Your Cold Weather Fishing Expirences

I fished a small river one winter when there was shelf ice along the sides and the rocks on the river bed had ice as well.....very odd I thought with the river running in between. The water was so low and clear that the fish would just bury themselves into any cover they could find. I remember looking upstream under a large chunk of concrete (reminant of old bridge washout) and with only the down stream edge of the concrete above the stream bed, I could see three steelhead tails waving at me....no way to present anything as the upstream edge of concrete was well buried in the bed.

Fished the Tuccanon during a long stretch of single digit highs and saw something I didn't even know was possible. Large chunks of ice were breaking off the bottum of the river and floating to the surface. The entire river bed was frozen with the river flowing over the top. Now thats cold!

I havent fished for steelhead in really cold weather. Lots of days when the temps were in the low to mid teens. A few times I have had half the gravel bar stick to my waders when Ive knelt on the rocks.....

When I lived over east we used to to fish for trout in the winter. Ive fished in some really cold temps, Zero and below. You do not want to fish from a 10 foot aluminum boat when the tempature gets down below 10. Ice forms on everything and the boat gets really heavy and unstable.

Ive fished for trout through the ice a few times during some long cold snaps. Thats fun.

I fished the Green near Auburn yesterday for about 8 hours that was enough for me . Nice day to be out excluding the temperatures, no fish although I did get to watch a couple of beaver (non human) and a otter for awhile and right before I was getting ready to leave a harbor seal pup comes swimming by temperatures must of been screwing up it's gps unit I've never seen one that far up river before

I went to college at CWU. If you want cold, try whitefishing the Yakima river in February with a typical Ellensburg "breeze". The fish were flash frozen by the time they hit the bank.

A couple fo my buddies drove all night one time to go to Michigan to fish. Got in the parking light right at daylight, and not a car in sight. They booted up, got dressed, and headed through the woods to the river. They kept hearing a faint grinding sound, and when they got to the river, it was running solid slush and small chunks of ice. Waited until later in the day for it to warm up, and the slush cleared. The only other problem they had, was anchor ice. If your not familiar with it, it's like the river freezign over, from the bottom up. The fish will back down to the lake, and wait for condtions to improve before returnining. They packed their gear in the afternoon and headed back home. 23 hours of round trip driving to watch a wasteland of ice and slush.

One August day at Sekiu I didn't take off my sweatshirt until 9 AM

Fishing the Yakima with snow on the ground. Walking around a log jamb I fell through the ice and plunged in to the river. Believe me that was cold. I thought I was still walking on the bank. The duck

I spent a lot of time ice fishing in Wisconsin and I never fished in one of those heated ice shacks either. What I learned is that if the temperature gets below zero F, it is virtually impossible to keep ahead of the ice forming in the hole and on your line. Once you learn to dress for the weather though, it isn't a problem to stay warm. All those dorky-looking, extremely bulky, boots, gloves, jackets, snow pants, etc... really come into there own when it is below zero and you are sitting on a bucket in the middle of a frozen lake with the wind howling.

One of the most unnerving cold weather fishing experiences for me was sitting out on the ice on Lake Mendota in Madison, WI in February. As we all know, water expands when it turns to ice. As this happens pressure builds up in the ice until it cracks and heaves up along a fault line. You can hear the crack start on one end of the lake and race all the way across. The sound is indescribable. A mixture of a bullet shot and a mini earthquake and although you know you are safe(the ice is often a couple feet thick), you can't help but pucker up a bit. I once had a crack come right through the hole in which I was fishing. I nearly soiled myself.

If you are getting cold while you are out steelheading, you just aren't wearing the right clothes. Of course you won't look very fashionable when you are!

I fished yesterday and the spool on my baitcaster kept freezing. I also had a layer of ice on my breathables. Later, I took my boots off and put my neoprene booties on to go into a store for a cup of coffee. When I tried to put my boots back on they were frozen solid.

Air temp was not the coldest, mid-high 30's and the Skagit was, oh about 40 degrees. This was back in Feb. '01. I was aboard a buddy's sportjet sled, who was at the wheel, cruising down stream pretty fast. I was sitting on the engine cover, going around a bend and I don't know exactly what he hit, he's says a "wave" but long of the short, I ended up in the water.
BRRR. I was plucked out immediately, got some clothing removed and was sitting next to the heater before it really hit me what had happened. We were back at the launch in minutes, but it seemed like an hour.
I was fine, but it cut short the day as you could imagine.
He's very experienced and careful, running rivers, but you'll never catch me sitting on that engine cover again, at least while traveling on a river.
Don't really fish the Skagit anymore either.

Hmmm...got a few of those!

Ice fishing at Fish Lake...the week before it had been up in the fifties, and a foot deep layer of water had accumulated on top of the ice from ice and snow melt. When the temps dropped back down near zero, it refroze with ten or twelve inches of water between the two layers of ice. I broke through the first layer so many times that on the way back to the truck my boot fell off and I didn't even notice until my Dad asked me if I would like to go back and get it. Brrrr....

