.......when it comes to fishing.
Just taking a poll. Who went fishing in the cold weather today and what did you catch?
Noticed somebody went to Fairfield yesterday and tore 'em up.

I went out this afternoon on Buchanan and caught 40 whites but I wouldn't call it hardcore. Hardcore is when you have to dip your rod tip in the water to clear the ice.

I have a tournament in the morning. Supposed to be 28 degrees. But I seen and felt worse.

hardcore=carp anglers....2 of our guys have been on the banks of emma long in Austin since monday...in tents they lines have not been taken out of the water and they are going to be fishing for another 9 days across east texas.

Yeah...I'll be out in it all next week with the carpers, no matter what the weather.

will be on Lake in the morning. Now Sunday is a different story with the forecasted winds 25-35 and temps in the 20's- 30's

Sorry LoneStarCarper, but I'm thinking the correct equation is

carp anglers=lunatic fringe.

I've been in a couple of bass tournaments where it was in the 20's all day but that was just one day.

I hope they're keeping a journal, thats gonna make a good story.

I will fish no matter what.


.. and I always fish in shorts..


No matter what!

Well heading for the creek in the morning should be 32 to 35 in the morning with a 10 to 15 mph north wind and thats out in the open plus it will be muddy as hell just hope i catch some white bass if not it will be a very cold morning LOL

Shorts? Thats not the smartest thing I've heard of but hey you do what you do, even if it lands you in bed the next week fighting off the flu! haha

Only sissy's and yanks get the flu. When I have shorts on I am like Bruce Willis in Unbreakable. Superhuman!


-Z-

LOL yeah bum but u a bit south then me, don't think i could wear shorts in 32 deg. with a 15 mph north wind.

Yeah see if i get sick and catch the flu then i can't fish LOL so has to stay warm LOL

Okay I'm not sure this fits in but... I use to fish a rock jetty that was an inlet to Barnegat bay on the Atlantic coast as a kid. We waited till we got 3-4 swells generally accompanied with cold inclimate weather because those were the ideal situations to catch Stripped Bass in the 30-50 lb range on surf pole & 2 oz bucktail jigs. You wait till lowtide & walk out over the boulder rocks to the end with full rain gear on including cleats. We'ld anchor ourselves with a cord to an hook eye that was predrilled in the rock to make sure once the tide got high along with the swells we didn't get washed out to sea. That was generally 2-3 hours of the best times I can remember fishing each outting. My biggest was about 37 lbs & seen one landed cose to 45lbs. This type of fishing wasn't for everyone & generally you'ld hear of losing an angler every so often. We had to deflate our tires to 8lbs just to drive down the beach 10 miles just to get there. Total awesome memories.

I would say thats hardcore. And well worth it to catch stripers that big.
"Hardcore" is a relative term. To a casual fisherman, going out in this weather might be hardcore, but to a guide or you guys that could be guides if you wanted to it may just be part of the deal, a minor nuisance.
As for carp fisherman, I've always got the impression that they are all hardcore to some degree. And thats a good thing.

I went out yesterday when it was 19°. It got all the way to 40° and was back down to 31° at dark when we loaded the boat. We had a 15 mph breeze from the NW all day. The bass wouldn't cooperate so we decided to get some eaters. We wound up with 11 nice white crappie and 7 walleye. I'm gettin' the smoker ready for tonight.

Does fishing on lake michigan in a 20ft triton with 7-9ft swells while jig fishing for smallies waves are so bad that the trolling moto shaft isnt long enough to keep the prop in the water at the top of swells??

Haven't braved it this year. Last year my partner and I were out on Fork when it was 18* pre-fishing for Media Slot Teams. It was wierd not seeing any other boats out there. Will probably never have the entire Lake Fork all to myself again. To make it worse niether of us got so much as a bite all day.

how hardcore is this?

Dayne, where are you fishing to get 'eyes. I love them. I go to Norther Ontario every year to get my fill of them but somewhere in Tx would be better but I thought the only place that had them you couldn't eat them.

Please elaborate - thanks.

I was going to be hard core today, then I went outside and ran back in.

I went to Lewisville today, had 2 keepers at 4.54...

It was way to freaking cold to be on the water today. I have come to the conclusion that 25f, north winds at 15 and bass fishing have nothing in common.

I've wade fished Galveston Bay, Dollar Point, when ice was forming along the shorelines. No kidding. Is that hard core?

How about the other extreme....hot temps? Does that qualify for "hard core" status? I've fished Mexico and points south when the air temps were 110 degrees, humidity 100%, mosquitoes so thick you couldn't get a breath... and I have to say that those conditions were even more uncomfortable than ice conditions. But catching Tarpon makes whatever you have to endure worth it.

Hard core all the way!!!

Yeah my boss wade fish alot in the winter at baffin bay it just looks funny to see him in a jacket wade fishing.

Oh goodness noooo...
You boys just call me when it's nice and warm and the fish are biting really well.

My boys and I fished Conroe a few years ago when it was 112 for the three miserable days that we camped. Absolutely oppressive! Caught fish but I dang sure wouldn't do it again.

Prefished CC yesterday and today, will be there tomorrow as well.

We prefished in the snow yesterday. I will try to get a picture or two posted from yesterdays trip.

Today, this morning was brutally cold, the wind was already kicking when the the sun came up.

