Am I the only one who likes winter fishing?

[soflabasser]

15 hours ago, Arcs&sparks said:

No walleye here, pike and musky only exist here in few waters due to introductions.  

 

I go to the lake in the photo for the convenience, but lots of rainbows, landlocked Atlantic salmon, burbot, put-and-take brookies and a sparse lake trout population,  and bass of course. 

 

 

 

Nice catches. 

[Raul]

Winter ?

 

Ahhh, you mean that time of the year when it's 75°F outside ......

[BigSkyBasser]

We have a warm springs that stays around a comfy 60 degrees all year around and happens to have a small school of resident bass in it.

 

We'll go there when even the rivers are full of ice chunks and unfishable to get our fix. 

[NEABass91]

I like to slow down and focus to really work for bites in the winter. Hard to beat a Mustad 3/16 stand up jig with a trick worm when the temps drop. 

[Koz]

Most winter days here are in the 40's and low 50's, windy, cloudy, and damp. It's definitely not the worst weather, but being acclimated to the south it feels miserable. And year after year the fishing in November, December, and part of January is terrible.

 

The bait fish and the bass move off to deeper parts of the lagoons out of reach of casting from the bank. But by the last week of January it's game on and it seems like every other cast brings in 3 pounders. I can't wait for that to start up again.

 

That being said, I'll probably go out and fish a few hours each weekend. My goal for 2018 was to catch one over 7 pounds but the best I have managed is 6.8 pounds. Maybe I'll get lucky before the year ends.

[Glaucus]

I personally hate the cold weather. I can be found fishing a little ways into November, depending on the year, and maybe a couple of times in December, again depending on the year, but after that I'm done until spring. Ice fishing isn't for me, and fishing a decently warm December day to grind out a bass or two isn't my definition of pure enjoyment the way warm weather fishing is pure enjoyment. Other than the fact that I don't like the cold and that ice fishing can be dangerous, drilling a hole and dropping a line isn't for me. I like to cast and work my lures. So meh. 

 

My wife and I are planning to move out of Illinois very, very soon. Maybe in a year or two. Other than work and economics, our top choices on where to go will come down to the fishing. On one hand, going south we can fish year round. On the other hand, places you can fish year round don't have Smallies. Happy medium might be Tennessee or some such place where we can fish later than we do now, and start the season earlier than we do now, and that has the Smallies as well. 

[FishDewd]

I don't fish for bass after November and will continue holding off until march-april when the spawn is about over. Since I'm stuck on the bank, I am limited in what areas are fishable since they all pull out into water I can't reach this time of year. No sense freezing to death for a bite I know isn't there.

[Paul Roberts]

On 11/6/2018 at 12:51 PM, EGbassing said:

Anybody else here like fishing in the winter? Not many people would agree with me on this, but I think it's more fun than fishing in the summer. I keep hand warmers in my tackle box and just wear several layers and I love it. Am I the only one? ?

Yes! Fascinated by it. Which is good bc my catch rates fall off, esp in Mid-Winter. I keep track of my waters and follow ice-up and ice-out. In between, when I get safe ice (~4") I'm out shooting video under the ice.

 

 

[TnRiver46]

4 hours ago, Glaucus said:

I personally hate the cold weather. I can be found fishing a little ways into November, depending on the year, and maybe a couple of times in December, again depending on the year, but after that I'm done until spring. Ice fishing isn't for me, and fishing a decently warm December day to grind out a bass or two isn't my definition of pure enjoyment the way warm weather fishing is pure enjoyment. Other than the fact that I don't like the cold and that ice fishing can be dangerous, drilling a hole and dropping a line isn't for me. I like to cast and work my lures. So meh. 

 

My wife and I are planning to move out of Illinois very, very soon. Maybe in a year or two. Other than work and economics, our top choices on where to go will come down to the fishing. On one hand, going south we can fish year round. On the other hand, places you can fish year round don't have Smallies. Happy medium might be Tennessee or some such place where we can fish later than we do now, and start the season earlier than we do now, and that has the Smallies as well. 

You can fish year round in Tennessee. Or at least I have ever since I got a driver's license. I catch way more and bigger bass in winter than I do any summer. Spring and Summer fishing is amatuer hour around here, most can't figure out how to launch the boat 

[BoatSquirrel]

On 12/12/2018 at 2:43 PM, TnRiver46 said:

You can fish year round in Tennessee. Or at least I have ever since I got a driver's license. I catch way more and bigger bass in winter than I do any summer. Spring and Summer fishing is amatuer hour around here, most can't figure out how to launch the boat 

Agree, TN River!  Half the joy of winter fishing is having the lake to yourself, or at least without all of the water skier morons. 

Cold water tends to bunch fish up so when you find them, it can be great!