Thread: cold weather

how soon will the cold weather slow the fishing down .water temp at rhodhess was 68' last week we may be looking at some snow on sat in boone i did go to kerr scott last year on a nice sat to fish got bac in boone and had to use 4x4 to get home . the weather changes like the clock in BOONE . thanks dollar

dollar, down here the fishing speeds up in cold weather. i can't wait for 50 degree water. kerr scott is probably different due to the super deep holes they've got up there.

Hey Simpleman I have heard you guys looking forward to cold weather before. I am a bit of a stranger to winter fishing. What tactics and strategies do you recommend during the cold months? Last year Skeeter and I did have a good day trolling on Rhodhiss in late December, but we may have just gotten lucky. Is trolling the best approach or is there a better tactic? Thanks in advance for any advice and tips.

Me and Pete jigged up a mess of slabs last year on a morning when it was 17 degrees outside. Cold weather don't bother them much. They still have to eat, patterns just change a little bit. I've caught them shallow in the winter too though....

Originally Posted by Chugbug

Hey Simpleman I have heard you guys looking forward to cold weather before. I am a bit of a stranger to winter fishing. What tactics and strategies do you recommend during the cold months? Last year Skeeter and I did have a good day trolling on Rhodhiss in late December, but we may have just gotten lucky. Is trolling the best approach or is there a better tactic? Thanks in advance for any advice and tips.

chudbug the best tactic in my opinion is whatever you have the most confidence in. we target structure as much as cover in the cold months and we love fishing deep water. like rookie said though, there are days when the rascals will head in shallow and blow your mind. we spider rig now and it works out pretty good for us in the cold weather. when i primarily casted, i loved the fact that i could sit in one spot and really get in the numbers. just watch the finder just like you do in the summer but watch as much structure as cover. you'll catch a mess of them hanging out on a ledge or channel. read the posts of some of our better fishermen when it gets right and you will figure it out. thats what this wannabe will be doing.

just remember that the bigger fish will always try to stay in warmer water. The little guys will be hugging the brush and ledges and some bigger fish will be with them, but on a sunny day in the winter I can get all the crappie I want in a cast net trying to catch gizzard shad in 3 ft. of water....sun warms shallow water first and they'll go to it, or suspend up high. I've caught them trolling 1/32 jigs over deep water in winter time only about 5 ft. deep....

Thanks Simpleman and Rookie. I hope that Skeeterguy and I can get out more this winter and learn to fish in cold weather, otherwise winter can be a long boring time. I appreciate your advice.

Originally Posted by Rookie12

Me and Pete jigged up a mess of slabs last year on a morning when it was 17 degrees outside. Cold weather don't bother them much. They still have to eat, patterns just change a little bit. I've caught them shallow in the winter too though....

Pete just trolls Rainbow trout for em up here in LKN... Im looking forward to the coooooooooooooold....be about time for some 2lbers at Wylie. Not to mention Jan 08 had a couple 60-80fish days when the thermometer stayed around 32 with snow on the ground.

Just wondering what kind of lakes you all fish. Are they deep lakes? If so, do you fish the ledges going into the deeper parts of the lake? The lake I fish is loaded with standing timber in the coves and along the banks. It averages anywhere from 20' to 50 feet/ 70 feet at the dam with some flats. Not known for large numbers of crappie but does produce it's fair share of 10-13" fish. Hard enough to find in the warmer months because of so many trees. Where to start winter fishing would be my question? Thanks!

Originally Posted by Downwind

Just wondering what kind of lakes you all fish. Are they deep lakes? If so, do you fish the ledges going into the deeper parts of the lake? The lake I fish is loaded with standing timber in the coves and along the banks. It averages anywhere from 20' to 50 feet/ 70 feet at the dam with some flats. Not known for large numbers of crappie but does produce it's fair share of 10-13" fish. Hard enough to find in the warmer months because of so many trees. Where to start winter fishing would be my question? Thanks!

Our lake goes to 110-120' at the dam. Lots of 70'+ water. Hard to pattern the fish on our lake. Not a lot of natural cover. Most of the numbers I catch are dock fish. Not all docks are created equally either. For some reason the fish just dont relate to bottom structure the way they do in some neighboring lakes such as Wylie or High Rock, or even Jordan. You generally have to be fishing some sort of cover be it boat docks or brush of some sort to get on fish. There are exceptions of course, such as night stalking, and I have gotten into my fair share of crappies suspended around schools of shad as well, but Id say 90% of my fish come from around docks or brush that has been sunk.