Winter Boating Reflections

Few things I’ve learned about boating in the winter:

Trolling motor, She going to freeze instantly. WD40, Chapstick, Lube the shaft before getting it wet. Keep lubing frequently.

Anchor rope, by far the biggest PIA in the winter. Those little fuzzies on your rope, become frozen shards of sharp ice. The rope acts like ½” steel cable. No nice way to coil it in the boat. She rips your hands up and soaks your gloves, which become frozen the next time you pull anchor. Tying off anchor to a cleat is a fun one. I just wrap the rope around the cleat. Usually within a minute it freezes solid and darn near takes a pry bar to remove. If you actually knotted it like you would in the summer, it’d either take a knife, or a bucket of warm water to free it from the cleat. Anchoring in the winter just sucks. Storing anchor rope is terrible. Deploying anchor with frozen ½” steel coil is no fun, and laying wet anchor rope on your boat ends up being frozen solid steel cable. Fun stuff.

Braided line…Not going to happen under 32 degrees. Switch to mono. Learn to enjoy the downfalls of mono; it’s way better than braid in freezing temps.

Bells, I frequently run bells on my rods for sturgeon in the winter. They freeze and become ineffective. Total bummer.

Bait, Keep bait in a cooler. Use warm water to thaw or keep from freezing. Long trips require bringing a thermos of warm water.

Boat General: My boat is no spring chicken. Below 32 degrees everything stiffens up. Steering becomes difficult. Very difficult the colder it gets. Throttle cable stiffens up too. These are signs of age. I wouldn’t expect this with newer equipment. Once this winter I had to put all my weight, and then some on the motor to bust the steering cable free which had iced up. After that, it went back to its difficult self, but at least I could steer.

Boat floor freezes up and becomes slippery.

Net freezes and becomes difficult to net fish. Often requiring you to thaw the net in the water while fighting a fish.

All carpeted boat lockers, cabinets, etc freeze solid. Plan accordingly.

Batteries do not last as long, it is colder out after all.

Motor tell-tale “Pee Hole” is going to freeze. Mine will freeze within 10 minutes of turning off the motor. Turns out it isn’t necessary for my tell-tale to be working. Consult your motor manual. I’ve ran as long as 25 minutes before it has thawed. Was a big concern the first time it happened. Now I give it little consideration.

Wet Hands, anything you touch your hands freeze to.

Drift socks freeze almost instantly. No big deal other than the wear and tear on your drift sock from freezing the fabric and then “Breaking” the ice and degrading the fabric.

Launching boat: Once motor is in water, let the water thaw the impellar for 30 seconds to 1 minute before starting. Apparently the plastic tabs on your impellar can freeze to the housing and tear off if started before thawed.

Pulling out of the water, let your trailer drain. Any water dripping off your trailer freezes instantly to the ground and can make the next guy’s trip down the landing an interesting and slippery one. It’s always good to bring salt/gravel in case the guy ahead of you didn’t realize he was being a jerk.

Drain your motor immediately after pulling out. Trip completely down and allow water to drain. Put your mouth on the tell-tale and blow some of your hot air though it to purge out any water.

ICE BERGS. Never take your eye off the water. There’s always ice floating somewhere. I run a spotlight at night. Keep your guard up at all times. Have a paddle ready to push any large ice chunks that are coming your way to keep them from hitting your boat. Comes in handy when anchored.

Speaking of ice bergs and trolling motors…and trolling motors that have a transducer attached…Not a great idea to have your transducer cable running down your trolling motor shaft in the winter. Ice would love to grab that cable and rip it out for you. Watched that happen to a guy on P4 this year. Quickly realized I’m glad I didn’t mount one of my SI duecers to my TM.

Shore Ice. Made the mistake this winter of running my boat full throttle several miles upriver when the shore was covered in 3” of ice. When I decided to return downriver, I found that I had broken nearly all the ice from the shorelines and it was now jammed into one section of ice. I had to work at it for a while to break it up so I could get through, then it was a gauntlet of ice dodging the rest of the way. Woops.

Traveling. Boat and trailer will get covered in typical winter salt spray. That will accelerate any rusting you already have on your boat/trailer.

Lastly, Safety. Cold water. Floating ice. Bulky Clothing. Icy. Significantly less boat traffic to help. Recipe for disaster. I try to never go downstream from the landing in case of motor failure. A second motor like a kicker can help you get back to the landing. There is often so much less traffic on the river that odds are slim someone is going to happen by your stranded ass and help you out. Things like to break in the cold. Head upstream and you can always float back. Head downstream and you’ll need help getting back. Accidently fall in, and assuming you were able to get back into the boat, hypothermia can set in before your back to the landing. All things to consider.

That’s about all I can think of off the top of my head. Feel free to add to it with your experiences. Hope it helps someone who has been wanting to get out in the winter months.

FishBlood&RiverMud wrote:

Few things I’ve learned about boating in the winter:
Lube the shaft before getting it wet. Keep lubing frequently.

I had to stop reading after this due to laughing too much.

God bless you, you need to scratch that itch to fish much more then I do. Question, does your boat go into a heated garage between trips or are you piling up the weight of ice all winter in your boat? Smart move on going upstream makes sense you can always drift down. I think I would carry zip lock bags of fire starting stuff on your person to get a quick fire going if you went in the water. Hypothermia can get you quick, be prepared.

I love your enthusiasm although I question your sanity. Stay safe.

haha, good read, if anyone is interested I wrote a little checklist for winter boating for you, your gear, and your boat.

http://www.imnfishing.com/reports/dont-put-your-boat-away/

Interesting info. Good read.

They make specialized equipment to handle those cold weather problems. Read all about them in the “Ice Fishing” forum.

wow!!! i go out in the winter all the time and don’t nearly have that many problems.

