What do you do in the off-season?

[stk44]

Fishing for me has pretty much ended for the year. I have 3 more baitcasters to clean and lube, then I'm going to clean my rods and seal the cork.

 I don't think I'm hunting this year, but I'll probably work up some reloads and get some trigger time in. 

What do you all do when/if you put the rods away for the year? 

[Smjunior25]

I'll do some Ice fishing to pass the winter . 

[WRB]

SoCal there isn't a off season.

Tom

[2tall79]

Reload, shoot, repeat.

["hamma"]

I dread this time of year, as I wont icefish, and dont hunt. So I usually will restock and arrange tackle, possibly tie up some jigs, and wait for the ice to recede. If the ponds on Cape Cod dont freeze, on decent days I may go try my luck out there if I can get someone to go with. The winter fishing can be great, locate them and you could be on a banner day, If not, at least your not home wishing you were fishing

[scaleface]

As long as the  ground is not frozen I'll do some serious metal detecting in the woods because the vegetation is dead . 

[jr231]

I like to play cards. Alot. Texas hold em. A few buddies, football some hot wings.. my kind of weekend. 

10 minutes ago, scaleface said:

As long as the  ground is not frozen I'll do some serious metal detecting in the woods because the vegetation is dead . 

This is interesting. I bet you've found some neat stuff.. 

[scaleface]

2 minutes ago, Yeajray231 said:

I like to play cards. Alot. Texas hold em. A few buddies, football some hot wings.. my kind of weekend. 

This is interesting. I bet you've found some neat stuff.. 

My last interesting piece was half a Barber quarter . Click on the photo and it will take you to my photobucket page and you can see a lot of the better stuff I found .

[jr231]

Yea wow.  Looks like you do it more than just the off season! Nice. 

[A-Jay]

There's quite a bit that goes into this before & afterwards, and it involves a commitment that exists everyday all year.

However for everyone involved - the ride itself is Seriously FUN ~ !

A-Jay

[Gundog]

Ponder life's little questions like "How do Keep off the Grass signs get there?" and "Am I really here or somewhere else?". Oh and surf the net for new and unusual ways to bother people. 

[MassYak85]

<-------- Ice Fishing

 

I wouldn't say I like it more than open water fishing but it really does provide a whole different aspect of fun for me. Running to traps as flags go up and feeling the fish running on the end of the line and setting the hook by hand gets me excited in different ways than fishing with a rod. 

Only thing that's annoying is there's usually about a couple weeks to a month on either side of ice fishing where there's not enough ice to safely fish but it also makes open water fishing impossible. 

[geo g]

There is no off season down here.  Fish 360 days a year if you want in Florida.

[Further North]

1 hour ago, A-Jay said:

There's quite a bit that goes into this before & afterwards, and it involves a commitment that exists everyday all year.

However for everyone involved - the ride itself is Seriously FUN ~ !

A-Jay

One of the films at the Banff Mountain Film Festival was about dog-power...it was fun to watch and learn.

[scaleface]

3 minutes ago, geo g said:

There is no off season down here.  Fish 360 days a year if you want in Florida.

What do you do the other 5 days .

[IgotWood]

I fish right through winter, however, I certainly fish much less than in the warm months. I spend a ton of time fly tying. If anyone is looking for flies, let me know!

[Further North]

Early trout (artificial only, C&R only) opens 1/7...so there's not going to be a lot of downtime this year...as long as the weather's not miserable.

I'll clean out the boat, maintain the gear, tie some flies, chase some grouse and pheasants, fit in a couple of business trips, and one with the family, polish of some around-the-house stuff that gets shoved back if I can fish...

Plenty to do.

[Alan Reed]

26 minutes ago, scaleface said:

What do you do the other 5 days .

I'll guess take cover from a hurricane.

[Jar11591]

27 minutes ago, scaleface said:

What do you do the other 5 days .

Beat me to it.

[Catt]

[stk44]

2 hours ago, 2tall79 said:

Reload, shoot, repeat.

I used to reload and shoot three times per week. I wish there was more time to reload, shoot, and fish. I started out with a lee single stage that I used for close to ten years. Then I got a pretty nice turret press last year and since then I've used it only once. I'm hoping to get a lot more use out of it this year.

2 hours ago, scaleface said:

My last interesting piece was half a Barber quarter . Click on the photo and it will take you to my photobucket page and you can see a lot of the better stuff I found .

That's awesome!

55 minutes ago, scaleface said:

What do you do the other 5 days .

You beat me to it lol.

36 minutes ago, Further North said:

Early trout (artificial only, C&R only) opens 1/7...so there's not going to be a lot of downtime this year...as long as the weather's not miserable.

I'll clean out the boat, maintain the gear, tie some flies, chase some grouse and pheasants, fit in a couple of business trips, and one with the family, polish of some around-the-house stuff that gets shoved back if I can fish...

Plenty to do.

Sounds like fun. I still do the delayed harvest-artificials on occasion. I'll take my fly rod and crush trout. The year I stopped trout fishing was after catching over 30 trout on a green sucker spawn fly I tied. I haven't done steelhead in a while either. 

17 minutes ago, Catt said:

I guess this is why the state record for Pennsylvania LM is around 11 lbs...

[NorcalBassin]

Trout fish for the big rainbows and browns that come up towards the surface this time of year. Well, at least when I can launch (currently about 50 vertical ft below the end of our 3rd and lowest ramp). 

[Jar11591]

This off-season will be a lot different than in the past. Usually during the off-season, I organize, purchase, clean and stare at my fishing equipment. But this February, I am taking a 5 day fishing trip to Mexico to fish Lake Baccarac! Putting the boat up this year was a lot easier than in the past, only because I have this bass fishing trip to look forward to in early February!

[Spankey]

I like messing with some trout during the winter. I hunt. I love to shoot trap, skeet, and sporting clays. I tend to shoot clays during the winter a lot because I won't let it interfere with my fishing. During summer months I shoot in a trap league just to keep shooting. My mental relief comes from fishing. Just something about it.

I'll always have something to do at home though.

[stk44]

5 minutes ago, Jar11591 said:

This off-season will be a lot different than in the past. Usually during the off-season, I organize, purchase, clean and stare at my fishing equipment. But this February, I am taking a 5 day fishing trip to Mexico to fish Lake Baccarac! Putting the boat up this year was a lot easier than in the past, only because I have this bass fishing trip to look forward to in early February!

Someday I'd like to try that...

3 hours ago, WRB said:

SoCal there isn't a off season.

Tom

Must be nice. My sister lives in SoCal, I need to get out that way sometime to visit her and do some fishing.