On Foot Angler

Fishing In the Cold

The time between the beginning of fall -- September, let's say -- and the first real cold snap is an interesting time for the angling community. A good part of the country gets ready to carefully clean every single lure, hook, reel, and pair of fishing shoes they own. After all, it is freaken cold out there. The last few years something new (I guess?) called winter has really planted its feet on a lot of the country. From the Texas panhandle summer trout-stalkers, to the urban anglers hunting the riverways of our big cities for their still-active fish populations, our sport closes down for many of our brothers and sisters on the water. But not for us.

Fishing in Florida in the Wintertime

Don't take this lead-in as evidence that nobody fishes in the winter anywhere but here in Florida. A well-stocked tackle shop in the northern states actually sells stuff you can use to catch fish through holes you cut or 'auger' in thick ice. They probably sell the tools you need to cut the holes in the ice, for all I know. Once upon a time in a land called New Jersey, and in a nearby land called Pennsylvania, the author seems to remember a few nights (?!!!) in a tent sitting next to a hole. I seem to remember frozen fish cubes -- bluegill or perch maybe? I do not remember anything pulling anything, but something resembling a bell hung on a stick and when it rang you picked up the ice-cube fish. There are a lot of fish out there I still want to catch. If ice fishing is on your bucket list, that is totally cool. It ain't on mine. I grew up most of my angling life on Florida's west central coast. The Gulf of Mexico is a vast playground for us. And the coastal regions I am most familiar with change quite a bit over the years. We fish different in the winter than in the summer. Northerners visiting our lovely state say that we don't have seasons.

I beg your pardon. Tell that to a tarpon. Tell that to the big redfish and snook you find warming themselves under residential docks in December. And tell that to the Bay slam - trout, redfish, and the snook - you could find in your cooler or on your smart phone in the middle of January.

There are a few things you need to know to catch more fish in the wintertime.

· Tides are different; low tides in the winter are a major factor in our waters.

· The fish are in different places.

· The fish eat slower.

· The bait is different.

· You need to dress properly.

Tides in the Winter

Tides act differently here than they do in Alabama. Hell. They work differently here than they do at the Skyway Bridge nine miles from where we keep one of the boats owned by team members. There can be two tides here and four tides up north where another of the partners keeps his shallow water boat. And vice versa. But in the winter time we have negative tides -- tides so low they expose dry areas of the bays and Intercoastal waterways you do not see ten months out of the year. You can learn a lot about your region if you go out when the water is very low in the dead of the winter.

Where the Fish Are in the Winter

Since we are taking generally about fishing in the winter, we will leave species-specific seasonal information for your leisure reading when you want to learn all there is to know about any one fish. But there are general issues about our local fish you will eventually just come to know whether we teach you or not.

Some fish can handle cold water without a shiver, and some can die from a three degree drop in their minimal range. Snook "kills" here in Florida are legendary; you can find ten thousand fish in a small bay if the water gets too cold. The species recover fairly rapidly after a big freeze, but not without a definite negative impact on the angler. The fish recover and the economy recovers, but cold weather has a lot of impact on how fish act even when it does not get below 30 degrees for ten or twelve days. Simple cold fronts change fish behavior. But the general downward water temperature but them in different places.

On the flats the fish are in those holes exposed by the negative tides. Look at a Google Earth picture. Then walk or paddle or boat out onto the edges of any flat on the gulf. You will see dry ground that appeared to be underwater in satellite shot. Those negative winter tides drive fish into relatively tight spots. Approach flats from the deeper edges, and look. Use a set of binoculars. They help you see water that is three inches deep in November and averages three feet during the summer flood tides.

The Bait is Different.

If you fish with live baits under almost any circumstances (they produce more fish), you end up using different baits in the summertime than you do in the winter. If you want to catch fish, using the actual natural prey the target predator is predating is obviously more effective than trying to use a piece of buttered toast for rainbow trout. It is also more effective than using a plastic or glass or metal fake version of that same living (or stinky and dead in the case of many otherwise very attractive fish) prey.

Here where we fish, the summertime is sardine time. It is easier to catch them with a cast net than it is with your hands, and they are not readily available except at seaside (raw or fresh saltwater is critical to their even short existence). But you can catch the heck out of them using a Sabiki rig to hook them three or four at a time and release them into your bait bucket. Wintertime is shrimp time -- both in their availability in local bait shops and their appearance in local waters. They also are a lot easier to fish with underneath a dock, where placed on a free-lined rig can result in shocking strikes from massive fish. Sardines know there are monsters in the shadows, and swim hard to get deep into the middle of channels where the docks are.

One of the companies that help the site work is a company called ProCure. They make a range of products that add scent to your dead bait and most importantly to your soft plastic lures. They increase the effectiveness even on baits claiming to already smell fishy. Try it – you will become an avid and regular user. In the wintertime the scents are even more important because otherwise active fish are more lethargic. Scent attracts fish that would otherwise not bother to move twelve inches to grab your lure and make your day.

If you are a lure fisherman or woman, fish your lures slow. If you think you are fishing them too slow, and that is why the fish are not eating, slow them down. Another consideration is that the fish are less active in the cold water and you might get more strikes from a bait bouncing on or near the bottom then you will with faster lures. This is not true when mackerel show up in shallow water where it meets deep channels, or rampaging schools of bluefish or even ladyfish or jack and make for great sport; they are moving schools that move fast. As fast in cold water as in warm. So have spoons ready when you need them. If you try bouncing one slowly though, on sandy bottoms near the edges of the mangroves, big trout might make you have a new perception of the productive artificials

Just drag them, pull them, bounce them, or swim them slowly, slowly, slowly.

Dressing Well

Lastly, make sure you dress well. We are not the kind of angler wearing a watch worth three thousand bucks and shirts that took $129 to put on. But we do like good clothes that keep us warm. Consider tight skin gear like skiers use underneath a shirt with buttons and pockets. It gives you more places to lose stuff, which is good luck. If it is damp, do not wear cotton; it wicks cold moisture and will ruin your day. Good covers make for more comfortable hunting, too, and do not leave the dock without rain gear if there is an even slight chance of getting cold and wet at the same time. Freezing wet skin will not drive some of us fishy idiots off the water, but being dry is a good thing.

Tight lines and warm socks. The fish are there and you will not need a bell on a stick to let you know.