I wanna know if I'm the only brain dead guy already of thinking where the best spot would be to fish next Saturday when it's 12 degrees.

I’d be pulling some jigs somewhere and loading the boat if I could go.

Gotta' Freezer full of Snapper.....IT'S HUNTIN' SEASON!!

Hoping to be on the water at daylight Gotta catch some sucker fish to put up "canning some" while my nephew is here for the holidays. Gotta get atleast 25 by 10am so i can be home for lunch at the inlaws.

Ain’t a fish in the ocean good as them cold water crappie lol

Pm to you fur

I'm glad I'm not the only brain damaged person on here who's going fishing.



returned

I would gp for sure if l was gonna be by myself that day. Little man won't like that though

I completely get that. My son is home from school and I asked him last night if he was crazy enough to fish when it was 12 degrees. He said, “I don’t know.” I said, “well, I’m going.” He said, “I am too”. LOL

I'm done with fishing until Spring when they start moving back up in the grass lines to bed because that's apparently the only time/place I'm able to catch fish...at least at the places I'm able to go. I think I've caught exactly 1 fish in the last 2 months and it was a tiny bass with a mouth about the size of a golf ball. Not even worth the trouble of loading up and putting the kayak in the water at this point.

Dang Gomer, this is my favorite time of year. I don’t bass fish though

So will the crappie leave the brush piles and start swimming in schools in open water when it's really cold? I have been mostly bass fishing the last 2 months, but I've found a lot of crappie that are hanging around brush piles. I've also found one big school that lives amongst a sunken boat. They are there every time I go by it. I can usually catch a few before they wise up.

Last winter I found some just swimming in open water with no cover around at all, but they disappeared as the water warmed. I'm wondering when I could find them like that again. They were big ones too.

Shhh

PCP, they're supposed to, but what with all the grass on Guntersville, I don't fish for them that way. I'm sure some do, but I can also catch them all winter long in 4'-8' of water. I much prefer fishing shallow too. It's just easier. I have read where people get out in open water in the winter and follow huge schools of them around, using their Livescope but I have never tried it.

I’ve tried crappie but still haven’t gotten electronics on the kayak yet. Buddy that I fish with has a basic fish finder but hasn’t found any decent brush piles or anything so far and fishing from a kayak means we’re limited on spots.

I’m not torn up over it. I’m not into fishing from a kayak when it’s cold anyway.

They are in the grass right now and will be every warm day or afternoon all winter.

Look for Ducks!!

Maybe….but they ain’t biting anything I’m throwing

I’m gonna pay real close attention to multiple wind forecasts before I go next Saturday. Looked at one forecast last night and it was bad wrong. I don’t like 4’ swells with white caps. I don’t like them in the summer and I dang sure don’t like them when it’s this cold. Wind blowing the opposite direction of a fast current stacks big waves up in a hurry

Fur i have busted the ice to get to the creeks before but I will pass on Saturday lol. I live about 5 miles above our Buddy Mitchel did I see him hooked to a blue phoenix?

He got a black Phoenix.

I had an 819 it was a fine boat. Got an rt 188 c now

PM sent

Me and my son are gonna go out. Not sure if we will take the boat or just fish off the bank somewhere close by. I love waiting for these cold days. That's about the only time I keep them to eat. Seems like the Sauger start stirring a little more too.

Replied

You're the only person I've ever heard of talking about catching (gigging?) and canning suckers around here.

Would be interested in talking with you about it. I went in September in Missouri and it was too hot for the suckers, but we smacked a few rough fish and had a good time. Quite cool and interesting.

Clem, talking about suckers. My grandfather used to talk about sein nets wading the creek for sucker's. But the creeks filled in slowly and chemicals killed everything he said. He would tell me this back in the 80s I remember.

Heck, maybe smith lake will freeze over like it did back in the early 90s and i can go bust ice again 🥴

I'm starting to think that I'm gonna chicken out.

No freaking way...may thaw out a pack & fry them.

I need to go spend a day flipping at Lay Lake. Two flipping sticks. All day.

