Is it too cold right now for trout? I figured they were a cold water, lazy fish. Also, what lures work best here?

[Foghorn]

19 hours ago, Ryan Miloshewski said:

Never too cold for trout. In fact, I like it better. Maybe that's because of the lack of people..

Agree with Pete. Go to Lilley's and get some jigs. You'll catch 'em.

 

Wonder what's the coldest weather you all have fished in. In my bunch's younger, stupid days, we fished Taneycomo when the weather report claimed the wind chill was -47 below. We were all railroaders and worked outside in all imaginable conditions so we were always going to give it a go. Caught fish but spent a good bit of time clearing the ice out of the guides and warming hands even with gloves on.

[dpitt]

Low 20's actual temperature for me,  had the place to myself, guide ice was a pain, but fish were eating. 

[tjm]

+10F a lot in my younger days and -10-20F a number of times, as long as you wade  deep the water will be warmer than the air; problem is that when its quite cold the  the line and the guides ice up unless you keep the fly rod in the water while making the retrieves. I get too cold long before the trout do, and these days rarely get out below ~40F.  But in streams 8# or 5# is small enough, for most stuff, I only go smaller than 5# when the flies are smaller than #18, 8# for #12 and larger. And in summer I have caught trout in still water using 20# test with bait. 

They see the line even as small as 1# test, but the average trout can't reason that the line is attached to the hook, just as they can't reason that the exposed hook in a fly is not part of an insect. trout brain is reported to be very small and they don't have books to explain these things to them. I've caught the same fish two or three times in an hour to believe that they learn from experience either, although it's possible that they can be conditioned over time to react negatively to certain stimuli, it doesn't happen often in my experience.  What happens IMO is that smaller line is more supple meaning that the lure/fly/bait is less restrained and moves more naturally in the water.

[Dutch]

37 minutes ago, Foghorn said:

Wonder what's the coldest weather you all have fished in. In my bunch's younger, stupid days, we fished Taneycomo when the weather report claimed the wind chill was -47 below. We were all railroaders and worked outside in all imaginable conditions so we were always going to give it a go. Caught fish but spent a good bit of time clearing the ice out of the guides and warming hands even with gloves on.

My coldest Taneycomo trip was -5°.  I had a fairly new Ranger.  The steering was frozen.  I took trash out of a can and burned it in the splash well to thaw the steering.  It took a while for my Black Max to fire up but it did.  We motored from Branson to Pt. Look Out and deployed the motor guide.  It took 15 minutes for it to thaw enough for the prop to turn.  We saw no other boats and the fishing was terrible.

[Quillback]

I've ice fished a few times when I lived up north.  Even then I had my standards, if it was below 20 I wasn't going.  

[snagged in outlet 3]

3 hours ago, Terrierman said:

Oh for crying out loud, now he's going to be even more insufferable.🙃

😁

[snagged in outlet 3]

5 hours ago, Foghorn said:

Wonder what's the coldest weather you all have fished in. In my bunch's younger, stupid days, we fished Taneycomo when the weather report claimed the wind chill was -47 below. We were all railroaders and worked outside in all imaginable conditions so we were always going to give it a go. Caught fish but spent a good bit of time clearing the ice out of the guides and warming hands even with gloves on.

In my younger days we fished in the 20’s and 30’s.   40 or better now.  

[Flysmallie]

One of the first times we had the New Years Day event down there, old Leonard and I waded into the water at 8 degrees. You put your hands in the water to warm them up. We drank a lot of coffee that contained extra antifreeze. 

[Ham]

20 hours ago, snagged in outlet 3 said:3 pound is a good tweener so you don’t need two setups.   

 

 

Wrong, you always need two set ups and having 4 is better than having two. 

[snagged in outlet 3]

20 minutes ago, Ham said:

Wrong, you always need two set ups and having 4 is better than having two. 

Well true.  There is no upper limit in setups😆