A few years back my friend Clint fished the Copper River, near Terrace B.C., when there was six feet of shelf ice and the temperature was about 15 degrees. He told me that he accidentally cast his B.C. Steel onto the shelf ice on the far side of the river and that it immediately stuck to the ice.

I have, more than once had my eggs or yarn tie freeze to a rock.

What are your coldest fishing experiences?

If you fished today – Sunday - how cold was it?

I fished a small river one winter when there was shelf ice along the sides and the rocks on the river bed had ice as well.....very odd I thought with the river running in between. The water was so low and clear that the fish would just bury themselves into any cover they could find. I remember looking upstream under a large chunk of concrete (reminant of old bridge washout) and with only the down stream edge of the concrete above the stream bed, I could see three steelhead tails waving at me....no way to present anything as the upstream edge of concrete was well buried in the bed.

Fished the Tuccanon during a long stretch of single digit highs and saw something I didn't even know was possible. Large chunks of ice were breaking off the bottum of the river and floating to the surface. The entire river bed was frozen with the river flowing over the top. Now thats cold!

I havent fished for steelhead in really cold weather. Lots of days when the temps were in the low to mid teens. A few times I have had half the gravel bar stick to my waders when Ive knelt on the rocks.....

When I lived over east we used to to fish for trout in the winter. Ive fished in some really cold temps, Zero and below. You do not want to fish from a 10 foot aluminum boat when the tempature gets down below 10. Ice forms on everything and the boat gets really heavy and unstable.

Ive fished for trout through the ice a few times during some long cold snaps. Thats fun.

I fished the Green near Auburn yesterday for about 8 hours that was enough for me . Nice day to be out excluding the temperatures, no fish although I did get to watch a couple of beaver (non human) and a otter for awhile and right before I was getting ready to leave a harbor seal pup comes swimming by temperatures must of been screwing up it's gps unit I've never seen one that far up river before

I went to college at CWU. If you want cold, try whitefishing the Yakima river in February with a typical Ellensburg "breeze". The fish were flash frozen by the time they hit the bank.

A couple fo my buddies drove all night one time to go to Michigan to fish. Got in the parking light right at daylight, and not a car in sight. They booted up, got dressed, and headed through the woods to the river. They kept hearing a faint grinding sound, and when they got to the river, it was running solid slush and small chunks of ice. Waited until later in the day for it to warm up, and the slush cleared. The only other problem they had, was anchor ice. If your not familiar with it, it's like the river freezign over, from the bottom up. The fish will back down to the lake, and wait for condtions to improve before returnining. They packed their gear in the afternoon and headed back home. 23 hours of round trip driving to watch a wasteland of ice and slush.

This will never happen again, that is believing the weatherman! In 1997 My son, a friend and myself decided to take the long float on the Nooch, the weatherman called for mostly sunny with highs in the 50’s, so I decided to dress light that day no long under wear just my fleece and light neoprene’s with a light Hodgmen’s rain jacket (and I use that term lightly, rain jacket that is). Ok, pickup truck dropped off 11 miles downstream, gear loaded in the boat a little chilly but tolerable with the sun coming up and the 50 degree weather just hours away. We push off from the ramp get about 300 yards downstream and all hell broke loose! The wind came up to probably 20 mph snow, hail, more wet snow and rain and it is coming at us parallel to the river and does not let up for the whole day. My day was spent huddled under a spare coat we happen to have in the boat I was shivering and numb throughout my whole body, I’m sure I was on the edge of hypothermia, we had to drain the boat 4 or 5 times during the day and actually row hard downriver just to keep the boat from blowing back upriver. We finally ended up at the takeout about 5 hours later, and I started stripping my clothes off faster than a exotic dancer at a strip club, clothes off in the truck warming up and you guessed it the sun comes out. Well my lesson was learned that day I now pack extra clothes on my fishing trips no matter what the weatherman says. To this day I have been trying to find a job where I can screw up almost daily and get a pay check just like the weatherman we depend on.