I'll follow behind your boat...I never have any luck at Lay🤔

I sure as hell won't be fishing in teen temps.....

Me and a buddy from triana slayed some sauger one day when the temp was about 20 and it was spittin snow. Was not a fun run up the river to where we were fishing. I do remember i donated one of his older rod/reels when i set the hook once. Froze hand and the fish didn't move...rod flipped outta hand and to the bottom she went. I sure wasn't going after it

Best sauger trip I ever had was with two guys up in Indiana below Newbergh dam when it was spittin' snow, temps below freezing and we caught doubles and triples on every drift. They weren't big but we caught the chit out of them. We quit when our hands wouldn't grip a rod. Ramp was icy, which was fun.

If this big front moves in with snow and schizzle, the smallmouth will be chomping and I'd guess the spots would be, too. Was on the lower end of Neely once and the spots turned on like crazy. We caught a handful on jerkbaits on a point and then it started hailing. Freak storm blew through, covered the boat deck in hail, we were asses and elbows trying to cover up, temps dropped 10+ degrees and the fish quit biting. That hail stung like chit, too.

Predicting 10-20 mph winds Saturday. It's official, I ain't going.

Instead of buying one of the "100 mph" suits that many fishermen wear, I bought my son and I an ice fishing suit a few years ago. We don't get cold, except our hands. Another benefit of the ice fishing suit is that if you fall in the water, you float. The whole suit is a flotation suit. They're light and not bulky too.

Nope

We Normally catch them on rod and reel from November to January down at dead river off the choctawhatchee. Then when dogwood trees bloom, we run our gill nets to get them. We fry some up but you gotta gash them due to the bones. As far as canning we normally just fillet them skin off and cut in hunks to can them. We put up a lot of sucker and mullet. Makes for the best snack when hunting or fishing, especially the ones we do with jalapenos.Add some a Saltine cracker and wash it down with a cold dr. pepper and it is gooood. If you like sardines these are WAY better We do around 100 jars a year. I'm 44 and have done this since i was old enough to run a pick around the net to get fish out. We have been in December before where we had to put dirt on the ramp to get the boat back out due to ramp icing over.

I remember you posting that. Which one did you get again?

Ben, the suit that I got is an Arctic Armor. The one that I got for my son is a Stryker. His suit weighs twice as much as mine but it’s more flexible, temp wise. The coat and bibs on his has a liner so it’s more of a 3 season suit that mine. Mine is comfortable most all winter, regardless of air temp. You know how it is on the water. Once the water gets cold, it’s colder on the lake that it is anywhere else because of the water temps.

Anyway, both suits are good quality. Both are machine washable, just don’t dry them in the dryer. I’ve washed mine twice and will again soon. If I could remember to take towels in the boat, I wouldn't have to wash it again. I wipe my hands off on the bib legs. The Stryker suit has snap on/off patches of towel material on the legs for that purpose

I went to the dam yesterday. We were lucky to have survived it and there were only three small fish caught. It was similar to riding a slow bucking bull the whole time we were there. We took on a wave trying to get to our fishing spot as soon as we got there, Joseph pretty much got soaked. There was more chopped up eel grass than ive ever seen. The two gates closest to the turbines were spilling more water than ive ever seen, the waves had to be 8-10 ft high. The place was just about void of fish. Worst fishing trip i been on in a while. Im just really glad we survived it.

Good gosh man. That sounds terrible

Got a buddy that probably will. His crazy ass will fish in anything. There’s no way I could take it.

Negative

I've fished with temps in the teens before, only a couple of years ago. I'd go Saturday if not for the wind predictions. If I get up and it's not windy, I'm a threat to be on the water.

So far, the wind has us held up at home. I hear it blowing as I type. Id hit the bridges but I'm sure it's packed. I try not to fish anywhere where people can crowd you so that's definitely out.

In case any of you are wondering. The answer to the question is..... NO

I was out earlier………driving.
There was no one at the causeways at least parked.

A couple of boats at the Jaycees boat launch.

