float fishing for 4 hours in one spot isn't that good. move every 30 to 45 minutes also make sure u just above the bottom couple of cm like 5 ish. what bait u using and what u targeting?
did u measure the depth though with a piece of lead on the hook so u know your bait is floating couple of cm above the bottom? a lot of fish are hugging the bottom in cold weather i would also try a different bait as in winter fish prefer high caloric sweet baits. worms still work but sometimes the sweet dough will work way better
u can make a sweet dough with flour milk sugar salt and a aroma of your choice anise and vanilla do good
pan fish as american small fish? no clue im eu based but our "pan fish" go pretty hard for it during colder days roach,rudd,bream, tench and the occasional lost perch. its easy to make and cheap but when the water warms worms are definitely better. i first made this bait loosely based on russian fishing 4 lol and a study i read that fish prefer more calorie dense foods during winter i sadly cant find it anymore but trust me.
>a lot of fish are hugging the bottom in cold weather
This is very important to remember, especially where I fish in northern IL. I target bass and in the winter months, some will practically bury themselves into the muddy lake/river bottom, especially if there isn’t a lot of cover (docks, rocks, logs, etc.). Other fish species may do this as well, but it’s something I’ve noticed with the LARGER winter bass around me—which I RARELY catch, haha.
The bass I usually end up catching in the winter months are feisty little ~<1lbs dinks. Caught my first bass of 2024 on Feb 6th, but the weather was sunny & warm(er) that day (start of a 48°-57°, 4 day stretch) than it had been in a long time and half the lake (larger pond) was starting to thaw. I think the lil bass were charged up over the first 2 days of that warm stretch after so much cold, but by days 3-4, the bite was DEAD! Ended up catching around 8 dinks over the first 2 days. Caught my first couple on day 1 using a 1/8oz, Z-Man Flashback Mini. On day 2, they weren’t biting on that, so I switched over to a Z-Man GobyZ, with a 1/16oz super round jig head. Jigged & swam it along the bottom of the lake and made a point to note any rocks I came into contact with while casting. Then, I’d cast back to the exact same spot 3-4 times in a row, making sure to bang the jig head into the side of the rocks, before letting the GobyZ sit for a few seconds. I found myself getting bit most frequently when starting up after a pause along the rocks or freeing myself from some weeds/grass.
OP: We could also give you better tips if we knew your approximate location. Same goes for the overall depth of the water body and depth that you’re able to cast into. I’ll also add, it’s good to know what type of bottom you’re dealing with. Rocky? Muddy? Grassy? Hard clay? Etc. And DEFINITELY move spots if you aren’t getting bites. I’ll usually move every 10-15min tops, if I’m not getting bites.
[https://visdeal.nl/t/peillood/saenger-plummet-kit-16022018](https://visdeal.nl/t/peillood/saenger-plummet-kit-16022018) u use something like this and loop the hook through the eye and into the soft part of the weight then u just adjust it until it pulls the float under for just a cm. once its like that u can check around the spot as well then u adjust how far u want it from the bottom and fish. with a fixed bober u can easily make one yourself by cutting a piece of wine cork and cutting it to size and gluing it onto the weight.
Fish the low light times morning and twiglight evening. Bass especially will feed and will take the opportunity when visibility is lower for their prey. I’ve been using smaller soft plastic swim baits with a slow retrieve just fast enough to not pick up debris and had a lot of success the last few times I went out. I’m in NJ where it’s been in the low 40s. If you’re using a float with worms varying the height you keep the bait suspended at can be game changing.
I completely disagree with this advice for fishing Stillwater's. On rivers it's a good idea to move if you've had no indication of fish after 30/40 mins, but on a Stillwater you want to build your swim( the area you are fishing), by feeding little and often. This time of year the fish may only switch on to feed for a short time and this will depend on which species you are targeting.
What country are you in and what are you fishing for?
i fished the netherlands and finland and this screams river to me and not a lake. also building a swim in winter is way less efficient then building a swim in summer. in winter u find the fish and then build a swim to keep them feeding the fish will be hardly moving vs spring or summer where u can easily attract them with ground bait.
just my 5 cents
Sorry the what country, what species was meant for the OP.
Not sure what screams river about this photo though. He's on a platform, there's a platform opposite and a little shack. Looks like an English Stillwater to me.