One August day at Sekiu I didn't take off my sweatshirt until 9 AM

Fishing the Yakima with snow on the ground. Walking around a log jamb I fell through the ice and plunged in to the river. Believe me that was cold. I thought I was still walking on the bank. The duck

I spent a lot of time ice fishing in Wisconsin and I never fished in one of those heated ice shacks either. What I learned is that if the temperature gets below zero F, it is virtually impossible to keep ahead of the ice forming in the hole and on your line. Once you learn to dress for the weather though, it isn't a problem to stay warm. All those dorky-looking, extremely bulky, boots, gloves, jackets, snow pants, etc... really come into there own when it is below zero and you are sitting on a bucket in the middle of a frozen lake with the wind howling.

One of the most unnerving cold weather fishing experiences for me was sitting out on the ice on Lake Mendota in Madison, WI in February. As we all know, water expands when it turns to ice. As this happens pressure builds up in the ice until it cracks and heaves up along a fault line. You can hear the crack start on one end of the lake and race all the way across. The sound is indescribable. A mixture of a bullet shot and a mini earthquake and although you know you are safe(the ice is often a couple feet thick), you can't help but pucker up a bit. I once had a crack come right through the hole in which I was fishing. I nearly soiled myself.

If you are getting cold while you are out steelheading, you just aren't wearing the right clothes. Of course you won't look very fashionable when you are!

I fished yesterday and the spool on my baitcaster kept freezing. I also had a layer of ice on my breathables. Later, I took my boots off and put my neoprene booties on to go into a store for a cup of coffee. When I tried to put my boots back on they were frozen solid.

Air temp was not the coldest, mid-high 30's and the Skagit was, oh about 40 degrees. This was back in Feb. '01. I was aboard a buddy's sportjet sled, who was at the wheel, cruising down stream pretty fast. I was sitting on the engine cover, going around a bend and I don't know exactly what he hit, he's says a "wave" but long of the short, I ended up in the water.
BRRR. I was plucked out immediately, got some clothing removed and was sitting next to the heater before it really hit me what had happened. We were back at the launch in minutes, but it seemed like an hour.
I was fine, but it cut short the day as you could imagine.
He's very experienced and careful, running rivers, but you'll never catch me sitting on that engine cover again, at least while traveling on a river.
Don't really fish the Skagit anymore either.

Hmmm...got a few of those!

Ice fishing at Fish Lake...the week before it had been up in the fifties, and a foot deep layer of water had accumulated on top of the ice from ice and snow melt. When the temps dropped back down near zero, it refroze with ten or twelve inches of water between the two layers of ice. I broke through the first layer so many times that on the way back to the truck my boot fell off and I didn't even notice until my Dad asked me if I would like to go back and get it. Brrrr....

Fishing a small tributary stream in E. Washington in December...entire stream was frozen over except for a ten foot stretch under a small foot bridge. First cast with a small spinner resulted in a ten pound hatchery winter run, which I was able to fight and land right under the bridge on a 5' ultralight with 4# test.

Had to get out of the boat on the Snocrummy when I was in high school when the boat got stuck going over a bar...stuck in about ten inches of slush on the bottom of the river.

Fish on...

Todd.

Another Michigan story. I was visiting relatives one March and was offered a steelheading trip. Went up to the Muskegon River in a very heavy wind and snowstorm to a place my uncle called heart attack hill. It definately was a steep SOB as 3 of us slid on our butts down a very steep and long hill side. Ice and slush chunks were floating by in the near white out conditions. After about an hour of this it warmed up a little and the snow turned to freezing sleet. There were a couple of kamakazie steelies that must have thought that the bank was warmer than the river. So we were just busy enough to ignore the foul weather. As the day went on it got colder again and the sleet turned back to snow. The wind started blowing so hard that we couldn't see the river, so we decided to get out of there. By now there was a layer of ice on top of the snow and the snow that was now falling down, up, sideways, etc was just curling everywhere. We tried to get up the hill for 2 hours as every few feet of progress that we'd make one of us would slip and fall on the ice. We finally got off the trail and pulled ourselves up by grabbing the brush and whatever else we could get a grip on. When we finally got to the top we were so drenched with sweat that we steaming. We had to strip down and change into whatever was in the back of the truck. We made it as far as the 1st town where the police were stopping traffic until the storm let up. We spent the night sleeping on the floor of a resturant/bar.

