Cold Hands.

What is the best method you have found for keeping your hands warm fishing from the boat during winter?

Rod holders and trolling cranks work for me….

I use the hand warmers that you open the plastic and the pads heat by themselves. Don’t use the ones that you boil to reheat them. Have on. Worthelss. Only lasts for 1hour maybe. Lots of times goes off in your pocket. packet warmers will last up to 7 hours in your pocket and are cheap. Most gas staions and hardware sroes have them. I keep them in my mitts too. Why you thinkin about goin out soon?

(anyone sell typing lessons?)

Keeping a dry towel handy is a must!

Wet hands get colder faster. I dry my hands before I put them back into any gloves, the gloves stay dry and warmer this way.

Over-sized gloves with enough room inside for a packet of the chemical heat “Hot Stuff” (that you open and shake to start the reaction), work just great. Here is the best technique I have found…

Regular light cotton work gloves go on first, then use big leather mittens with the “hot stuff” bag inside of the mittens, this will do you right up! When you come out of the mittens, you have on light cotton gloves that you can do work with, without removing. Have some extra pairs of the light cotton gloves for when one pair gets damp, to get you thru the day. While you are out of your big mittens, the “Hot Stuff” bag stays in the mittens, keeping them warm for you when you can get your hands back inside.

Keep a big rubber/waterproof glove (textured with grit for a better grab) to get into the bait box (or to get suckers from the livewell). Your cotton glove can stay on when you go inside this big rubber glove (you only need one glove for the hand you grab with). Works for me! Hawger

Instead of a towel I keep a rool of paper towels in the boat; I find a cloth towel getting stiff & not too absorbant after a while.

Otherwise I like insulated goretex gloves with the disposable handwarmers inside

once in a while I stick them down my pants

I don’t know if this is the most efficient way or not but, I been using “glacier gloves” over the years with the thin liners in them. I actually buy the rock climbing type from glacier gloves, These gloves have the full fingers on them, (not like the ones with the fingertips peel back). These gloves are 100% waterproof until you poke yourself with too many hooks. This will get me by to about10-15 degrees above then I depend on my little Coleman Focus 5 heater to help me and my gloves out. A pair of these will last me between 1-2 years. I use them about every single trip starting in October through late April. I like using these because they let me have full function of my fingers and actually tie knots and put bait on if I have to.

RTFLMAO Mavzer,

I’m with the stay dry movement. Keep you hands dry and I’ll guarantee they’ll be a lot warmer. Those little pocket heaters are the ticket.

I like the fingertip-less gloves myself. They work pretty good, and they are cheap. Keep a couple pairs, when one gets too slimy (And we hope they do!), then toss on the second or third pair…

Thanks for all of the responses. I use the wool gloves without the fingertips and heat pad too. Works fairly well. Also use the plain old cotton jersy gloves with the index finger cut off. Need 3-4 pair for a good day of fishing. Wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing anything new.

I like the paper towel idea. The cloth towel has a limited life. I have been known to use a coleman heater too. Also useful for thawing out frozen beverages.

I have a pair of neoprene gloves that do a pretty good job. Hard to bait a jig however. Very useful for pulling in an anchor out of 33 degree water. I would like to try the glacier gloves out.

Thanks again,

J.

I like the “down the pants” idea. My wife will never get cold hands again!!!

Mike