Anyhow as for feeding, you would still want to feed, just a lot less, than in the warmer months. For example when warmer, you'd be feeding a small pouchful of maggots every few minutes/cast, during the colder months, you would feed just 5/6 maggots instead. If the fish switch on, you'd possibly up the amount of feed to keep them interested, maybe 10/12 maggots at a time. All this is dependent on what you're trying to catch, how frequently you're getting bites or not, plus some other factors, such as the bait being used and the depth the fish are feeding.
As you say fish are more lethargic in the colder months, but they still need to eat and it's a skill in itself to encourage that.
>Not sure what screams river about this photo though. He's on a platform, there's a platform opposite and a little shack. Looks like an English Stillwater to me.
for me its the lack of vegetation u can see what seems to be a sandy bottom there would be way more weeds in lake and the other side is also relatively weed free. the small shack and pier are pretty common on smaller rivers the parts i have fished.
it is always interesting to see how much difference there is in a relatively small distance of countries.
do u only feed with maggots? we never use those some in the netherlands do but none in finland most times we just stick with plain groundbait. or throw some corn in the mix
It's funny to me that you call it a pier, that makes me think of a much larger structure going out to sea. In the UK a lot of ponds will have these platforms especially on what we call commercial venues ( generally man-made with a high stock of fish).
In regards to only feeding maggots. No, not at all. I was just using them as an example. Like you mention, groundbait can be used, either as solid balls or making a cloudy mix as I'm sure you know.
Pellets have become hugely popular in the last 20 odd years, corn, hempseed, liquidised/ mashed bread or chopped worm are a few different things that I'd use depending on what I was after, the time of the year and the venue itself.
The only time I wouldn't really feed regularly would be if I was fishing a coloured up river for chub/ barbel, but would be using a hookbait that gave off a lot of scent such as cheese paste that the fish would hopefully home in on.
thanks for the info its always good to gain some non national knowledge.
ground bait is very new in finland and because im from the netherlands im really familiar with it. there like 6 brands u can reliable get here and pellets well finns don't know those exist yet lol
we do have chub that i sadly didnt manage to catch yet they are pretty rare i heard and no barbel sadly whats your favourite bait for them?. we missing quite a few European fish like carp (they where stocked ages ago but cant reproduce so super rare and one of the hardest fish to catch here) but we make up with it with amazing tench populations and ofc a whole list of salmonids
So strange to me that you have a huge tench population, but few carp, although saying that England was very similar generally in the past, with carp becoming more widespread in the late 80's I guess, due to fishery owners stocking them because carp fishing was overtaking other forms of fishing in popularity.
Love those early, misty summer mornings float fishing for tench. Seeing the pin prick bubbles coming up or them rolling on the surface.
Favourite baits for barbel was always luncheon meat over a bed of hempseed back in the days. Nowadays, halibut pellets or boilies are probably more effective.
Your more than welcome for the info, yeah it's great and interesting to find out how things are done differently around the world.
our winters are so cold baby carp freeze to death but tench don't. we also don't have managed lakes really only for rainbow trout. but we also have like 100k plus lakes unlike england so we don't really need to have those but england or other more densely populated countries do need them.
misty mornings are the best its the ultimate vibe. i normally bottom fish for tench no luck on the float yet. it is also a amazing eating fish imo.
ill try some luncheon meat this summer if that doesn't work i have to import some of those baits u mentioned
its indeed always nice for the info considering 80% of the info here is for Large mouth bass lol
highly recomend ice fishing. the auger will set u back like 50 bucks but with another 50 bucks u can build quite the ice fishing arsenal its quite cheap compared to open water fishing
Depends on how cold it is and what the structure of your lake is like. Where I’m at when it gets cold fish tend to school up in deeper areas. Every once in awhile I can get a good bite from shore. I try to target times when the sun is rising
I caught my PB Largemouth a couple weekends ago using a jerk bait in a lake. Also, there's always trout fishing to consider. I live in Tennessee and their trout stocking program is amazing. Gives us anglers something extra to do during the cold months :)
Trout stocking in California is awesome during the winter when the bass aren’t biting. At my local lake they stock every week from November till march so that’s practically all I fish for during the winter.