January,1978,ice fishing for bull trout with my dad on Flathead Lake in Montana.Fishing for bull trout. Jigging for em in about 3 ft of water. When you fish for them this shallow you can see the coming thru your ice hole,and they usually mean business.17 degrees below and a monster takes a swip at my jig. I set HARD,jig comes flying out of the water.Knowing the lunker will come right back if I drop my jig back in the hole,I can't find it, words are coming out of my mouth 14 year old are'nt supposed to say.Dad says hold still,I say why?????? The jig was hooked into the bridge of my nose,so cold I did'nt even feel it go in,Dad removes the jig,I'm bleeding,its alright so cold can't feel the pain,drop the jig back in the hole,1 jig and bang I got em,14 lber man it hurt like hell later after my face thawed

Two good ones. Fly fishing off a ladder at Pyramide lake near Reno on feb 17. About 20 degrees with a good wind chill to boot. Caught a few fish and got my wool no finger gloves wet. Fished for a while longer and realized my gloves had frozen to my hand solid. Had to dunk hands in the water for about 1 min to get the gloves off.

Clearwater river in jan, ice shelf formed at the launch. Figured I could put on my waders and break up the ice and launch the boat. It worked, we headed down the river and I am on the sticks for about an hour. O.K ( Drift boat guys picture this) the felt soles on my wading boots have frozen to the push bar your feet go on when your rowing. I mean solid. Had to take the boots off to get my feet out.

O.K, one more- Left drift boat out side without the cover on at a buddies cabin. Picked up the boat and it was full of ice, about 12 inches in front solid.... going fishing... NOT.. had to put it in the garage with a mister heater going full blast for two days to melt it to dump it out...

A couple of the coldest I remember were in the eighties:

Once we had sub-freezing temps for a week, but when the Artic blast finally started to break a friend decided he couldn’t wait any longer to take his new DB out for the first time. So off we go to drop in at Plum’s on the Sno. There's a bit of ice at the ramp but it's still very dark and to way too cold to sit around, so we shove off anyway. Right off the bat he's having trouble with his oars, so he drops anchor to check things out. Next thing we hear banging on the back end off the boat and as the light comes up we realize the river is chock full of patio-block sized icebergs moving downriver. I have never seen anything like it, before or since, on our rivers in the NW. We figured it must have been pool ice that was braking up coming over the falls. Man, I’d heard of ice fishing but this was ludicrous. Anyway there was no way to get a line through that stuff to fish, so we just floated out to Fall City, thankful it wasn't a more technical drift with all that ice.

Let this other time be a warning to all that like to hike in to fish on cold snowy days:

There was too much snow at Palmer Kanasket SP to drive down to the river so I hoofed in from the top. About 12” of snow or more as I recall. Beautiful, sunny, but very cold day with just enough mountain wind to keep everyone else away. First thing, I hook a nice fish in the deep pool and bank it. As I go to hang it in a tree, it kicks off and quickly slides back into the water. Good news is I grab the fish, bad news is I go into the pool after it and fill my boots with ice cold water. In total denial, I empty my boots and keep on fishing. But in minutes I’m getting really cold so I decide to call it quits and head back. Big problem. My wet felt soles turn the snow to ice and pack up quickly on the bottoms, making it very difficult to walk in the waders without stopping every 10 yards to chip the ice off my soles. But the worst part is that the water in my boots is quickly turning to ice and freezing my feet. So before I’m 100’ from the river I have to turn back to stand in the river just to unthaw my feet. So now I’m standing in the water, fish in hand, trying to figure out what my next move is going to be while the situation goes from bad to worse. Realizing the gravity of the situation, I suck it up and make the excruciating hike up the hill and back to the car over a 1/2 mile away. How I made it back I’m still not really sure but I do know I was one cold, wet, scared, hurting and lucky dude that day.

