Coldest weather you've fished in

[Troutaddict172]

Tryed to fish today but for some reason just couldn't stay warm. I've fished in colder conditions than today too. Decided after a cast or two and that I couldn't feel my index finger or bend it to head for the warmth. What's some of the coldest temps you have ever fished in?

 

[DaveS]

Once, in my youth, I had to fold up my fly line and put it in the Jeep to thaw before I reeled in and called it a day.

 

[Maurice]

Flyfishing during freezing weather can be frustrating. Iced lines make casting like using an extension cord for line. Iced guides can break tips. Not to mention that the fish are likely not cooperative.

For these reasons, I have made a conscious effort to not fish when the air temp is below 38.

And this from a guy that used to bust the iced holes to fish for steelhead. It aint worth it IMHO.

 

[LetortAngler]

Fishing for steelhead at Lake Erie.
Gale force winds coming across the lake with flurries and temps hovering around freezing plus the wind chill. Not exactly my cup of tea.

 

[Reeder]

33-34 degrees or higher and I will fly fish. I would fish lower temps if it wasn't for frozen guides and the risk of broken tips. I usually ice fish when its that cold but this is one of those weird years. I am off tomorrow and it looks like a high of 30...then up in the mid to upper 30s the rest of the week, while i am back at work. Figures.

 

[turkey]

I fished the mouth of Elk Creek one winter. Everything was completely iced over except about a 40' stretch of water. I tried a few drifts and sure enough there were cooperative fish hanging just under the far shelf of ice. The ice was so thick where I was standing that I had to slide down into the creek to release the fish, then I would climb back up, put my hands in my waders for awhile, and try another drift. After 4 or 5 fish my hands had become wet but they eventually stopped hurting. In hindsight this was a pretty obvious warning sign. I had my fill and walked back through the woods to my truck. I'll never forget it because there were what I can only assume were coyote prints right next to mine. He must've come within 40' of me while I was fishing but I never saw him. Anyway after I thawed out I noticed the backs of my thumbs down to my wrist never fully regained their feeling. It felt like when your leg or foot falls asleep. It took about 5 months before the "pins and needles" went away. I'll still fish in the cold but too cold isn't worth it.

 

[sarce]

23 degrees, but no wind that morning. Wasnt terrible but I only stayed an hour. Caught a brown on a spring fed creek. Creek water was warm enough to thaw the frozen guides. This was 2014 in state college...that was actually a relatively warm morning for that winter. I'm getting cold just thinking about it.

 

[steveo27]

This past weekend. Both Friday and Saturday were in the upper 20*s. It was very windy and snowy on Friday but rather calm Saturday. I fished about 5 hours each day and walked a total of 9 miles over the 2.

 

[krayfish2]

High of 21, sideways snow up on SR......never again. One of the guys in the group slipped and went completely under. Had to build a fire immediately to keep him from hypothermia. We got yelled at but it was a pretty serious situation

 

[FarmerDave]

No idea, but I tend not to fly fish when it is below 30. I can deal with a little bit of ice on the guides, but prefer not to. That said, I have done other forms of fishing in cold weather, and I used to do a lot of ice fishing, years ago.

One year I was trying to set up a homemade ice shanty in heavy wind. Wind caught it and started blowing it across the lake. Fortunately I hadn't gotten it completely setup so it collapsed. Unfortunately win also caught a bucket full of "gear." I was able to gather some of the stuff off the ice since there was no lid on the bucket, but the bucket along with few items that did not fall out of it made it all the way across the lake to where a 20 foot stretch of ice was all broken up from the wind.

Temperature was maybe in the teens with sub-zero wind chill. Did I mention it was windy that day?

I still fished, but instead sat on my collapsed shanty.;-)

Worst fishing experience was when it was upper 30s and raining and i didn't have an ice shanty. I stayed warm enough, or so I thought. Sat there on a bucked in the middle of a lake for a couple hours, all by myself. I felt fine until I went to stand up. My legs had gotten wet, and my knees stiffened up. I couldn't straighten my legs for a little bit. I'm sure I looked funny at first walking back with bent knees, but they eventually started working again. ;-)

I had good boots, so my feet never got cold. That is the key.

The cold never used to bother me. It still doesn't bother me all that much, but as I get older, it is starting to.

This morning I had single digit temperatures when I went out to stoke the outside boiler. The air was so crisp and fresh, I actually enjoyed it.