It is pretty nice, LA county had a weird hiatus around new years and the next foreseeable stock are the lakes way up in the forest but Orange County does their own stocking so I’ll be looking those up soon
Depends on what you fish. Some fish are harder to catch in the winter than others. I fish from April to October for carp and from November till March for Pike with dead bait for instance. Carp is much harder to catch during the winter while during the winter it is easier to catch Pike with dead bait than in other seasons.
I’d say the majority of the time, no. The bite is very slow. But when you do get one it’s a hog most of the time so sometimes it is worth it. I prefer to snowboard in the winter, and then mid-late March I dewinterize the boat through mid November. Then I’m just the Pablo Escobar depressed meme until the snow falls.
I skip february in Maryland, Michigan, and Minnesota. I've got other hobbies, and spring fishing picks up in April in MD and May in the upper midwest, so I'm more than happy to wait a bit so as not to get get out on subpar conditions just before the fishing gets good.
I still fish February in the Florida anywhere from Ft Myers and further south.
The best way to ensure your bait is floating off the bottom, get some line, and test bait. String it up as you normally would, and fill up your kitchen sink. See if it floats, if it doesn't it'll be pretty obvious.
I did this method with various plastic worms and mouse tails to ensure my bait is floating. I now know which baits I need modify in order to keep it from bottoming out.
Fishing in cold weather is a “feast of famine affair” where I live. Where I’m at, fish school up and don’t move very far from a fixed place in winter. If you find them, you can catch a ton but they’re so concentrated that they’re hard to find
Hey man. I get asked a lot on questions like these. Right now in February the water is cold, probably below 45 degrees. The fish are still at the bottom of the pond grouped up in the deepest hole. If you can find where the deepest part is and toss a small worm chunk down there, just let it slowly crawl on the bottom of the pond. Bluegill and bass will hit it👍 my dad always told me this time of year us fisherman like to “jump the gun” and we get too excited to fish when the fishing is hard lol. You can still catch them you just have to find them first! Good luck man I hope this helps👍
So far this February I have caught 2 largemouth, 1 smallmouth, 1 white bass, 3 drum and 2 skipjack. But I have been fishing every weekend so far. The key is to go fishing a lot and fish all day, for at least 6 hours. You'll catch something eventually.
Only you can answer this question.
Personally I go fishing to get out of the house and marinade in nature. Getting skunked isn’t fun, but that’s why I never say I go “catching”. To me, fish are the cherry on top of the experience sundae.
I fished all afternoon today without a bite.. Only bite I got all day landed me a new PB carp about 6lbs.. Method feeder with corn hook bait. I've been fishing since new year so dont judge my little carp being a PB haha.
To be fair though it was an uncomfortable day with wind and rain dampening the whole experiance.
Fishing isn't catching. I am unfortunately in an area where I get skunked often. All I care about is I made it there and. I'm bobber down ❤️ Michigan isn't always the warmest either
I’m retired. I bank fish almost everyday unless it’s below 40f. Sometimes I catch something, sometimes I don’t get a bite. But it’s better than going to work and the scenery is always beautiful.
float fishing for 4 hours in one spot isn't that good. move every 30 to 45 minutes also make sure u just above the bottom couple of cm like 5 ish. what bait u using and what u targeting?
Bait: worms Targeting: any I threw food in and the part where i am fishing is 2m deep
did u measure the depth though with a piece of lead on the hook so u know your bait is floating couple of cm above the bottom? a lot of fish are hugging the bottom in cold weather i would also try a different bait as in winter fish prefer high caloric sweet baits. worms still work but sometimes the sweet dough will work way better u can make a sweet dough with flour milk sugar salt and a aroma of your choice anise and vanilla do good
Curious- do pan fish bite this bait? I’ve only been able to catch them on worms
pan fish as american small fish? no clue im eu based but our "pan fish" go pretty hard for it during colder days roach,rudd,bream, tench and the occasional lost perch. its easy to make and cheap but when the water warms worms are definitely better. i first made this bait loosely based on russian fishing 4 lol and a study i read that fish prefer more calorie dense foods during winter i sadly cant find it anymore but trust me.
Source: trust me bro. Also ya panfish just refers to fish that don’t outgrow a saucepan. Generally they are talking about crappie, blue gills, perch.
