In the world of Western trout fishing, the first hard freezes of fall can be a motivating force — both for fishermen and the fish themselves. They’re reminders that prime time for big eats is slipping away, so you’d better get some while you can.
Derek Olthuis, a photojournalist and content creator based in Utah, experienced one of these magically frosty windows while fishing a lake with a buddy a few years back. With just the right amount of frozen water on the surface, they found brown trout and brookies eager to take mouse patterns by busting their snouts through the ice. Fortunately for those of us staring down another winter (it’s snowing outside my window in Colorado as I write this) Olthuis had his camera rolling.
Olthuis captured the footage on a mid-November day while fishing in Wyoming with his friend, Cort. There was a cold snap the night before, and by the time they got to the lake, they saw that a good portion of its surface had already started to freeze over. The two focused on the open water, stripping streamers near the edges. Then Cort threw a cast toward one of the few openings out in the middle of the ice.
“He was trying to make it into one of those holes and his fly landed on top of the ice. And as he was pulling it back, a fish busted through the ice to try and eat it,” Olthuis tells Outdoor Life. “We’re just like, Dude. No way.”
After a second cast with the weighted streamer brought the same response, they realized there was a better way to fish the half-frozen surface. Olthuis dug out some foam mouse patterns they’d tied, and it was game on. The trout went nuts over the little black mice skittering on the ice, so Olthuis kept the camera going while Cort hooked fish after fish.
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He says the big eats kept coming for most of the day. Both browns and brookies would wait just below the ice, and then smash right through it to eat a fly.
“It was wild. I mean, I’ve seen trout working ice edges before, but nothing like this. These fish were going full-out, trying to crush everything that hit the ice.”
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