Winter Road Trip Ideas

Although it’s technically fall, we’ve certainly seen our fair share of winter weather already. This is the time of year where most anglers quit fishing, or are stuck fishing sz24 midges on our technical tailwaters. Our tailwaters are phenomenal fisheries, but it only takes so long before they start feeling monotonous. This leaves many anglers feeling unmotivated to fish until spring time. Skiing, fly tying, and watching football are good past times, but don’t let the winter blues settle in!

Winter is one of the best times to hit the road and go do something different. Fisheries will have very light crowds and, aside from ski traffic, eco-tourism is practically dead this time of the year which can lead to cheaper accommodation prices. Planning around the weather is obviously very important, but there’s plenty of opportunities to be taken advantage of. Don’t get me wrong, the road trips involved in our side of the country won’t take you away from the winter weather, but it will certainly change up the scenario and offer unique fishing scenarios that we aren’t accustomed to. 

Like mentioned above, planning around the weather is crucial for your safety and having a good time on the trip. Mapping out safe primary and alternative travel routes are good measures to be taken. Another good way to plan out a winter road trip is to establish a goal for the trip. Are you looking for a good time with friends/family and fishing is second? Are you looking for a trophy fish? Do you want to strip streamers? Indicator fish? Small water? Big water? There’s lot of goals that can be made for any trip, but with limited options in the winter it’s important to plan around one or two goals. There isn’t much flexibility as far as your fisheries go unlike the summer, so make a goal and stick with it! In this article we’ve chosen three winter road trip ideas that fit different goals and experiences for each angler.

- Drive Time: 14 hours 50 minutes

Pyramid Lake is an insanely unique fishery, boasting the world’s largest cutthroat trout in a lake that has a salinity level that’s ⅙ of the ocean. And there’s few places where your odds of encountering a 20lb trout is as high as it is here. These fish are well earned, however, and you’ll have to fish hard to catch anything. Depending on when you go, you can catch fish on streamers or on chironomids under indicators. 

Don’t worry you don’t actually have to fish with a ladder that Pyramid Lake is infamous for. There’s plenty of rock shorelines or beaches with steep drop-offs that don’t require a ladder. The ladder is very helpful though when you’re fishing more gradual beaches. 

We recommend going to Pyramid Lake if you’re chasing that trophy fish and not looking for numbers of fish. Bring some buddies you wouldn’t mind hanging out with for a couple of days, there’s plenty of fishless hours so great conversation goes a long way! There’s plenty of accommodation options near the lake. Reno is a good time if you want some night life but many anglers choose to stay at one of the camper parks. Don’t worry, if you don’t have a camper many companies offer rentals that they’ll set up for you. Pack some food with you or enjoy warm meals at the Pyramid Lake Lodge that serves all three meals everyday.

I’ve only been to Pyramid Lake once, but I had an amazing time and would recommend this fishery to anyone. Just be prepared to grind it out and have some good friends with you. I’m glad I had a great group of friends with me that helped the slow hours go by a lot faster.

-Drive Time: 6 hours 40 minutes

The almighty famous San Juan River is well-known for its incredibly high fish count. In fact, the Quality Waters stretch of the San Juan boasts the highest fish count per mile in the world. There’s a fair share of these fish that are in the “stocker” size range, but no other river puts out more 20+” inch fish than the Juan. Catching a trophy can and does happen on a daily basis, but they’re well earned. Sight fishing and making clean drifts with indicator rigs is your best friend to get these fish, although there’s plenty of water throughout the river that produces fish when blind fished. That said, the Juan is a tailwater fishery so the fish don’t have to move very far to find food, so getting your flies in front of their face will yield the best results.

Fishing the Juan in the winter doesn’t mean you’ll avoid the crowds. Since the river has an incredibly high fish count, that draws in an incredibly high amount of anglers. However, many San Juan locals will say the winter crowds are exponentially thinner than they are in the summer, leading to much more space for those out there. 

In the upper stretches of the Quality Waters the vast majority of fish are rainbow trout as they seem to thrive in the colder water much better than the brown trout. Lower down in the Quality Waters you’ll still find mostly rainbow trout, but with many more brown trout mixed throughout. Some of these browns grow upwards of 36” due to the amount of food they have available to them. 

If you’re looking for pure numbers fishing in the winter, the San Juan is absolutely your best option. Even with that said, there’s still plenty of opportunities to land a monster fish! There’s an endless amount of accommodation options available right on the tailwater, so your travel to the water is minimal. There are food options with a couple of restaurants as well if you don’t feel like cooking.

Our guide manager, Tryston, used to live in Durango for a few years and fished the San Juan on a regular basis. It is the only tailwater fishery that I’ve heard him say he truly enjoys fishing! Not that he doesn’t enjoy our tailwaters, but the Juan is that exceptional.

-Drive Time: 13 hours 40 minutes

The White River is the most notable streamer fishery in the world, with thousands of trout per mile the amount of targetable fish is endless. This river is home to rainbow trout, tiger trout, and cutthroat trout, but this river is most famous for its population of brown trout. If you’re unfamiliar with the size of these browns just search “White River brown trout” in Google photos and that’s all you’ll need to know. These fish grow to absurd proportions thanks to the endless amount of food options. Sculpins, suckers, various minnow species, stocked rainbow trout, crawdads, frogs, mice, and shad are all at the exposal of these fish, in addition to the incredible insect hatches it receives in the warmer months. The White River below Bull Shoals is a big fish factory!

Much like other trophy rivers, you’ll have to earn these fish. Tossing big streamers on 8 and 9wt rods isn’t necessarily easy, but if you’re willing to put in the work and are willing to listen to your guide, success should come your way. I mentioned having a guide, this would be a good idea to get as this water is big and effectively fishing it from shore is difficult. If you have your boat, then you should be good. But be sure to stop into one of the fly shops to get a good gauge of what streamers to be throwing. 

If you’re looking for numbers of fish, we’d advise spending your time elsewhere. Don’t get me wrong, you can nymph up a ton of fish on the White and actually get into some large fish. But, driving as far as the White to throw an indicator isn’t on anyone’s menu, particularly the guides. Those who do nymph it are typically locals or anglers who have a hard time throwing big streamers. If that is what you’re looking for, the San Juan would be a much better and closer option! 

There’s a ton of accommodation and food options at and near this tailwater, so finding somewhere to stay won’t be an issue. However, many anglers travel to the White specifically in the winter in hopes of catching a 30” brown trout, so I would anticipate seeing quite a few anglers.

These are only three ideas for a road trip this winter, but there’s plenty more options available. Some other close to home trips include the Green River below Flaming Gorge, Gray Reef, and the Bighorn River near Fort Smith. Some further options include the Guadalupe River, Trinity River, and South Holston River. Again, there’s way more than these but there’s only so many I can get to.

We hope these Winter Road Trip Ideas inspire you to get out of your deep winter slumber and get on the road and fish!