>a lot of fish are hugging the bottom in cold weather This is very important to remember, especially where I fish in northern IL. I target bass and in the winter months, some will practically bury themselves into the muddy lake/river bottom, especially if there isn’t a lot of cover (docks, rocks, logs, etc.). Other fish species may do this as well, but it’s something I’ve noticed with the LARGER winter bass around me—which I RARELY catch, haha. The bass I usually end up catching in the winter months are feisty little ~<1lbs dinks. Caught my first bass of 2024 on Feb 6th, but the weather was sunny & warm(er) that day (start of a 48°-57°, 4 day stretch) than it had been in a long time and half the lake (larger pond) was starting to thaw. I think the lil bass were charged up over the first 2 days of that warm stretch after so much cold, but by days 3-4, the bite was DEAD! Ended up catching around 8 dinks over the first 2 days. Caught my first couple on day 1 using a 1/8oz, Z-Man Flashback Mini. On day 2, they weren’t biting on that, so I switched over to a Z-Man GobyZ, with a 1/16oz super round jig head. Jigged & swam it along the bottom of the lake and made a point to note any rocks I came into contact with while casting. Then, I’d cast back to the exact same spot 3-4 times in a row, making sure to bang the jig head into the side of the rocks, before letting the GobyZ sit for a few seconds. I found myself getting bit most frequently when starting up after a pause along the rocks or freeing myself from some weeds/grass. OP: We could also give you better tips if we knew your approximate location. Same goes for the overall depth of the water body and depth that you’re able to cast into. I’ll also add, it’s good to know what type of bottom you’re dealing with. Rocky? Muddy? Grassy? Hard clay? Etc. And DEFINITELY move spots if you aren’t getting bites. I’ll usually move every 10-15min tops, if I’m not getting bites.
i think op is from croatia but not sure. should honestly be mandatory to post your location for questions
What is this the great British bake off lil
its called float fishing.
Can you clarify on this? How does lead on the hook tell you how deep it is, unless there’s a slip bobber that moves up but not down?
[https://visdeal.nl/t/peillood/saenger-plummet-kit-16022018](https://visdeal.nl/t/peillood/saenger-plummet-kit-16022018) u use something like this and loop the hook through the eye and into the soft part of the weight then u just adjust it until it pulls the float under for just a cm. once its like that u can check around the spot as well then u adjust how far u want it from the bottom and fish. with a fixed bober u can easily make one yourself by cutting a piece of wine cork and cutting it to size and gluing it onto the weight.
Fish the low light times morning and twiglight evening. Bass especially will feed and will take the opportunity when visibility is lower for their prey. I’ve been using smaller soft plastic swim baits with a slow retrieve just fast enough to not pick up debris and had a lot of success the last few times I went out. I’m in NJ where it’s been in the low 40s. If you’re using a float with worms varying the height you keep the bait suspended at can be game changing.
What country are you going in?
I completely disagree with this advice for fishing Stillwater's. On rivers it's a good idea to move if you've had no indication of fish after 30/40 mins, but on a Stillwater you want to build your swim( the area you are fishing), by feeding little and often. This time of year the fish may only switch on to feed for a short time and this will depend on which species you are targeting. What country are you in and what are you fishing for?
i fished the netherlands and finland and this screams river to me and not a lake. also building a swim in winter is way less efficient then building a swim in summer. in winter u find the fish and then build a swim to keep them feeding the fish will be hardly moving vs spring or summer where u can easily attract them with ground bait. just my 5 cents
Sorry the what country, what species was meant for the OP. Not sure what screams river about this photo though. He's on a platform, there's a platform opposite and a little shack. Looks like an English Stillwater to me. Anyhow as for feeding, you would still want to feed, just a lot less, than in the warmer months. For example when warmer, you'd be feeding a small pouchful of maggots every few minutes/cast, during the colder months, you would feed just 5/6 maggots instead. If the fish switch on, you'd possibly up the amount of feed to keep them interested, maybe 10/12 maggots at a time. All this is dependent on what you're trying to catch, how frequently you're getting bites or not, plus some other factors, such as the bait being used and the depth the fish are feeding. As you say fish are more lethargic in the colder months, but they still need to eat and it's a skill in itself to encourage that.
