The Fishing Temp Thread

[posmallie]

On a boat, I don't think I've been out in anything much below 32, and I have no desire to ever do so. I have ice fished in -10 degree weather with wind chills in the -20's. For some reason, when it gets really cold and windy the fish really like to bite.

[Big Orange Basser]

6 degrees FNF at Dale Hollow several years ago.

[Jeff Hahn]

Day 3, Ranger M1 tournament in Mobile, Alabama. Record lows for the area. It was 24 degrees at take-off. The guy I was riding with did a 1 1/4 hour run. I was prepared with long handles, jeans, jacket, Guide Wear, and goggles. I never got cold during the run.

[billnorman1]

I've fished with the line freezing in the guides I don't remember the air temps, but I was catching fish and big ones. Now that I'm pushing 80, my hands hurt a lot in the cold.

[1Holeshot]

Dave, many years ago I fished a tournament at Bates Lake with 17 degree temps to start. 3-4 casts and would have to dip the rod and swish it around to get rid of ice in the guides. Finally found some fish in the mouth of a small creek and caught my keepers on ...wait for it......a rattle trap. Guess I cast it out of desperation because nothing else was working.

Don't plan to fish that cold again.

[Squire]

launched at 16f with a high of 30f. Had to warm to motor to get it to pee. Livewell pumps were frozen, had to thaw. a couple compartments were frozen shut, had to poor water on them. Hot side on a Power Plant lake with water temps around 50. Fought icing guides all day, hands and feet were frozen. Was actually warming my hands in the water....Caught over 25 fish myself and we won the tournament with a partner who hammered them too. Didn't move over 100 yards on idle, noticed activity and just didn't want to run, dropped TM and fish had shad pushed up on the bank all day. I did fish Jan 1 this year and got soaked for over 5 hours temps in the low 40's with lots of wind, and then the Sun came out and the temps zoomed to 70...When its over 100 degrees and humid with no wind, I'll have an open seat for my Canadian friends :). Potomac River with tons of bugs, no wind.....you just get on the TM to give yourself a breeze ;). You pour bottles of cold water on your head multiple times during the day.....My college daughter at the time who ran triathlons and did 100 mile bike races at ASU (gets hot there but DRY heat), about noon, said enough and we left....I still give her grief about that lol....My limits now are it must get above 32 during the day so I don't have to fight icing guides...JB's cost too much these days...

[Lil Mo]

If it’s below 45 down here, I’m out. We have damp winters with extreme swings in temp. It’ll be in the upper 70’s one day and then drop to a high of 40 the next. Your body just can’t get adjusted quick enough. That being said, cold temperatures can really stack the specked trout in deep holes in saltwater. A buddy and I once slayed the trout on a super cold day and never left the marina.

[bilgerat]

Not a fishing story but I was about 12 years old playing pond hockey … the puck went pretty far out of play toward the bank. I skated over to get it and went through the ice to about waist high. Being stubborn I climbed out and kept playing until my blue jeans literally froze solid

[EL Skeeter]

Fishing a FLW event in 1999 on LOZ, rod eyes were freezing. Never been so cold.

[07SkeeterZX225]

Fish every winter with temps in the low teens at morning to just above freezing at weigh in. The worse the weather, the better smallies bite around here.

[WVBullet]

26* is my bass fishing threshold... When the guides freeze, I'm done.

This is me. Once is gets to a certain temp that the guides are constantly freezing and I’m having clear every few cast, then I get a little irritated. Won’t be long before I’m done.

[Seguin Fisher]

Usually I’m not fishing too hard if it’s below freezing in the boat, but I have trout fished in about -10c before. Ice fishing, I’ve fished down to -30 many times. Once when I was about 14, it was -45 in the morning. Fired up the skidoo ( don’t know how it started but it did), and ran about 20 miles to fish in the hut for the day. The ice was groaning all day long, and it was so cold outside that if you threw a minnow up against the outside of the hut, it would freeze instantly and stick to it.

[Ryno 615]

7 degrees was my coldest morning ever, but normally fish in the 20's for the lows around here. I'm not one to turn down a day of fishing regardless of the temps. But I will say, a 33-34 degree day and raining has been the most miserable day for me.

[AKRISONER]

7 degrees was my coldest morning ever, but normally fish in the 20's for the lows around here. I'm not one to turn down a day of fishing regardless of the temps. But I will say, a 33-34 degree day and raining has been the most miserable day for me.

welcome to April laketrout fishing in Ontario lol

[barkleyhawggitter]

-34 F. Saskatchewan deer hunt.

[ECobb91]

the coldest I’ve ever been bass fishing was 15deg on Halloween a few years ago. We absolutely wrecked them that day, caught around 80 between the two of us.

the coldest I’ve ever been fishing in general was ice fishing Valentine’s Day weekend about 4 years ago in -17 air temps, -36 with windchill. Me and my buddy ended up with beginning stages of frostbite. My gloves failed and couldn’t feel two fingers for a few weeks.

but the absolute coldest I’ve ever been outside was -21 air and -40s wind chill.

[haus9393]

It got me thinking because being from South Alabama the lowest temp I have been outside in was 12 degrees. I have never saw single digits much less negative temps. What is the coldest temps y'all have been in?

2428D6D3-AB9E-4923-90FF-214AF02A0A06.jpeg

I found some negative temps for you. For me on average mid dec- early January we get most days 20-30 degrees for a high and I’ll fish in that if it’s not too windy. I think a high of 8 degrees was the coldest day I’ve fished but they were chewing the day before so I knew it would be worth it. Many days and even days this year I had my trolling motor completely freeze over and couldn’t get it to unlatch to come back up. Usually have to pour water on it with a bucket and pray to loosen it up to pull it out. I remember one day my bilge froze on the water and I caught it before things got real bad but I could feel the boat was heavy when I was running I popped the battery lid and water up to the batteries. I got off the water immediately after that. Last week on a nearby mountain it was -110f but in the valley -35f at my house wind chill. Champlain froze over in 1 day. Never had it too cold for ice fishing because I have the shanty. Without a shanty anything below 0 absolutely sucks.

[AustinV]

Coldest I've launched was around 8 degrees. Reels barely wanted to work after you casted, we caught some though. I regularly fish into the upper teens and low 20's and really enjoy it. You have the lake to yourself and if you dress properly it's not bad at all.

[BassinPaPaw]

I’ve been in -20 degree weather. Not fishing obviously. For me on fishing, if it’s not going to get in the upper 40’s air temp for the day then I ain’t going.

[mattmann7]

Fished a club tournament in May years ago where we had 4 inches of wet snow during the tournament. I fished the back of boat. Boater didn't retie his lines from the previous year and while fishing beds he snapped off a few good fish. Every time he did I caught fish behind him while he tied. I came in second. The guy who won set a club record for weight. We went by him early and he was culling 3 pounders. He found a school on a point staging. I beat his record years later and the guy who snapped his fish off broke my record 3 years ago.