The things we’ll do and go through for a steelhead.

I've fished many times when it was so cold your fingers stuck to anything metal and your guides full of ice. The most memorable for me though is sometime in the late 80's. It was the year we got that real cold snap and had about a foot of snow on the ground for over a week. I decided to go out Blackmouth fishing (that's when you could still fish blackmouth all winter) at Possession. The ramp was so icy that I came within a foot or two of dunking my truck when I was backing the boat in at Everett. That should've told me something but I was younger and dumber then. We proceeded to head out in my 23' Olympic. The wind was blowing about 20 knots that day so it was a somewhat bumpy ride out there. When I got to Possession and walked out on the back of my boat I was greeted with a layer of ice over two inches thick that completely covered my downriggers and most of the stern of the boat. At that point I knew I had no business being out there and beat feet back to the launch ramp. Once there, I had to have another four wheel drive hook onto the front of my four wheel drive to get up the ramp. Funny how aging changes you though. Today, I wouldn't even have to go to the launch in those conditions to know better than trying to fish the Sound.

Fishing in 7 degree weather

I new I would have the river to myself, very cold weather and the Seahawks were in the playoffs. If you don’t have time to read a long post just scan the BOLD word it sum’s the day up nicely

1. Knowing it was going to be cold, I placed my wet waders in the house the night before to dry and then put them in the front of the truck. What I didn’t dry/put in the front of the truck was the wader shoes and they were FROZEN solid when I got to the river. So I had to unthaw them in the truck.
2. Felt bottom boots suck in the snow, first few steps away from the truck slipped and fell but it wasn’t bad lots of cloths and 5 inches of snow. Did get COLD wet hands to start the day with.
3. Sprayed the guides of my rod and line with reel magic, works for the guides but braided line still freezes as soon as the wet line leaves the water re-dipping the line does not remove the ICE
4. While stepping out of the river found out that felt bottom boots suck on ICE slipped right where the ice met the shore, landed on softball size rocks and ICE ouch.
5. No matter how nice and pliable the plastic jig box is, when COLD it well shatter when a 230 pound man falls on it . So now I have a fishing vest with a pocket full of jigs and shattered plastic.
6. I returned to the truck and decided to run down to the corner gas station and get some coffee and re organized the jigs in what’s left of the box. When I went to get in the truck my waders were FROZE so I couldn’t get my legs up to step in….so I place one hand on the door a jumped into the truck. The frozen waders were so slick on the pleather seats I slid of the seat and landed on my back next to the truck (feet still in side) that’s fall 3 for anyone counting.
7. Next I grab a Lamaglass spinning rod with mono on it. This time I spray the guides with WD40. Works better then the Reel magic but you need to carry it with you to reapply from time to time. When the WD40 is gone from the tip the ICE scraping from the line well gather on the tip. Don’t put the rod tip in your mouth to remove the ICE, your chewing tobacco well taste like WD40 even after you put in a new dip.
8. The jig that you spent time on the night before that you were sure was “the one” will FREEZE to the reel when the wet marabou touches the metal when you swing the line in to add depth to the float. When you remove the jig the feathers well stay on the reel. So much for the perfect jig.

OVER ALL IT WAS A GREAT DAY FISHING. NOT A BITE BUT ENJOYED THE SNOW AND JUST WALKING IN THE RIVER. LOTS OF BIRDS AND THE SUN GAVE A CLEAN GLOW TO THE SNOW. ENDED THE DAY WEARING MY WADERS HOME BECAUSE THEY WERE FROZE TO BAD TO UNTIE THE BOOTS