We'll see about Sunday.

funny you should mention that one is a writer from Denmark that found us all via the TFF and should be writing a great story for the mag's with a mention of the TFF

Looking forward to that article.
Sounds like everybody has been hardcore at one time or another.
I had some buds down in Galveston that would take a 10 ft. flatbottom with a 7.5 hp ob out several miles in the gulf to fish an oil rig. On the way back in, if the breakers were too much, one of them would hang over the side of the boat to provide drag and keep the boat from capsizing.

here in fort worth it was 24 when i went out yesterday morning . i caught alot of fish to tho , even when i was knocking the ice off the eyes after every other cast.

That wasn't in TX. It was in Central MO. I had to come back up here because mother-in-law's hospitalization. I'm stuck here for the rest of the winter. I wish I were fishing some of that TX warm stuff instead.

See my report for this past Saturday. It was plenty cold.
Fayette Cold weather report

Now that's hard core!! I used to take a 15 footer w/50 hp about 15 miles out in the Gulf and thought that was hard core. Often we would go with a buddy boat of about the same size to back each other up. One time, my buddy on the other boat hooked something really big just before the end of the day. He refused to leave and go in even though we were 15 miles out in the open Gulf and without running lights. Finally at about 9:30 at night the fish broke off and we headed in. We came in on the wrpng side (outside) of the Freeport jetties and nearly beached the boats before getting straight. That probably qualifies for foolish and hard core!

I hit Texoma Saturday morning, 24 degrees when I launched with 41 degree surface temp at the ramp. The wind was blowing 15 steady out of the north so wind chill of about 10-15 degrees. I had to keep dipping my rod in the water to get the ice out of the rod guides, and dont even get me started on how hard it is to run a non hydraulic steering boat with half frozen cables. It was well worth it, 7 solid keeper largemouth with a few dinks mixed in. The highlight was getting to watch a Bald Eagle swoop down and snatch about a 2 lb striper out of the water. The 100 mph suit I bought a few years ago is worth its weight in gold, stayed warm and dry all day long.

Well, if you fished Saturday the 19-th. YOU are hard-core, I know because my wife told me I was. hehehehe...

On Fork the air temp was 26' degrees at 6:30 am, wind-howling.
2-3 foot rollers..wind chill 14' degrees..

We had 9-bites, 4-keepers, 3-slots, and had 2-pull off.
miserable cold and a slow bite not my kinda day..

Congrats Buda, you had a very good day.. No smallies?

Billy

No smallies Billy, I am convinced they are no longer in the lake... they are tough this year for me, but I will get em! Headed back this weekend.

My girlfriend and I went out both days. The wind yesterday wasn't as bad as they forecasted, but it was chilly.

My partner and I were on the lake Saturday 7:45-4:30. We were out scouting and looking at new water and fished all day with out a single bite. Ice built up on the reel and rod tip in the morning. water temps were 40-45 degrees. Freezing. Out in New Mexico we fished these kind of tempertures frequently through the winter, I actually used to sleep in my open tail bed with only sleeping bags(plenty of them) during the winter weekends.

Spent 4 days on Toledo and Rayburn Thurs-Sunday. Cold, Windy and rain. More than a few of us did it. My boat was covered in ice and it was extremely hard opening the lockers Sunday morning. Course i don't think i'm hard core, there are others that i would call hard core.

me and my brother went to monticello saturday.got there at 5pm and fished till 2:30 am.caught fish until our reels froze up

I fished Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at Coleto Creek. It was the first time I fished the lake and caught 1 keeper all weekend. A very humbling experience, but I'd like to go back when the weather warms up.

I don't know if its hardcore or not (the wife calls it stupid!)
but we backed into Lake Travis on sunday with the air temp at
21 degrees, the surface temp was 49 -50, so you imagine what the visability was like running across that thing. However it warmed up pretty nicely once the sun got up and we would catching a bunch of Lake Travis specials (13" bass) and a few keepers. All and all a very pleasant day on the lake.

I fished a club tournament on Brandy Branch Sunday morning. It was 18 degrees when I put the boat in the water at 5:30 a.m. Combine that with an east wind at 10-15 mph and it was chilly to say the least.

At one point, I switched rods, then switched back. When I picked up the first rod, which had been sitting on the deck for a few minutes, I tried to make a cast and...nothing. My braid had frozen on the spool.

I had to dip my rod in the water to melt the ice off the guides until probably 10 a.m.

The last forecast I had seen on Saturday called for a high Sunday of 57. BS. It was 43 degrees when I pulled out of the parking lot at 4:15 p.m.

Thank goodness for Gore-Tex, insulated boots, Hot Hands, and long underwear.

I think I'm hardcore... doesn't matter what the weather is doing... snow, wind, cold, ice... I'm fishing!

Fished Saturday on Welsh and had to knock the ice off my guides and line it was so cold! Windy as heck, too...

Just spent three days on the bank...in the rain...and mud...in 35-40 degree weather, and high winds.

Awesome.

Folks who only pursue outdoor activities during good weather don't realize what they're missing.

Agreed!

i hunt and fish in extreme weather.i love it......

Fished all day Fri and Sat on Welsh and was catchin 'em so good we didn't have time to get cold....as a matter of fact we were popping the tops off "cold beer" by 1pm on Friday. Sounds like summer, eh?

Now you know we are hardcore, or awfully nutty.....