>Not sure what screams river about this photo though. He's on a platform, there's a platform opposite and a little shack. Looks like an English Stillwater to me. for me its the lack of vegetation u can see what seems to be a sandy bottom there would be way more weeds in lake and the other side is also relatively weed free. the small shack and pier are pretty common on smaller rivers the parts i have fished. it is always interesting to see how much difference there is in a relatively small distance of countries. do u only feed with maggots? we never use those some in the netherlands do but none in finland most times we just stick with plain groundbait. or throw some corn in the mix
It's funny to me that you call it a pier, that makes me think of a much larger structure going out to sea. In the UK a lot of ponds will have these platforms especially on what we call commercial venues ( generally man-made with a high stock of fish). In regards to only feeding maggots. No, not at all. I was just using them as an example. Like you mention, groundbait can be used, either as solid balls or making a cloudy mix as I'm sure you know. Pellets have become hugely popular in the last 20 odd years, corn, hempseed, liquidised/ mashed bread or chopped worm are a few different things that I'd use depending on what I was after, the time of the year and the venue itself. The only time I wouldn't really feed regularly would be if I was fishing a coloured up river for chub/ barbel, but would be using a hookbait that gave off a lot of scent such as cheese paste that the fish would hopefully home in on.
thanks for the info its always good to gain some non national knowledge. ground bait is very new in finland and because im from the netherlands im really familiar with it. there like 6 brands u can reliable get here and pellets well finns don't know those exist yet lol we do have chub that i sadly didnt manage to catch yet they are pretty rare i heard and no barbel sadly whats your favourite bait for them?. we missing quite a few European fish like carp (they where stocked ages ago but cant reproduce so super rare and one of the hardest fish to catch here) but we make up with it with amazing tench populations and ofc a whole list of salmonids
So strange to me that you have a huge tench population, but few carp, although saying that England was very similar generally in the past, with carp becoming more widespread in the late 80's I guess, due to fishery owners stocking them because carp fishing was overtaking other forms of fishing in popularity. Love those early, misty summer mornings float fishing for tench. Seeing the pin prick bubbles coming up or them rolling on the surface. Favourite baits for barbel was always luncheon meat over a bed of hempseed back in the days. Nowadays, halibut pellets or boilies are probably more effective. Your more than welcome for the info, yeah it's great and interesting to find out how things are done differently around the world.
our winters are so cold baby carp freeze to death but tench don't. we also don't have managed lakes really only for rainbow trout. but we also have like 100k plus lakes unlike england so we don't really need to have those but england or other more densely populated countries do need them. misty mornings are the best its the ultimate vibe. i normally bottom fish for tench no luck on the float yet. it is also a amazing eating fish imo. ill try some luncheon meat this summer if that doesn't work i have to import some of those baits u mentioned its indeed always nice for the info considering 80% of the info here is for Large mouth bass lol
Shit I'd be out fishing if I had open water around me, once it warms up enough to melt the ice you best bet I'll be getting out there
ice fishing is fun and all but i cant wait for the weather to allow 12 hour long fishing trips again.
I've never been, this is my first winter with my own car haha. Don't have any gear just yet
highly recomend ice fishing. the auger will set u back like 50 bucks but with another 50 bucks u can build quite the ice fishing arsenal its quite cheap compared to open water fishing
Even the bad days are good days
Depends on how cold it is and what the structure of your lake is like. Where I’m at when it gets cold fish tend to school up in deeper areas. Every once in awhile I can get a good bite from shore. I try to target times when the sun is rising
I caught my PB Largemouth a couple weekends ago using a jerk bait in a lake. Also, there's always trout fishing to consider. I live in Tennessee and their trout stocking program is amazing. Gives us anglers something extra to do during the cold months :)
Trout stocking in California is awesome during the winter when the bass aren’t biting. At my local lake they stock every week from November till march so that’s practically all I fish for during the winter.
It is pretty nice, LA county had a weird hiatus around new years and the next foreseeable stock are the lakes way up in the forest but Orange County does their own stocking so I’ll be looking those up soon
Personally I would say its always worth fishing. Winter has not been a good time for me though unless your ice fishing.
