Winter is here! If the pile of snow outside your house and the chilling temperatures didn’t tell you, then maybe the lack of fish in the freezing waters during one of your fishing trips did.
Winter is a time when fish activity slows to a crawl, as most fish would prefer to conserve their energy than to waste them, because there is no guarantee on when or where their next meal will come from.
That means anglers who want to fish need to prepare themselves. Fishing during the winter is not like fishing during the summer and spring, so you can’t just go out and use the same tactics and expect to get the same amount of fish as before. You will need to adjust your strategy.
One thing is for certain though: Winter fishing can be quite dangerous! You would think that an activity that involves sitting around all day and waiting for something to bite the rod wouldn’t be dangerous, and this would be mostly true in any other season, but not winter.
Frostbite and hypothermia are the biggest culprits here. Hypothermia can be experienced all-year round but is generally not as much a concern as there are multiple ways to warm yourself up immediately should you fall in a body of water.
Not so during the winter: The default state of the environment outside is “cold” meaning that you will need to find a heating source and fast if you want to avoid hypothermia.
Frostbite, on the other hand, only happens in extremely cold environments all around the world, which means it’s either during the winter or if you are hiking someplace really cold like a mountain.
These two are your worst enemies while fishing, hiking, or doing any outdoor activity, really, during the winter and so special care must be taken to ensure that you stay safe and warm. Here are some safety tips that anglers would do well to keep in mind, should they choose to go winter fishing:
Wear enough layers
The first tip on this list is the most obvious. It does not matter whether you are going fishing, hiking, or doing whatever activity outdoors. Make sure that you are bunched up with enough layers to keep you warm, or at the very least, to keep the shivering chills away from your body. The temperature here is going to be far, far lower than anything your air conditioning will be able to pump out.
In addition, since you will be near a body of water as you fish, pack extra clothes. On the off chance that you are unlucky and accidentally fall into the water while fishing, you will want to dry yourself as fast as possible and switch out of your wet clothes immediately to avoid catching hypothermia.
Finally, when choosing winter attire, use synthetic fabrics or wool if you can. Cotton should be avoided, as it gets wet very easily, even without you falling into a river. You don’t want a wet cotton shirt to freeze up either.
Never fish alone
It seems that winter stands out as being the only season where fishing alone seems like a dangerous ordeal, but why so? It turns out that there are multiple reasons why.
To start off, the water being under freezing temperatures means that if you accidentally go overboard, your body’s system might go into shock and cramp up. You might not even be able to pull yourself up back to your boat, much less swim back to it. Being a good swimmer won’t really matter if your body won’t even respond to you in the first place. And again, freezing water.
Hypothermia will set in much sooner than in any other season, and you really don’t want to find yourself in such an emergency where no one is around to help you.
Did I mention that there are going to be less anglers around? Yes, this is a double-edged sword. You won’t have to worry about having fishing spots be crowded, especially if you want to fish in solitude, but at the same time, you are going to be in big trouble if you fall off and no one is around to help you.
So yes, please bring along a friend or two. A fishing trip can quickly turn into a life-threatening emergency in the wrong circumstances, and you want someone to be there to give you aid when you need it the most.
Leave people with a float plan
If, for some reason, you decided to go winter fishing solo anyways, you should leave people you know with a float plan, whether it’s family, friends, co-workers, or anyone you are acquainted with. The important thing here is that someone knows that you are away and will be expecting you to arrive at a certain place at a certain time with a little bit of leeway.
That way, even if you don’t bring anyone with you, you can still count on the person/s you left your float plan with to contact the authorities to organize a search and rescue mission, should you fail to arrive on time.
If you are going with another person or even a group, inform other people of your float plan still. It’s always good to have the last-ditch resort of someone outside the group to call for help if all of your group members are incapacitated in some way.
It’s important to never change the float plan without informing the people you gave your float plan to.
Bring food that can give you energy
Energy-replenishing food like granola bars are your best friend, especially ones that you can eat without having to take off your gloves. As your body will be working overdrive to keep the inside of your body warm, you’ll want to give your body proper nutrition to keep it alive and pumping.
Make sure to bring a thermos too! Warm drinks like hot chocolate or coffee on a cold fishing trip feels really good to down and gives you temporary comfort against the cold.
Wear your life jackets
If you’re going to be hopping on a boat, make sure you’re wearing your life jacket properly and at all times. Yes, even if you’re a good swimmer.
As mentioned earlier, your swimming skills won’t be of much use if your body is in shock from the sudden temperature shift that it wasn’t expecting. A life jacket would, at the very least, eliminate the chance that you would drown from incapacitation, should you fall overboard.
Avoid high currents
High currents aren’t suitable for fishing or boating and can be dangerous. Even more so during the winter, as the water will be freezing cold. If a river is shown to have high currents, it might be better to avoid it entirely and find a different place to fish.