This time of year is best spent inside by a warm fire and dreading going outside just to throw the trash out. Most anglers are sitting on the couch watching Bill Dance catch a 10lb bass on every cast, but a few of us are still layering on the cold weather gear and breaking ice off the kayaks in search for winter Bass and Pickerel.
January 25th was our first chance to get out after the first snow fall and that morning was forecasted to be a cool 20 degrees and partly cloudy. The three of us loaded up the gear the night before and had plans of tearing up some winter crappie, bass and pickeral at one of our favorite spots. When we arrived at the honey hole we quickly unloaded all of our gear and headed into the woods for our next adventure.
When we arrived at the entrance to the lake we all screamed out a few choice words at the sight of 4 inch thick ice covering every inch of water. We couldn't see the main lake from that spot so we hoped and prayed that it wouldn't be frozen because of the 10-15 mph winds that were making waves all night. Determined to catch a fish Luke ventured out onto the ice with his kayak holding him up to see if it was safe to walk on. After a few minutes discussing how stupid of an idea it was to go for it we all set out on the ice with our kayaks holding most of our weight.
I was last to go after Ryan and Luke with their heavy kayaks carved a nice path of cracked ice for me. The only reason this was somewhat safe was because we were all wearing waterproof chest waders and if we did break through it was only 1-2 feet deep.
After dragging and carving our way through the thick ice covered ditch we were finally approaching the lake and still praying for open fishable water. Once again we were hit in the face with disappointment at the sight of the entire lake being covered in 4 inches of ice, except for one hole that was about 20 yards wide and 75 yards long and we had come to far to not get out there and give it a shot.
After throwing everything we had tied on in that little hole and watching our lures snap off while casting because our braided line was freezing on the spool, we decided to head back to the trucks. But it was still early... We packed up the gear and tried another lake but the ice was unforgiving. We found fishable water on the third lake of the day, but after 2 hours of no bites in the 15 mph winds we decided to call it a day. Even though we didn't have any luck we had an amazing adventure that we won't forget anytime soon and it was well worth it for the laughs.
This is what happens to 3 grown men when all the fish are frozen... don't judge us.
This week was the same as last with a snow storm coming through on Tuesday to destroy any chance of catching winter bucket mouths, but we had to try anyway. This Saturday was set as a practice day for the Lake Prince bass tournament on February 8th. I headed out around 7am with my buddy Jesse and we were hoping Lake Prince wouldn't be frozen because the guys at Oceans East told us that Lake Smith was thawed out on Friday. When we got to the ramp it was covered in snow and the lake was almost completely frozen with no way of getting a jon boat through it. Still wanting to fish we knew we had to find a river with moving water, so we headed out to Blackwater River.
The river was only frozen around the banks and we had another buddy with us that had a good day with bass a couple weeks before so we launched with hopes of catching anything that would bite a lure. We inched up and down the river for about 6 hours fishing at every depth and even seeing schools of fish on the fish finder but they decided to have lock jaw all day.
It's been an interesting couple of weeks with the snow storms and single digit temps freezing up all of our winter fishing haunts. Even though we didn't have any luck with the fish its definitely been an adventure and it will make the "tough" days of fishing in the summer that much easier to handle because of what we've been through this winter. Spring is right around the corner so if your not out trying your luck in the cold then its the perfect time to organize all of your tackle and get ready for the pre spawn bass bite.
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