It's been a record warm December. I actually found broccoli growing in the garden on New Years day and still had buds on the rose bushes. A coupe weeks ago, I had dandelions in the side yard, and the bees were our flying around. We need some cold weather, but back into the mid 40s later in the week.

Ponds are finally froze over.

Gulf and Pete, shut your pie holes.

 

[pcray1231]

My coldest day started in the single digits, with a high of 12 on the day. Yes, it was steelhead. Yes, I did fairly well. I probably wouldn't have bothered, but I was meeting JayL streamside later in the morning.

It had just turned cold, so the surface was not frozen over solid, though very slushy. You had to hit your holes in the slush as they came by. Also, keep a constant amount of line out, with most of it cleared of "wax candle" ice and don't get it wet to form more. Once set, just keep casting that same distance.

Once you hooked one, it was a different matter, as the more "solid" pieces of slush would grab your line and just take it, pulling the fish up and pasting it on the bottom side of the slush patch, lol. As such, heavy tippet was a must (think I cut back to the 15 lb test part of the leader), and you had to pick somewhere with slow current below so that you could get down there and work that mess out.

Anyway, the real sucky part was wading. You know how when you walk in snow on felt, you compact snow and end up with yeti feet? Well, on that day, the same thing happened WHILE you were waste deep in the water. Anchor ice was forming.

I will not do that again. 30ish is my limit these days.

 

[pabrookie94]

I am 21 so one could say I am still in my youth...but in about 3-4 years ago I went a couple outings when it was in the teens and it was just dumb. Breaking ice out of the guides every other cast, slooooowwwwww fishing although I did manage 2 stockies, and just overall cold.

These are my smarter years now ....I pretty much stay in unless air temp is at or above 27ish. I read a tip on here a while back that was about putting chapstick on the guides and I tried in the other day when it was 27 and almost no ice formed over the 4 hour adventure.

 

[PennypackFlyer]

Didn't we have a post last year that asked the same question??

10-12 degrees. And yes I caught trout. Thank God not many since my hand would be ice cold from handling the fish. And when you drop your rod in the water it is time to quit. I have on a couple of occasions done this and walked back to my car with the line wrapped around my arm.

 

[joebamboo]

Fishing the Breeches late Feruary, temp just around 30. Legs getting numb. Carefully wading downstream and attempted to "step over" what seemed like a smaller rock. Turned out it wasn't so small. Down I go, unable to regain my footing, I was forced to do the backstroke downstream heading into the deeper water near the "culvert". Luckily the current took me near the bank where I was able to grab onto a branch and climb on shore.

That walk back to the Run was to say the least, miserable. My cold day fishing is very limited now.

 

[PALongbow]

Many years ago I fished the LL near Allentown one day when the temps were near zero with wind chills much below zero. Had to get in the truck to get warmed up every now and again. I did manage to catch fish that day but had to quit due to my rod tip breaking off while casting. I just don't like fishing extreme cold temperatures any longer. I do enjoy fishing the Breeches and Fishing Creek a bit when the temps are in the 30's.

Ron

 

[Aducker]

25º and snow. It was brook trout fishing so I was moving a lot. It wasn't that bad at all for me.

 

[Swattie87]

I've fished in the mid 20's before. It's a much more enjoyable experience if the air temp is above freezing though. Not saying I wouldn't fish again in below freezing temps if cabin fever set in bad enough, but I'm usually looking for temps above 35.

Fishing in the quiet while it's actively snowing is pretty cool to do once in a while though.

 

[MD_Gene]

My "algorithm" used to say, IF Temps > 50 GoFish. Now I dropped that to the low 40's.

 

[evw659]

Coldest I've fished in was on the SR(January 2012), high temp of 10-14, 5 degrees when we started in the morning. It was very windy, with off and on le snow. Basically, you have to clear out your guides every 3 or 4 casts, your flyline gets iced over and stiff, and it takes about 10 minutes before your finger tips are so cold that you have to take a break (Handwarmers help to some extent). Also, if you dunk your reel, your basically done. I was only able to fish in roughly 1 hour intervals before I had to warm up in a vehicle. Fishing was very slow too, my dad caught one small steelhead the whole day and that was it.
Overall it was a pretty futile effort, and the lesson for me was simply to never do it again. My temp limit now is about 20-25 degrees with no wind.

 

[Chaz]

Salmon river in Feb. '94 after a cold front.Gale blowing of the lake ice floating on the river, temperature dropped all day tp below '0,' next day never got above '0' and froze our sessa off. Left the next morning.
But we caught Steelhead.