Winter Numbers Compared To The Rest Of The Year

[RSM789]

I'm looking for some feedback from those of you who are able to fish year round. Not necessarily looking for advice, rather am interested if your experiences mirror mine.

Where I live, we typically only have 4 -6 weeks of winter, the last two or three of December and the first few in January. At my home lake, this is the only time the water temps fall into the 50's and rare is the year they drop below 53 degrees. During this time frame, I have noticed that my catch rate drops to about 25% of what it averages the rest of the year.

Now I am one of those people who targets numbers over giants. Not that I fish with little crappie baits, but I don't use oversized baits to target the largest few fish in the lake. The lake I fish is shallow (12 feet max) and I do catch nearly all of my fish this time of year in their deeper haunts, typically 9 - 10 feet. I make a concerted effort to slow down & find that most of my catches are on a dropshot with either fluke or grub type plastics. Second most productive is a jig with craw trailer, while the rest of the winter favorites (jerkbaits, C-rigs, etc.) are hit & miss depending on the conditions.

I know that either I haven't hit upon the right combinations of locations & presentations for winter bass or this lower catch rate is the norm. The main reason that doubt exists in my mind is based on how my catches happen. Unlike the rest of the year when I can put a pattern together and stay on it all day, winter seems to be a couple of hours of no bites followed by 3 fish in 10 minutes. Further, the flurry isn't a schooling situation, where repeating the same cast over & over results in bites. The flurry will happen in an area, but the fish aren't stacked like cordwood.

So, is your catch rate in winter considerably lower like mine or is it closer to your year round average?

[Turtle135]

I think a lower catch rate is the norm for largemouth bass (smallmouth are a different animal when it comes to cold water). 

 

I am in Maryland and when the water temperature is dropping into the 50's in the fall we can get a pretty hot bite going. I think the bass instinctively know what is coming and they feed up to survive the lean months ahead. That 45 to 50 degree range we can still get numbers of bites but the presentation speed starts to slows down. 40 to 45 degrees and the presentation needs to be be winter slow and I will start to have 1 to 2 fish days. Down at 38 to 40 degrees and I will fish all day for one bite. When it gets below 38 degrees it helps that I am an eternal optimist who loves to fish.

[Dylcook91]

Wish I could give you an answer you're looking for, wish I could also have a 25% catch rate like yourself in the winter lol. Here I have 0% as I stop fishing after the fall bite which is around oct-nov depending on the years weather. Then I take as much overtime at work as I can get during winter(more money=more gear) and don't start fishing again till late jan-feb-mar again depending on weather. I know I could still catch em if I put forth the effort, but to me its not worth freezing for such a small percentage of fish. I hate the cold

[boostr]

Same as above, but I'm starting to get into Smallmouth fishing for the first time this time of the year. Like Turtle said "smallmouth are a different animal when it comes to cold water"

[Bluebasser86]

My numbers usually drop but we have special circumstances. Sometimes you find the massive winter congregations on the feed and you can catch crazy numbers of fish. The other situation is when the power plants are generating strong and the shad are spawning in the warm water and the fish are piled in gorging on them. We've had some triple digit days when the situations were right. Most days I'm pretty happy with 10-20 fish and a couple good quality fish. Winter time is big fish time for me though and 1 over 5 makes my day. 

[Goose52]

My winter bite just about parallels Turtle135's description of his winter bite.  I fish most days in winter, except when the water is hard, it's too dangerous to drive, or the air temp is below 20 or so.  Also, I put the boat away when the water gets dangerously cold so I'm fishing from the bank.  For most of the winter, you're fishing for the chance at one bite, perhaps two, a day. You might go days in a row with no bites at all.  This is in surface water temps from 41-43 on down.  In my part of Tennessee, we have some winters where the lakes ice over from time to time but we don't have hard water all winter like the folks further north.  Some winters we have soft water all winter.  Today - my lakes are iced over but will clear out in the next couple days. So, with all of that in mind, it's expected that catch rates will plummet, and end up being a lot lower than 25%...

 

A picture (graph) paints a thousand words!

 

 

[Bluebasser86]

Having kept track of numbers before, nearly 1,400 fish in a month is INSANE! And for that to be a 5 year average? My hats off. I had a decent year that year and didn't catch 3,000 all year.

[Goose52]

Having kept track of numbers before, nearly 1,400 fish in a month is INSANE! And for that to be a 5 year average? My hats off. I had a decent year that year and didn't catch 3,000 all year.

 

I wish it was 1,400 fish in a month!   Those bars represent the total fish caught in each month from August 2009 to December 2014. - a total of 7,148 fish.  My highest single-month total was 416 in June 2013.

 

Leaving aside the actual numbers, the chart just shows that while I can fish nearly all year, and have never lost more than 3 or 4 weeks in any one year to hard water....the productive fishing season here is really only 7-8 months long.

[Bankbeater]

In the winter I am just happy to get out on the water if there is no ice.  Having cabin fever stinks.

[Bluebasser86]

I wish it was 1,400 fish in a month!   Those bars represent the total fish caught in each month from August 2009 to December 2014. - a total of 7,148 fish.  My highest single-month total was 416 in June 2013.

 

Leaving aside the actual numbers, the chart just shows that while I can fish nearly all year, and have never lost more than 3 or 4 weeks in any one year to hard water....the productive fishing season here is really only 7-8 months long.

Got ya, that makes sense. I know you get to fish any day you want but that's catching a lot of fish every day (little over 43 fish a day to get to 1,300 in a 30 day month). I'd have to go to my practice lake almost every day of a month to catch those kinds of numbers. Your attention to record keeping is still something I'm envious of. I just don't have the patience to do it I guess. 

[Goose52]

................Your attention to record keeping is still something I'm envious of. I just don't have the patience to do it I guess. 

 

Excel is your friend - all the tabulated numbers, averages, bar charts, etc. that I post are either automatically calculated by Excel or only take a couple mouse clicks to generate.  Record keeping on the water DOES take a bit of time and is what turns off most people especially if you're on a hot bite and taking the time to record each catch (length for all, weight for 14" and over) might cost you some fish.  

 

Based on my professional background in aviation/aerospace, record keeping has always been part of the job and is a natural thing for me.  I also turn all my data over to the guy that manages our 11 lakes and my data, along with the local bass clubs data, gives him around 4,000 LMB observations a year and provides him with additional insight into the health (or usually the lack thereof ) of the fishery.

[kickerfish1]

Nice posts in here Goose! Fishing year around I have similar numbers with May and June peaking. Early ice out and just prior to ice up are equally low. No doubt a struggle just to get a bite or two let alone one landed.