the cart, and a few weeks later, Santa brought me heated socks. They sat on my shelf for a few weeks, till one day I was planning a trip to fish the Blue river. If you have ever fished the Blue in January, you know how cold this water is, so I charged up the battery packs, and took the socks for a test drive.

COSTCO SOCKS ARE BACK THIS FALL

  I will be honest; this has changed the way I fish in the Winter; the socks have 4 settings and are Bluetooth connected to my phone. I started the trip with the socks on 25% power, and after about 2 hours my feet will start feeling cold, so I crank them up to 75%, and for the next 2 hours my toes are toasty. After about 4 hours of use the batteries start to die, so this is telling me it’s time to start thinking about wrapping it up for the day.

  I’m confident that those who are reading this may have other solutions for the cold, and they work for you, but I’m sharing this to be able to help others who are new to this reduce the learning curve for winter fishing.

Let me know what your winter hack is when it comes to hands and feet. Have fun out there and stay warm.

Cheers

Gary, AKA LaMachine...