I now have a scorched rear-end from sitting on a hot seat, and even though there's only a little redness on my elbow, I could bet the farm I need a transplant from puttng that elbow on hot metal. Even the fishfinders are too hot to touch with bare fingers. I picked up a rod with handle so hot I had to dunk it in the lake. Yeah, it's a little hard to switch into winter talk, but out there now sometimes thoughts of snow falling seems to help the psyche. With sweat coming out at about 2 liters a minute it might scare a partner yelling "Look at all that snow" just to try cooling down.

Come deer season I carry a rifle i nthe boat and keep an eye out for a good buck. It's a good break from cold fishing to get out and stalk around a while. Our winters are really not what most of you would call winter, more like a cold spring. I fished many days last December in a short sleeved shirt and had gnats and mosquitos pestering me. That kills deer hunting for me.

Jim

i care and in fact have been thinking the same thing.  in past years i mainly lay off for the winter and wonder if ive lost my love of fishing to some extent and then realize on the first outing of the spring that it wasnt fishing that was the problem it was just my aversion to bad weather.  i start my spring early catching smallmouth in the river though so its not that lng a wait really.  this year ive gotten a little overboard on the fishing though and will prob fish during the winter.  i for one have already started hitting up the winter articles.

matt

In my neck of the woods, the ice never seems to get thick enough for me to be comfortable about going out on it. It does keep me from fishing though. So, I spend the winter ordering more rods, cleaning my reels, ordering more baits, organizing my tackle bags, ordering more reels, re-organizing my tackle bags, ordering more tackle bags so I have to then re-organizing my tackle, etc. Winter is a dangerous time for me. I'm glad when it's over so I can start fishing and stop buying stuff.

This is an easy one for me. I fish year round. I don't ice fish either (had one experienced that just freaked me out and haven't been back out there since). I have two warm water discharge areas on the upper Potomac from coal burning power plants. Its good for smallies and an occasional largemouth. So as long as I can keep the ice off the guides, I'm good to go!