Colder weather around the corner

[PerchSlayer]

As we all know summer is going to be ending in the next few weeks and fall is right around the corner. Along with that comes the dreadfull winter, known as the dead months for most fishermen. But i was wondering what other frishermen do to pass their time away in the winter.
I live in virginia and fish creeks that lead off of the potomac river. The water i fish in is mostly brackish, but every now i then i pond & lake fish. I mostly fish in the summer for whatever that will bite, which includes perch, both white and yellow, and catfish, croaker, and spot out of the creek and river.

However during winter i rockfish in the river and the chespeak bay. I also deer hunt during "the dead months". But i would like to carry on the panfishing during the winter.
Do white, and yellow perch bite in these creeks in the winter? What other type of panfishing could i do to pass the long winter away? Is lakes and ponds as effective in the winter as the summer?

[Moose1am]

Well if it gets above 50 deg F and I have cabin fever I sometimes get the boat out and go fishing even in Dec. If it's calm and sunny that is not too bad on a 50deg day.

I use to play Ice Hocky and hoped for very cold weather to freeze the local Southern IN ponds but that never happened too often. Once in a while we had ice thick enough to ice skate on. Guess if that happened we could ice fish too. LOL

These days I spend a lot of time on the computer or getting a cup of hot coffee and a good book. Books on fishing are my favorites.

Then there is always the college football game this fall and into NOV.

I fish up though the first of Nov last year as it got into the 70s last year for the TeeZur Crappie Tournament at KY Lake. Hope that this year we have a nice warm winter again.

Went fishing today. Left around 4 pm and fished until around 7 pm when it got dark.

Did you know that we are very close to the fall equalnox. That is the time of the year when the lenght of day is equal to the lenght of night. Sunrise at 7 am an sets at 7 pm. Twelve hours of daylight and tweleve hours of night time.

As we all know summer is going to be ending in the next few weeks and fall is right around the corner. Along with that comes the dreadfull winter, known as the dead months for most fishermen. But i was wondering what other frishermen do to pass their time away in the winter.
I live in virginia and fish creeks that lead off of the potomac river. The water i fish in is mostly brackish, but every now i then i pond & lake fish. I mostly fish in the summer for whatever that will bite, which includes perch, both white and yellow, and catfish, croaker, and spot out of the creek and river.

However during winter i rockfish in the river and the chespeak bay. I also deer hunt during "the dead months". But i would like to carry on the panfishing during the winter.
Do white, and yellow perch bite in these creeks in the winter? What other type of panfishing could i do to pass the long winter away? Is lakes and ponds as effective in the winter as the summer?

[crappiefarmer]

Perchslayer,

We fish for crappie here when it gets cold. I live on the Albemarle sound and have water very similar to yours. If you know of a creek where crappie are being caught, then when it turns really cold just find the deepest holes in the same creek and you will find the crappie. White perch slow down that time of year but I know some folks that catch em then. We also will take off some times and go down to the OBX and catch them big ocean stripers. Hope this helps. CF

[chaunc]

Perch slayer, i'm not sure what part of Virginia you're located in but the ice fishing here in Pa. is awesome. I started 3 years ago and i'm hooked now. Go to this site and ask questions and see if anyone there can give you help. www.iceshanty.com Lots of good icefishing advice there.

[LBM]

Perch slayer

I almost hate to spread the word about how good winter crappie fishing can be. I have friends here in Kansas that consider winter crappie fishing to be better than the spring crappie spawn.

The absolute worst time is when the ice is too thick to break with the boat and too thin to walk on. Those are the times to head to the power plant lake and fish or if the season is open get the bird dog out and chase the quail and pheasants. It is a very eerie sound to be breaking the skim ice on the water with your boat.

On the cold and windy days the rivers running into the resovoirs can be enjoyable if there are higher banks to help block out some of the wind and of course not have to fight the rolling waves that would be out on the main lake. In the winter I just use jigs - no minnows to get your hands wet and cold.

The biggest consideration is keeping warm. I use a thinner polyproplene base layer covered by second thicker layer microfiber type (Duofold brand) covered by jeans and flannel shirt covered by light hooded jacket . Each layer loose fitting and not tight. Have a outter layer with snowmobile type suit. I keep a wool neck gaiter around neck to reduce heat loss. On my head I keep a wool felted type cap, over my lighter ball type cap, tied under my chin and over my ears. The hood from my jacket can be tied over this. On my feet I wear those Mickey Mouse type pac boots with the big thick felt liner. On my hands I just wear those brown jersey gloves (keeping several pair on the boat to change out if they get wet). I also will use those chemical hand warmer packets if needed. To me if I can keep my head, neck and feet warm my hands will be eaiser to keep warm.

With the above layering I can keep absolutly comfortable out on the water by opening or removing layers. In the summer time one can only take off just so much clothing and will still be uncomfortable.

Also in winter crappie fishing it is a absolute to be careful and cautious out on the cold water. Times for catastrophy are very short and quick when emersed into 35 degree water.

I think I told this before on this board but will repeat it. I was crappie fishing one beautiful snowy day with a friend, each of us out of our own boats. We had a good day catching fish. On the next day I left my boat home and fished with my friend out of his boat. As I was backing him down the ramp his boat slid off of the trailer onto the ramp. The bunks on the trailer had iced up over night allowing the boat to easily slide off. Lesson learned is to keep the bow eye hooked to the trailer until the boat is backed to the water. I now do this year around.

We were able to get the boat back onto the trailer by lifting the bow up to the trailer then backing the trailer under the boat and standing in the bow to force the boat back onto the trailer then proceed to launch boat and countiune the fishing trip. He just had minor skagg damage on his lower unit. I glad it was his boat a 16ft aluminum and not mine which was a 18ft fiberglass with a 175 hp motor. Don't think we could have put my boat back onto the trailer in the same manner.

In winter crappie fishing if you can find the big balls of shad, that will show up as dark clouds on your graph, you will probably be close to the crappie. Just run your jigs at the shad depth or lower and you should be catching crappie.

Good luck and good winter fishing.

LM

[crappieseeker]

I catch more fish in the winter than any other time of the year. The fish school tighter together and less pressure and boat traffic

[LBM]

Crappieseeker I wounder if we are making a mistake in spreading this info around

[PerchSlayer]

thanks guys great info on crappie fishing. You really persuaded me to take a different outlook on the cold winter months. You can be sure to see me out there this winter taking advantage of those slabs.
Good fishing

[fishin3]

I know I look forward to the cold cause that means the fair weather are at home waiting for hot weather again. Plus no wave runners and the such!!!! The crappie bait also gets good then. I like it better than spring if you cna keep warm and it does not bother my turkey hunting as bad just deer hunting.

[Barnacle Bill]

PerchSlayer, We don't let a little thing like ice keep us from fishing here in SE VA. Fortunately, we don't get hard water that often. I have broke ice to get out a few times. And there were a few times I should have stayed home.