The winter that is. Haven't been fishing in months...yeah I could go ice fishing but that's just not the same. On the bright side we are having a very mild winter..ever milder than last year. We had early ice out in 21..somewhere in the first week in March. If that holds true again this year I should have open water in about 25ish days. Fingers and toes all crossed.

Blessed to live in the southwest, 80 and sunny

It didn't get over 53 today but I still caught a fish.

I’m in the same boat. I’ve had about enough of the ice and cold. The other day I looked at my wife and told her I’ve about had my fill of living in NY. 

29 minutes ago, DitchPanda said:

On the bright side we are having a very mild winter..ever milder than last year.

That's interesting because I'm not far from you near the Twin Cities, and we just had our coldest January in a decade.  Snowfall has been average.  This was preceded by the warmest fall on record in terms of average temperature, and the driest summer since 1988.

 

It was 41 degrees here this afternoon and there was some melting for the first time in what seemed like 2 months.

We've been iced over since New years.

Me and my fishing buddy have been driving to the city once a week to Bass pro to give us something to do.

 

I still have something like 8 weeks left.

 

However I do take solace in the fact that

under all that ice & snow the Brown Bass are 

just getting bigger & bigger.

And are for the most part, completely unmolested the entire time.

As long as I can stay strong (and not pull a "Here's Johnny!")

I will be hunting those 'mothers' down as soon as there is open water.

Stay strong bassheads.

A-Jay

 

 

The little lake by my house is JUST about thawed. Hoping to maybe get on it this weekend.

9 minutes ago, gimruis said:

That's interesting because I'm not far from you near the Twin Cities, and we just had our coldest January in a decade.  Snowfall has been average.  This was preceded by the warmest fall on record in terms of average temperature, and the driest summer since 1988.

 

It was 41 degrees here this afternoon and there was some melting for the first time in what seemed like 2 months.

We've had a few cold snaps but overall its been very mild. Today was 55..the next 10 days we have a day that only gets to 25...the other 9 days get up into the high 30s to high 40s maybe touching 50 again. Also we are bone dry here...have had very little snow...usually average around 35 inches a winter bet weve had less than 12 so far this winter.

Sunny and 25 today. It's warmed up so much this week I thought about throwing a line into the river. But then I remembered how the line freezes in the guides after a few casts

Yep, every year I get less tolerant of the winter. Told my wife I’m ready to pack it up and move to FL.

still another 8 weeks to go here or so before anything starts warming up and biting...

Same here. This place, fishing articles, Youtube videos, and buying/sorting tackle are what gets me thru winter. But I'm ready to wet some line, dammit. Hopefully mid-March I'll be able to get the boat out. Maybe sooner if I jump on the river. 

The struggle is reel(see what I did?). I used to ice fish to get me thru and kinda scratch the itch\wet the appetite but after 20 years that don't cut it anymore.

4 minutes ago, NorthernBasser said:

Same here. This place, fishing articles, Youtube videos, and buying/sorting tackle are what gets me thru winter. But I'm ready to wet some line, dammit. Hopefully mid-March I'll be able to get the boat out. Maybe sooner if I jump on the river. 

all that stuff you mentioned does help for sure but when we get way into winter...like we are now..I get a little more antsy and twitchy. The closer it gets the worse it seems..the anticipation gets the best of me.

We also haven't gotten much snow this year. Like 17" under the norm. I wonder how that's gonna affect springtime lake levels. 

56 minutes ago, gimruis said:

This was preceded by the warmest fall on record in terms of average temperature, and the driest summer since 1988.

Fall was the same way here, and the lakes were very low due to lack of rain during this past summer. Also, we had explosive weed growth accompanied by terrible filamentous algae. This made it very tough to fish. I'm actually glad for the first time that this extended wicked cold and ice came along to flatten it all out. However, several lakes which are typically very weedy never sprouted a strand because of the algae bloom. I'm hoping the extended deeper cold will correct the situation somehow..

4 minutes ago, NorthernBasser said:

We also haven't gotten much snow this year. Like 17" under the norm. I wonder how that's gonna affect springtime lake levels. 

Not gonna be good I'm afraid. My local watershed is about as low as I've seen it so I'm praying for late winter snow and early spring rain.

5 minutes ago, DitchPanda said:

I get a little more antsy and twitchy. The closer it gets the worse it seems.

I hear ya. I just got a new Zillion yesterday, so I'm dying to get out there. My buddy just called and said he drove by our favorite lake and it's a rink. He suggested stopping down to practice skipping.

1 hour ago, DitchPanda said:

usually average around 35 inches a winter bet weve had less than 12 so far this winter.

I saw the snow cover map the other day. Most of South Dakota, western Iowa, and Nebraska have absolutely no snow on the ground which is very unusual for this time of year.

 

We need a monsoon of rain this spring. Not inches either. Like a foot and not all at the same time either.

Winter is my favorite time to fish. I dread the springtime, it can be kind of silly with all the boats that took the winter off. The saving grace of is that most people will use their boat about twice on the first couple warm weekends, the park it again for the rest of the year 

I slid backward down an icy, one lane, township road this afternoon in a loaded crude tanker. Roughly 20% grade, rock wall on the left, couple hundred yard drop on the right.  Nobody is more tired of winter than I am. Been a rough few weeks here in SE OH and the WV panhandle. Extended forcast is looking better though. Should be back on the water in 4 or 5 weeks.

Just now, T-Billy said:

I slid backward down an icy, one lane, township road this afternoon in a loaded crude tanker. Roughly 20% grade, rock wall on the left, couple hundred yard drop on the right.  Nobody is more tired of winter than I am. Been a rough few weeks here in SE OH and the WV panhandle. Extended forcast is looking better though. Should be back on the water in 4 or 5 weeks.

Dang, glad your able to still talk to us! A guy dumped a crude tanker into the ocoee  river here a few years ago, needless to say he ain’t trucking no more 

winter sucks.i swear when i retire and im not working past65 if i have to live in a tent, im moving south.

1 minute ago, padon said:

winter sucks.i swear when i retire and im not working past65 if i have to live in a tent, im moving south.

I’ve got 3 tents, one of them is yours for free if you ever make it down haha. I can even let you set one up on a boat dock if you’ll cut the grass………