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Posts: 567
| I see this in my area (ky -ohio ) do you guys : The fish in the streams/rivers seem to be much more active than the local lakes. Not unusual to move several fish a day as opposed to the "lucky if we see one" in the lakes. Is this a local thing or do others see this ? MD |
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Posts: 433
Location: Cedarburg, Wisconsin | Never having done any winter fishing due to ice and closed seasons, I have no idea, but the first thing that came to mind was this; do you think this is due to the fact river/stream fish are using more energy fighting the current so they must be looking for food more often, or is this the result that the lake fish are much deeper and you are not presenting your lures where they can see them? Interesting observation for sure! Hope you get some insightful replies. |
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Location: Twin Cities | I wonder if there's a difference in water temp, i'd bet there is. |
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Posts: 366
| Quite a bit of activity last weekend on a small river near me, where as the reports on the reservoirs has been pretty slow. Of course the plan was to head back there today, but after almost 5" of rain in three days, things are probably a little messed up. I guess it didn't help that the rain turned into a couple inches of snow after the sun went down last night. The rivers are definitely more enjoyable to fish when it is cold, since you almost always have a good wind break, but then again the sun is often behind the trees as well. |
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Posts: 567
| definetly NOT a water temp thing. The bite is different all winter long. creeks/streams are at there peak , the lakes are dead |
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Posts: 25
| I don’t know about lakes in the winter, or anytime for that matter, I haven’t put a lot of time on lakes. But, in Eastern/Central PA we have had some amazing musky action on the rivers when the water levels are right. |
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Posts: 1636
| I think (and this is just my opinion) the reason some have more success on rivers than on lakes during the winter is that fish location is much more predictable. More success doesn't necessarily mean you are doing a better job at locating fish than on the lakes, just the fact that there is usually less water and more fish in a smaller area. Just a thought. 1 fish on a lake during the winter is just as good as 2 fish on a river in my opinion. Of course, it depends on what lakes and rivers you are comparing.
In my experiences, the windows are short, but can last for hours on some rivers. Catch or move a fish every 10-15 minutes during an hour window, then not see another fish for several hours. Then there are some rivers where you will have approx. 20 minute windows throughout the entire day a couple/few hours apart. But... then there are days and days and days where I sometimes won't even see a fish, which is after a cold front after several days of abnormally warm weather.
I fish the warm days in the winter and make sure I'm on the water during "high" percentage times. (moon phase, sunrise, sunset, low light conditions, before and the beginning of a front)
Most of our lakes are locked up all winter long and at the moment, the main river I fish has nothing but big sheets of ice, side by side and Wisconsin's season is closed. Bummer!
Edited by Reelwise 12/12/2008 6:39 PM
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Posts: 2361
| They bite in both, but I feel the food supply is better and more easily obtained in lakes, deep water is more available, and there is naturally going to be less contact in the lake situation. |
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Location: New Albany, Ind. | This is my favorite time of the year to fish rivers, never fish the rivers much the rest of the year. I have been the last 5-6 weekends and connected with 3-4 fish every trip except last sat in the snow, didnt see the first fish.
I'm not no expert by no means and dont have years of experience but I believe the fish in the lakes are still as active as they are in the rivers. They could be in alot deeper water and harder to locate where as in the rivers the water is alot shallower, most places I been fishing is only 12-15 ft at max. Plus going down a smaller river Im fishing almost the entire area, where as a big lake like the cave or green only covering smaller areas. Geuss it would be like fishing a 5 gal bucket full water verses fishing an olmypic size swimming pool. Anyway cant wait to hit the river at daylight on sun 10 mile trip day light to dark.
Ron
Edited by muskycrazy65 12/12/2008 9:51 PM
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Posts: 567
| muskycrazy65---have you not had frozen water in ind this winter ? I've missed 2-3 weeks of good fishing due to my local creeks/streams being iced over. We got enough rain last week to unthaw them but have not had a chance to go the past 10 days. MD |
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Location: New Albany, Ind. | MD,
The river I fish down in Ky hasnt had any ice on it, some of the creeks that run into it have iced over some. One of the tough things is I cant take the Ranger have to fish out of a 12' john boat. Makes for a tough day going 10 miles or so have to go to point a to b there isnt any going back.
Ron
Edited by muskycrazy65 12/13/2008 5:59 AM
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Posts: 567
| another problem I've had with the extremely low water levels is not being able to float from pool to pool. There are areas with no, or 1-2 inches of water that I'm usually able to float over in the jon boat. love those small creeks in the winter. MD |
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Posts: 366
| The river I fished last weekend now has an extra 8-10 feet of muddy water in it. The stretches between pools are normally less than two feet deep, but now they're unfishable. I guess I'll be hitting the reservoirs for a while. |
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