I wanna go so bad I can barely stand it. I am not handling this sitting in the house crap too good.

When we came home from the mountains yesterday, the water in the TN river looked awful. Whitecaps as far as we could see and what looked like about three ft waves. No way i would even think about putting my boat in that and it 10°. Constant water splashing in your face, not to mention the good chance of turning ot over. No thank you. I like fishing this tome of year bit not that much.

Me either Joey. I'm fixing to go try to catch a fish from the bank. Guess I'll go to a bridge. I may stay 5 minutes and come home, but I'm going. I've ridden this recliner as long as I can.

💪🏼

I been on water when its this cold..matter o fact last time..i walked on it….noooo way id be on it for a dang fish of no kind right now…last i seen..captain D’s was still takin coupons

Idk how hard that winds tunnelin under one right now..but if its whoopin like i seent it yesterday..you aint gonna be gone long🤠🇺🇸

My son and I did go this afternoon. We fished at Town Creek bridge. I haven't fished from the bank in a long, long time. I had no idea exactly where the better spots were, but there were 3 guys scattered under the bridge. I started talking to the one closest to us and after we fished the bluff without getting a bite, he invited us to come stand close to him. He was catching them. We caught some too, once we got over there. Gave him all the fish. His name is Tim. Maybe he's a member here. Super nice guy. It was cold, but not miserable. It was aggravating getting ice out of the rod tip every couple of casts and the ice in that tip twisted the line up terribly, but it beat sitting in the house by a long shot.

The wind wasn't horrible.

We waited to hit the water til around 8 this morning. My nephew wanted to know what the shovel was for in the back of truck Well when we took out at 11:30 he found out. The ramp was good when we put in as it was dry and we were first in. When we got back to the ramp enough of the water from the trailer had iced over and made backing down to load up a little tricky when i hit the brakes, We threw a little of the river sand on the ramp and got back up with a little help from the 4wheel drive. Only caught 8 sucker and just got them cleaned and canned after our family Christmas party. He heads back Thursday so i guess we will try again Monday or Tuesday.

Good idee on the shovel!

Is Tim a tall slender fellow that fishes standing with his legs crossed? I guess he would be fully gray haired or bald by now.

Theys 2 good places to stand under that bridge in my oppinion..yall was probly in one. I ustah be good friends with most folks that frequented that place..got to where we couldnt catch nothin but fish that barely would measure or wouldnt at all..when i was 14 or so..you could catch 30 in about an hour an theyd all weigh 1.5-2lbs my great uncle fished it every day. Glad yall caught some..i just aint mad at them like i ustah be.

Not the Tim that I met. He’s built like me. Oval shaped. 🤣

None of the ones that we caught were gooduns. Just keepers and more shorts than keepers. I rarely ever fish Town Creek and never fish the bridge, boat or not. It’s always too crowded. Even with it as cold as it was, not counting us I think there ended up being 5 other guys under there before we left. I think there were 3 there when we got there.

I use to fish town creek alot, got to crowded. I'll go somewhere else, dont like crowds!

Furflyin for Angler of the year!!

And snapper now high as a alabama pine tree☠️

I sure hope not, for the sake of the other fishermen on here. If I'm the angler of the year, they just all really suck.

Most persistent angler of the year, perhaps but probably take 2nd place behind JWalker because he went bull riding in the Gulf of Guntersville, below the dam the other day. I'd have turned around and gone home in that instance. Maybe me and JW are tied for "Touched in the head Angler of the Year" but I still think he takes first place.

Who went....

I've been down there below Guntersville and rode Bodacious before with all the gates open and a stiff west wind when I was younger and did it in a 16' riveted flat bottom. It doesn't take testicular fortitude to do that. It just takes a heaping dose of Crazy or Stupid. Either one will suffice. I think I had both back then. A buddy of mine sunk one below Guntersville dam and he told me about taking a 14' boat with no radio or back up enginean hour past out of sight of land off of Destin, so crazy/stupid runs strong on Sand Mountain.

MM, I've been down there one time with the gates open and a strong west wind. I will never, ever do that again.