Fishing a small tributary stream in E. Washington in December...entire stream was frozen over except for a ten foot stretch under a small foot bridge. First cast with a small spinner resulted in a ten pound hatchery winter run, which I was able to fight and land right under the bridge on a 5' ultralight with 4# test.

Had to get out of the boat on the Snocrummy when I was in high school when the boat got stuck going over a bar...stuck in about ten inches of slush on the bottom of the river.

Fish on...

Todd.

Another Michigan story. I was visiting relatives one March and was offered a steelheading trip. Went up to the Muskegon River in a very heavy wind and snowstorm to a place my uncle called heart attack hill. It definately was a steep SOB as 3 of us slid on our butts down a very steep and long hill side. Ice and slush chunks were floating by in the near white out conditions. After about an hour of this it warmed up a little and the snow turned to freezing sleet. There were a couple of kamakazie steelies that must have thought that the bank was warmer than the river. So we were just busy enough to ignore the foul weather. As the day went on it got colder again and the sleet turned back to snow. The wind started blowing so hard that we couldn't see the river, so we decided to get out of there. By now there was a layer of ice on top of the snow and the snow that was now falling down, up, sideways, etc was just curling everywhere. We tried to get up the hill for 2 hours as every few feet of progress that we'd make one of us would slip and fall on the ice. We finally got off the trail and pulled ourselves up by grabbing the brush and whatever else we could get a grip on. When we finally got to the top we were so drenched with sweat that we steaming. We had to strip down and change into whatever was in the back of the truck. We made it as far as the 1st town where the police were stopping traffic until the storm let up. We spent the night sleeping on the floor of a resturant/bar.

January,1978,ice fishing for bull trout with my dad on Flathead Lake in Montana.Fishing for bull trout. Jigging for em in about 3 ft of water. When you fish for them this shallow you can see the coming thru your ice hole,and they usually mean business.17 degrees below and a monster takes a swip at my jig. I set HARD,jig comes flying out of the water.Knowing the lunker will come right back if I drop my jig back in the hole,I can't find it, words are coming out of my mouth 14 year old are'nt supposed to say.Dad says hold still,I say why?????? The jig was hooked into the bridge of my nose,so cold I did'nt even feel it go in,Dad removes the jig,I'm bleeding,its alright so cold can't feel the pain,drop the jig back in the hole,1 jig and bang I got em,14 lber man it hurt like hell later after my face thawed

Two good ones. Fly fishing off a ladder at Pyramide lake near Reno on feb 17. About 20 degrees with a good wind chill to boot. Caught a few fish and got my wool no finger gloves wet. Fished for a while longer and realized my gloves had frozen to my hand solid. Had to dunk hands in the water for about 1 min to get the gloves off.

Clearwater river in jan, ice shelf formed at the launch. Figured I could put on my waders and break up the ice and launch the boat. It worked, we headed down the river and I am on the sticks for about an hour. O.K ( Drift boat guys picture this) the felt soles on my wading boots have frozen to the push bar your feet go on when your rowing. I mean solid. Had to take the boots off to get my feet out.

O.K, one more- Left drift boat out side without the cover on at a buddies cabin. Picked up the boat and it was full of ice, about 12 inches in front solid.... going fishing... NOT.. had to put it in the garage with a mister heater going full blast for two days to melt it to dump it out...

I've fished many times when it was so cold your fingers stuck to anything metal and your guides full of ice. The most memorable for me though is sometime in the late 80's. It was the year we got that real cold snap and had about a foot of snow on the ground for over a week. I decided to go out Blackmouth fishing (that's when you could still fish blackmouth all winter) at Possession. The ramp was so icy that I came within a foot or two of dunking my truck when I was backing the boat in at Everett. That should've told me something but I was younger and dumber then. We proceeded to head out in my 23' Olympic. The wind was blowing about 20 knots that day so it was a somewhat bumpy ride out there. When I got to Possession and walked out on the back of my boat I was greeted with a layer of ice over two inches thick that completely covered my downriggers and most of the stern of the boat. At that point I knew I had no business being out there and beat feet back to the launch ramp. Once there, I had to have another four wheel drive hook onto the front of my four wheel drive to get up the ramp. Funny how aging changes you though. Today, I wouldn't even have to go to the launch in those conditions to know better than trying to fish the Sound.

During the 80's cold spell that was mentioned,I had just reached the Sky after a short walk and stood at the river's edge taking in all the scenery before stepping in. I was wearing the old rubber chest waders and must have stood for a bit too long. When I went to step in to the run, my waders had frozen causing the rubber to "break" where my knee cap is as I stepped in the river. It was a couple feet deep where I stepped in and the 6 inch "break" in my waders filled up pretty darn quick. Shortest fishing trip in my life. I didn't have much money at the time but was at Ted's within an hour to buy a pair of 5mm Bear bootfoot waders . One of my best purchases ever!