After the extremely cold and horribly long winter we had last year, what impact did it have on the fishing in your area?

 

Some areas here were clearly affected and others I don't see any change at all.

Spawn was LAAAAAAAATE. Normally I see fish in ponds spawning mid-late april,  this year I think it was mid may before they spawned here, and I even saw one pond have a spawn in june!

We had a late spawn and high water levels until mid summer.   My 40 acre pond is very normal.  Choked with weeds, algae and fish!  I noticed less weed growth than usual in some of the lakes though.  I think because the high muddy water didn't allow light penetration.  So now some of these lakes still have less visibility than normal.  Usually the weed growth eats up all those minerals from the water.  Who knows, maybe that will just happen late, but we aren't real far from turnover now.

 

The Delaware river was high and the water warmed up to normal summer temps very late this year.  Heavy releases went on through July, so the early summer smallie fishing suffered.  The water level is normal now, and the temperature is where it should be. It looks like the shad spawn was very successful and there are juvenile shad in all the deep pools. The smallmouth fishing has been phenomenal lately.  Lots of insect hatching and the large numbers of shad have the fish eating aggressively.  I am hoping that the higher water levels will lead to better insect hatching in the future, as for the past few years we have had super low water and super high summer temperature highs.  Aquatic insects are adversely affected by temperature more than fish, so when the temps spike, bugs die and the fish lose an important food source.

Seems to me the fish have stayed shallow all year for the most part around here. I've caught very few deep fish compared to previous years. 

The cold winter temperatures killed a large percentage of the yellowtail in the Tennessee

River.  Fortunately threadfin reproduce quickly, sometimes spawning multiple times during

the year if conditions are right. In the meantime the river system offers a bounty of alternative

forage.

 

As far as fishing goes, the impact has been favorable for those of us that occasionally fish

live bait. Right now the baitfish are hard to find and capture, but if you can get them, it's Katy

Bar The Door! 

 

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