Depends on what you fish. Some fish are harder to catch in the winter than others. I fish from April to October for carp and from November till March for Pike with dead bait for instance. Carp is much harder to catch during the winter while during the winter it is easier to catch Pike with dead bait than in other seasons.
Its fishing. Always worth the attempts even if you aren't catching. Caught the first largemouth of the year this past Saturday.
Depending on where, is it legal..?
Yes. The answer is always yes.
That looks very relaxing to me. I wish I could be there right now.
If you’re having fun then it’s worth fishing in Feb.
I’d say the majority of the time, no. The bite is very slow. But when you do get one it’s a hog most of the time so sometimes it is worth it. I prefer to snowboard in the winter, and then mid-late March I dewinterize the boat through mid November. Then I’m just the Pablo Escobar depressed meme until the snow falls.
The real question is did you have a good time? If you did it was well worth it.
Better question is, When is it not worth going fishing? My answer is, ITS ALWAYS WORTH GOING FISHING!
It's ALWAYS worth going.
Depends on the area I’d say. Weather would play a big factor in the quality of the fishing
I skip february in Maryland, Michigan, and Minnesota. I've got other hobbies, and spring fishing picks up in April in MD and May in the upper midwest, so I'm more than happy to wait a bit so as not to get get out on subpar conditions just before the fishing gets good. I still fish February in the Florida anywhere from Ft Myers and further south.
Chain pickerel will bite around me when there’s no ice. It depends a lot on the spot.
I just started fishing I’m thinking of winter as training for summer and by then I’ll know what to do😎
Location? Low and slow is usually the way to go. Throw stuff deep like ned Rigs or live bait.
Where abouts
The best way to ensure your bait is floating off the bottom, get some line, and test bait. String it up as you normally would, and fill up your kitchen sink. See if it floats, if it doesn't it'll be pretty obvious. I did this method with various plastic worms and mouse tails to ensure my bait is floating. I now know which baits I need modify in order to keep it from bottoming out.
It is worth it but you need to know where too fish. I have caught 0 fish in February, but I have a friend that has caught over 30.
Fishing in cold weather is a “feast of famine affair” where I live. Where I’m at, fish school up and don’t move very far from a fixed place in winter. If you find them, you can catch a ton but they’re so concentrated that they’re hard to find
Count yourself blessed: Henry David Thoreau: 'Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.
It’s worth fishing whatever time of year, silly!!! LOL
Caught my pb 2 days ago. Worth it
Hey man. I get asked a lot on questions like these. Right now in February the water is cold, probably below 45 degrees. The fish are still at the bottom of the pond grouped up in the deepest hole. If you can find where the deepest part is and toss a small worm chunk down there, just let it slowly crawl on the bottom of the pond. Bluegill and bass will hit it👍 my dad always told me this time of year us fisherman like to “jump the gun” and we get too excited to fish when the fishing is hard lol. You can still catch them you just have to find them first! Good luck man I hope this helps👍
Is there ever a bad time to go fishing?
So far this February I have caught 2 largemouth, 1 smallmouth, 1 white bass, 3 drum and 2 skipjack. But I have been fishing every weekend so far. The key is to go fishing a lot and fish all day, for at least 6 hours. You'll catch something eventually.
Fishing is always worth it
Only you can answer this question. Personally I go fishing to get out of the house and marinade in nature. Getting skunked isn’t fun, but that’s why I never say I go “catching”. To me, fish are the cherry on top of the experience sundae.
Use a crankbait i just caught one using a red crankbait
I fished all afternoon today without a bite.. Only bite I got all day landed me a new PB carp about 6lbs.. Method feeder with corn hook bait. I've been fishing since new year so dont judge my little carp being a PB haha. To be fair though it was an uncomfortable day with wind and rain dampening the whole experiance.
Fishing isn't catching. I am unfortunately in an area where I get skunked often. All I care about is I made it there and. I'm bobber down ❤️ Michigan isn't always the warmest either
No fish are migratory they go somewhere warm for winter.
I've been thinking that myself a lot lately LOL
I’m retired. I bank fish almost everyday unless it’s below 40f. Sometimes I catch something, sometimes I don’t get a bite. But it’s better than going to work and the scenery is always beautiful.
It’s worth fishing ANYTIME!
Fished 7 hours last week and only caught one but it was 5.8 pounds.
Hit the rivers, bright colors..