How to fish after this cold

[LrgmouthShad]

Thanks for the suggestions y’all.

 

I wasn’t able to get too much done today as had motor difficulties and had to be towed back to the ramp early ?. Water temp 43-45, water clarity is okay, most bait down at 20ft. Saw one area but nothing else. No fish

[Woody B]

So we've got talk about what's warm during the Winter.  I've caught bass around rocks, but @TnRiver46 is correct about sitting on a rock and getting a cold backside.  

 

So,  I'm taking an infrared thermometer with me Sunday.  I suspect that anything sticking out of the water into the sunlight is going to be warm.  I'll see if there's any difference in sunny banks of different materials too.   I'll post up some temperature readings late Sunday or Monday.   

 

FWIW Lake Wylie is used for nuke cooling.   2 weeks ago the water at the discharge was barely 1 degree warmer than the rest of the lake.  There's an area you can't get into.  It's not huge though.  You can see the water being discharged.  There's a fairly  big cooling pond the water sits in before it's discharged.  There's also a combination coal/natural gas power plant up the lake.  It's rarely in use, but when it is the discharge water is ~5 degrees hotter.   

 

 

Regarding temperatures.   Why is one lake several degrees different than another nearby lake.   IE, Mountain Island lake, (3000 acres) was 4 degrees warmer a couple weeks ago than Lake Wylie. (13,400 acres)   Lake Wylie starts at the Mountain Island dam.  I was at Lake Wylie on a Saturday, and Mountain Island the next day.   I could see the smaller lake possibly heating and cooling quicker but if that's the case it should have been cooler.  There's no power plant discharge on Mountain Island lake.   

[TnRiver46]

@Woody B, Mother Earth is almost always warmer than anything laying on her. There’s a guy that scuba dives and has an underwater drone to find lost things and posts his videos on YouTube from chickamauga and surrounding area. When he goes into the water in the winter, almost all the fish are sitting on the bottom. Like right on the bottom. They kick up dirt clouds when he gets near them 

 

we also have many different lakes and the temps vary wildly. Each individual one has its own reasons. Typically our higher elevation mountain lakes stay warmer than fort loudoun, with the possible exception of Douglas. Take a look at the French broad river watershed vs the Holston watershed. The only dam on the French broad is Douglas. Holston has many dams: soho, watauga, Wilbur, Boone, fort Patrick Henry and Cherokee dam. All of those dams slow the water down and make it deeper. The Holston is always warmer than the French broad where they meet near my house in the winter. It’s because water coming from below a deep dam is warmer than surface runoff during cold weather. It’s stable. I’ve seen Douglas freeze over and people riding 4 wheelers on it. The little Tennessee river is similar to Holston. It has fontana dam, santeelah, cheoah, calderwood, chilhowee, and tellico dams. Therefore it’s typically warmer in winter than the main stem TN river because it’s slower and deeper, where the cold can zap the heat right out of shallow swifter waters. Chilhowee is one of my favorite winter lakes because it’s water is coming from the bottom of fontana lake (via cheoah and calderwood but they are tiny) which is 400 feet deep. The cold air doesn’t have time to chill that water, it stays darn near 50-55 year round coming out of calderwood dam at its top end. What is also about 50-55 year round? GROUND TEMP/CAVES!!!

 

one would think fort loudoun lake would be the warmest as it’s the lowest elevation and closest to the warmer city, but it’s the opposite during cold air periods

 

now all that I just wrote will darn near be the opposite when it warms up in the spring time. All that stable slower moving water will take longer to warm up than surface runoff when the air warms. 

[softwateronly]

2 hours ago, Woody B said:

 

 

 

Regarding temperatures.   Why is one lake several degrees different than another nearby lake.   IE, Mountain Island lake, (3000 acres) was 4 degrees warmer a couple weeks ago than Lake Wylie. (13,400 acres)   Lake Wylie starts at the Mountain Island dam.  I was at Lake Wylie on a Saturday, and Mountain Island the next day.   I could see the smaller lake possibly heating and cooling quicker but if that's the case it should have been cooler.  There's no power plant discharge on Mountain Island lake.   

 

My best guess is that water volume compared to surface area is the main equation to figure out which lakes will warm/cool faster.

 

scott

[TnRiver46]

1 hour ago, softwateronly said:

 

My best guess is that water volume compared to surface area is the main equation to figure out which lakes will warm/cool faster.

 

scott

Well that was a lot easier way to say what I said…… hahah. “Retention time” is another important factor. Some of our reservoirs empty out a lot quicker than others 

[kevinmyfsu]

I'm in North FL and it's been pretty cold here the past few days. However, I've done some of the best fishing of my life in the past few days on smaller-sized swimbaits. They're definitely still biting. I caught a bunch of really nice 2s and 3s, two 5s and a 4 on Christmas Eve and another 4 on Christmas Day. That day it was so cold that the water coming off my line kept freezing and jamming up the reel. If you can stand to be out in the cold, there are quality fish to be caught. The Sleeper Gill is always tied on right now.

[Deleted account]

On 12/27/2022 at 9:40 AM, softwateronly said:

 

My best guess is that water volume compared to surface area is the main equation to figure out which lakes will warm/cool faster.

 

scott

Certainly a big factor, combined with the fact that smaller volume with small surface area ratio will tend to freeze quicker in cold snaps, and once frozen will be ironically be insulated from the cold by the ice. The surrounding topography and it's effect on the amount of radiated heat received will add to the equation, add orientation, elevation, micro climates, and varying inflows and outflows, and it becomes a bear to figure out. I like small puddles in our winters because once they reach their coldest temperatures, a  couple of warm sunny days can turn fish on where it might have little or no effect on larger bodies. 

[Bankbeater]

It was 66 degrees yesterday.  This afternoon I drove about 2 miles down the road to check out the small lakes at one of the local parks. It was still partially covered in ice from the deep freeze we had last week.

[Catt]

 

[Woody B]

On 12/27/2022 at 6:50 AM, Woody B said:

So,  I'm taking an infrared thermometer with me Sunday.  I suspect that anything sticking out of the water into the sunlight is going to be warm.  I'll see if there's any difference in sunny banks of different materials too.   I'll post up some temperature readings late Sunday or Monday.   

  

It rained all day Saturday, and was cloudy today.  Water temp was 46 to 47 most places.  Clay banks, rock banks and sandy banks were 2 or 3 degrees warmer than the water.   Rocks and wood not on the bank, but sticking out of the water was 5 to 6 degrees warmer than the water.   The sun never came out today.