There’s winter and then there’s winter. After the arctic beginning we had to 2018 recent temps have seemed mild by comparison.  I’ve decided that as long as the water is  liquid, running and you can’t stand on it…that’s not too bad.  On Sunday we were making quite a few “ice-edge releases” because we had 10′ of solid ice between us and where we were hooking fish.  Yesterday however things were considerably better.  We had temps in the 40’s and overnight rain had the stream flowing strong but clear.  The fish seemed to appreciate the change because we had awesome action all morning long.  As you can see from the pictures above, it is possible to be chilly and happy at the same time.  You will notice though that we employed a “I’m not sticking my hands in the stream” photo technique!