atypical winter effect fishing?

[brushhoggin]

As we all know, this has been an unusually long and cold winter. Do you guys think it will effect the fishing season in any way when it does finally come around? For better? for worse? I've read a little about the shad kill, and how threadfin don't survive in water temps lower than like 45. RW was talkin about it while back. But not just a shad kill. There are so many different elements working together forming the ecosystem, all dependant on one another to keep it balanced. What could be determining factors that effects bass fishing positive or negative, givin the unusually cold winter?

[Blade-Runner]

Extended extreme cold periods followed by thaw then refreeze leads me to believe it could be more detrimental to river fishing.

Cold water floods can be pretty tough for riverine gamefish to handle, since their metabolism and activity levels are invariably low. The rivers I fish are headwaters and are not flow-controlled, so there is little current break/sanctuary when near-freezing water gets high and flowing fast...

I would think that baitfish die-offs could potentially rearrange the feeding table and forage preferences in lakes like you suggested. If threadfin is a primary forage and a massive die-off occurs, maybe this year sunfish, YOY gamefish colors/lures will be more effective? Where/how deep gamefish school or gather could be impacted if preferred forage changes.

Mother Nature usually finds a way to keep the species in relative carrying capacity, except of course where bucket biology has introduced non-native forage species that have different tolerance for water temp.

"What could be determining factors that affect bass fishing - positive or negative - given the usually cold winter?"

Things that come to my mind would be aforementioned status of local forage species, not only as prey but as competition for YOY gamefish. Does the water body have sufficient water depth to prevent winterkill? Unusually cold/snowy winter could lead to higher springtime water levels or more quickly elevated impoundment levels - leading to different fishing strategies (possibly better) early and/or a more successful spawn. Lots of possibilities.

[brushhoggin]

great, thats all i fish is a river. may need to focus more on the main lake portion this year. nice reply though, good ideas. thanks

[slonezp]

Being from Chicago the cold is a normal ocurrence. The thing I have noticed is the more snowfall, the higher the lake levels in the spring, and bass will move up into the cover that's not normally there. On the river system I normaly fish higher water means better fishing. They draw down the water after waterfowl season to prepare for spring thaw. To me it seems the high water in the spring really turns on the fish. As far as shad kills, normaly up north they seem to only happen on ponds and smaller bodies of water. I can imagine the cold is very detrimental to the fishing in the southern states.

[roadwarrior]

There is absolutely no impact. Killing 75% of the

threadfin on the Tennessee river doesn't mean

a thing to the other species or the environment

in general. It only effects fishing right now!

For predator fish, like smallmouth, it's a feast.

8-)

[Dalton Tam]

I know that once it begins to get warmer and the snow melts in the ohio valley and along the Mississippi the rivers will begin to overflow into the Lake Systems around here causing ALOT of flooding. In 1972 there was an extreme high water here that flooded people out of there homes. The last big highwater that we had that was a back water was in 1992, the year I was born which missed the 1972 flood by about 3 feet. Due to the excessive rainfall since October of last year, the Mississppi is around 6 feet higher than it was in the winter of 1971 and 1972. Once the snow melt begins the rivers dump millions of fish into our lakes which cause for a good crop when the water goes down. The only way to catch them in the Highwater is to get you a nice, small aluminum boats and run dem down the flooded roadways and just search for them, which is difficult. This will probably be terrible for spring fishing, but when it goes down, I will be waiting. Although the river is so high already, we have alot more innovation in locks and dams, so we will see how high the water will get this year. The only time that I can say I have seen people flooded out of there homes here was when we received 20 inches of rain overnight in Hurricane Gustav two summers ago, but this was only flash flood water, backwater creeps up slowly and stays flooded for alot longer. So I guess wish us luck down here  :-/