Whatwater Temp Do You Consider To Be Cold Water ?

[Al Agnew]

I knew Norm was thinking mainly about river bass fishing...and in rivers, whatever the water temp is when you read it, it's going to be that temp, give or take a degree or so, all over the river at all depths. So while water temps on lakes are inexact, on rivers it's a different story.

As a general rule, if it's over about 37 degrees I expect to catch a few fish. If it's under 37, I'm a lot less confident. But river bass sometimes do things differently from what you expect, and I've caught enough fish to make it worthwhile a time or two when the water was 35 degrees. If I had my druthers, I'd druther it be over 40, though, or at least be a sunny day with a chance that it'll climb over 40.

Another way to answer the original question, though, is at what temperature the bass really get into cold water locations and patterns. That's inexact, because they sometimes don't do what you expect there, either. So somewhere between 45 and 50 degrees is water cold enough that the fish will be acting like it's cold.

[Norm M]

I don't stop unless the river has too much ice to fish .