Now is the time when anglers especially fly fishers, are susceptible to cabin fever, mid-winter doldrums and similar more or less debilitating afflictions.

Tackle-tinkering, fly-making, reading about fishing and pouring over catalogs will all alleviate the symptoms somewhat, but are a poor second to actually going fishing. For those of us who can't follow the sun there is a recourse, albeit one that is still overlooked by many anglers.

Eight years ago fish management officials designated January 1st as opening day for an experimental nine-month stream trout season in southwest Wisconsin. The selected counties were Columbia, Crawford, Grant, Iowa, Lafayette, Richland, Sauk and Vernon. The boundaries of these eight counties enclose approximately ten percent of the state's total trout stream mileage.

What started as an experiment expanded to include LaCrosse County. Green County was added last year. Evidently, the probation period is over.

Many anglers were opposed to the new regulations, some of them, mostly old timers, vehemently so. I guess I was among the latter.

Proponents argued that it would do away with the opening day circus atmosphere while opponents feared it would be the end of the resident trout population. The streams in some of these counties, Grant and Iowa especially, were famous for harboring lunker browns.

As it turned out, both sides were right. Opening day isn't near as popular in January as May and fears that big trout would be especially vulnerable in winter proved to be justified.

If someone had actually been commissioned to devise a means for removing the brood fish from these streams, it is doubtful if a more sure way could have been found.

Trout are cold water fish. Their metabolism keeps them hungry at temperatures when other species become semi or completely dormant. All trout remain active when water is somewhere near spring flow temperatures, but slow down as it approaches freezing.

In winter they seek out places where they are most comfortable, the deepest part of pools, or areas close to spring flow. The largest fish of course, occupy the most comfortable spots. They are hungry at a time when food is in short supply and so are easily located and caught.

The new regulations were an instant success with spin and bait fishers and for the first two or three winters lunker after lunker were dragged from the holes.

Later two regulatory changes were made that are at least tentative steps in the right direction. Now only two trout may be kept daily before the first Saturday in May, and in 1977 a short section of Castle Rock Creek and a feeder, Doc Smith branch in Grant County, were designated catch and release, fish for fun only, water. This stretch is also restricted to fly or artificial lure only.

This fish for fun water has proven to be tremendously popular and the proportion of large fish has increased dramatically. I would very much like to see more areas added and the regulations changed to fly or single hook artificial lure only.

When I was a youngster back in the twenties and before their proliferation on casting and spinning lures, treble-hooks were called snag-hooks and were seldom used for sport fishing.

At any rate, treble-hooks are very apt to injure gills. Even slight damage to these is extremely likely to be fatal.

Since trout are easy to catch during winter and the two fish limit means a lot will be returned to the water, it seems like voluntary use of single hooks is sound conservation practice and besides, fly fishing really is the most fun.

I didn't try the winter season until 1979 and only then at the urging of an editor who wanted an article about "fly fishing under Arctic conditions" and a growing conviction that if I couldn't beat them, I might as well join them.

The upshot of this was that Mike Cufaude and I had a very busy forenoon on New Year's Day of that year catching and returning brook trout on a stream near the Iowa-Grant County line. Mike said it was "the fastest fly fishing he ever had".

I will always remember the gracious landowner who gave us permission to fish saying he doubted "the trout will remember what flies are for in midwinter".

Since then I have made two or three fly fishing trips a winter to Grant and Iowa County. All with good success except one time.

This was one trip Mike and I made to Castle Rock. There was a lot of snow over there and Mike had sense enough to take along his white fox-hunting coveralls. He was just about invisible against the snow while I must have stood out like a neon sign. At any rate, he caught and released a lot of browns. I had one hit from a little fish and missed it.

The two most consistently successful flies for us are the silver nymph and a little scud. They have been described in previous Badger Sportsmen articles and here's a quick refresher on tying them.

To make a silver nymph clamp a regular weight and length, size 14 hook in the vise. Coat the shank with cement, wrap with tying thread, cement again, secure two sections of tan mottled feather, for an overlay and underlay at the rear of the hook. Wind thread two thirds of the way forward. Tie in flat silver tinsel, wind tinsel back to the bend and forward again to form a body, then tie off. Trim and coat tinsel with tying cement.

Make a shoulder hackle with two or three turns of brown feather, fold the overlay and underlay ahead so the tinsel is exposed on each side, tie down and whip finish.

To make the scud, clamp a size 12 hook in the vise, wrap the bend with black tying thread, cement well, leaving the shank exposed. This fly will be tied on the bend only. Cut a little V-notch in the tip of a mallard breast feather and tie the piece removed on at the bottom of the bend for a tail. Tie on a short piece of fine gold tinsel for ribbing and a piece of light muskrat fur in the same place. Cement these knots.

Cut a V-shaped piece from the breast feather and tie this at the top of the bend so the tips extend forward, parallel with the hook shank and slightly beyond the eye. This will make a beard hackle later.

Now wrap the dubbing and tinsel forward to make the body. Fold the previously tied on mallard back and secure for a beard hackle. Make a head with tying thread and whip. Cement this thoroughly.

By just tying on the bend you have a size 16 scud with the bite of a 12 hook and natural configuration. Fish don't pay any attention to the bare shank.

By dubbing on separate thread you can control body hue. The light brown thread, if not dubbed too heavily, will give a tan cast to the finished body when wet. The black tying thread head suggests the shiny black eyes of the natural. Regular sewing thread works fine for dubbing. Experiment with dubbing sparsely on different colored thread. For instance, green gives an olive tint, Red-pinkish, and yellow, a lighter tan.

These can be weighted slightly with a little lead wire under the dressing when they are made or, as I like to do, tie a light tippet about 18 inches long to the leader and make an overhand knot with fine lead wire above the tippet knot. Don't let the wire ends project or the knot will turn like a propeller and twist the leader.

To my way of thinking, this allows the fly to swim the most naturally and still doesn't weight the leader enough to interfere with detecting strikes.

Wiping mud or saliva on the leader and fly will make them sink on the first cast and shooting line rather than false casting will help them stay wet.

Bending the hook point a little sidewise and pinching down the barb will insure hooking more strikes. Sharp hooks are very important too.

Because trout are extra vulnerable in winter and with the two fish limit, there will be times when you will be returning far more fish than you keep.

Flies do injure fish less than multiple hook lures or bait. A landing net will help you grip the trout without squeezing excessively and will let you land fish without playing them to exhaustion first.