Artic snap

[whiskerwhipper]

With all this artic weather upon the south, I am concerned about something. I remember we had cold weather like this few years ago and it killed a bunch of fish @ the coast where I fish @ (Savannah area). Mostly trout, drum, flounder, etc. I was wondering if this big chill down will have any effect on these fish and the over wintering shrimp too. Does it have to be brlow freezing for a while for this to happen or can it be a few cold nites process?

[Iamfishing]

Interesting question...

[JSC]

The only thing I have seen killed by Cold is Mullet ... Takes a several days of cold weather to get the water temp down ... People use long handle crab & Shad nets to dip them.

JSC

[shadow]

Down where I live (south west Louisiana), the only time I have seen a fish kill from cold weather was when we had an ice storm for about a week. I don't think a couple of days of cold weather will hurt them. It will probably make them move to deeper water though.

[sneakypete]

I concur with Dwyane. It takes an extended period of very cold weather to kill reds, specks, etc. I recall Louisiana's "Great Christmas Freeze of 1989" - over 70 consecutive hours of sub-freezing weather. That killed the hell out of them!
On the other hand, extended periods of less severe weather will cause fish to seek warmer water - deeper, more current, whatever, and some fish like specks are more prone than, say, redfish to move. If they don't, then they can go into a coma from shock (Like hypothermia) and subsequently die. However, with water temperatures rising daily to the mid-40's or above, that isn't likely.
At least, it hasn't been in my experiences during over 40 years on the Gulf coast.
Pete