I just usually throw the anchor line in the pilot house and turn the heat up

Alagnak Pete wrote:

I just usually throw the anchor line in the pilot house and turn the heat up

Color me jealous.

Rob92761 wrote:

wow!!! i go out in the winter all the time and don’t nearly have that many problems.

Overall I had nearly none either… Considered the post educational

I always used to have issues with my water pressure gauge freezing up and breaking.` after replacing two of them I put a T splice on the tube and just zip tie it to shoot off the side of the boat can still see I have pressure and no more broken gauges. i like to carry my buddy heater with on the boat in the winter and point that at things i need to thaw, although usually my fingers are usually the priority. also i quit wearing bulky boots i fount a pair of tennis shoes with thick wool socks and toe warmers worn on the top of your toes keep you way warmer than boots and are not as hard on the boat. bring two sets of toe warmers they burn hot with that much air but don’t last as long.

Two things to add Andy,
1.) My trailer has disc surge brakes. I’ve found in the cold weather that the discs freeze to the rotors locking up the wheels. This is not as easy to break free as it may seem so after I pull out, I like to take my trailer for a little, fast ride to spin the water off the rotors and pads.
2.) Cable-drive trolling motors like the Maxxum don’t have the icing problems that the power drive units have. That’s one reason I like my Maxxum although spot lock sure seems like it would be a nice feature when pitching jigs.

Nice article.

Boone

Switched to Berkley nanofil braid this winter. I can now fish braid in below freezing temps.

Here’s my winter checklist:

•Wait for clear, dry day above freezing
•Hitch up boat and drive 600 miles straight South to Table Rock
•If that’s too cold, keep driving to Pickwick or Havasu
•Fish until it’s consistently above 45 degrees back in Minnesota
•Drive back, back trailer into garage

Best thing I found to cure the frozen net problem is lay it in the boat so that it freezes like an open basket.Quickly realized this was the way to go after finding it frozen to the bench seat and useless.

I always have a cheapo pair of ski goggles in the boat when it’s cold. Blowing snow or worse, sleet, gets in your eyes making it almost impossible to see anything in the water ahead of you. I got caught in some sleet on a Good Friday years ago and it was a painful experience. I also keep some sort of face mask on board. Knit, neoprene, polypropylene whatever. Getting your face sandblasted when it’s cold aint no picnic either. LOL

I also have a pair of those old black rubber ? mittens with the rough, sandpaper like finish and grey liners. I forget who made them but they were meant to be used for ice fishing. I put those on when motoring from spot to spot or handling anything wet = rope, fish etc.

Thanks for taking the time to write down your experience fbrm, I’m sure if will help someone out, at least serve as a good reminder/ refresher.

FryDog62 wrote:

Here’s my winter checklist:

•Wait for clear, dry day above freezing
•Hitch up boat and drive 600 miles straight South to Table Rock
•If that’s too cold, keep driving to Pickwick or Havasu
•Fish until it’s consistently above 45 degrees back in Minnesota
•Drive back, back trailer into garage

I like that idea.

To the comments about going down river and concerns about getting stranded out on the river in the winter. Keep in mind there is the option of calling 911. They will come get you if needed. Personally I think some of those guys like taking the boats out in the winter as much as we do and Im guessing they would much rather come tow you in than looking for a body.

matt wrote:

Best thing I found to cure the frozen net problem is lay it in the boat so that it freezes like an open basket.Quickly realized this was the way to go after finding it frozen to the bench seat and useless.

Yeah that’s what I do too, but when it’s a giant musky net and your netting 50# fish in heavy current, a stiff net don’t work so well.

Yes I suspect that a frozen muskie net and 50lb fish would be difficult to deal with,that set up wouldn’t even fit in my boat.

gordonk wrote:

e handy gizmo I use to help with the frozen rope is the Quick Cleat

That’s something in highly considering. Preferred brand?

I used to like winter fishing. After reading that I’m worn out, selling the winter boat and moving to Florida.

thanks for the post. Very good read.

Them really cold days where the water is steaming is a good time to stay at home. That “steam” coats everything exposed to the cold air with ice. Add in wind to accelerate the icing.

Not to mention being in cold weather with very high humidity just feels colder!!

But hey, I’ll take winter Boating any day of the week over ice fishing.

Good info, Andy!

FishBlood&RiverMud wrote:

+1 to that.

My bunk trailer has made for a interesting time once or twice. Both times from the bunks being froze. Unloading solo at Everts the other winter the boat was froze solid to the bunks and wouldn’t budge. Between the water thawing the bunks out and me pushing when it finally moved it slid of the trailer fast enough I had to dive in or watch it float away. Of course it was a quiet morning that morning.

Just google “Quick Cleat”. Gordon’s the owner.

They do have their place.

Not that it would apply to many of you guys but I have had ice bump my reverse gate while on plane and cause a nice wave of water over the transom a few times this winter. Nothing like throwing it in reverse at 30+ mph.

dbright wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>FishBlood&RiverMud wrote:</div>

+1 to that.

My bunk trailer has made for a interesting time once or twice. Both times from the bunks being froze. Unloading solo at Everts the other winter the boat was froze solid to the bunks and wouldn’t budge. Between the water thawing the bunks out and me pushing when it finally moved it slid of the trailer fast enough I had to dive in or watch it float away. Of course it was a quiet morning that morning.

That sounds quite exciting!

I run a rope from my trailer tongue to a cleat on the bow of my boat.
Once I back in, unhook chain, back off winch, the boat slides down until the rope tightens, then I remove the winch.
Keeps the boat from flying off the trailer and keeps the winch from breaking my hand too.
I added it for steep ramps. But it is proving helpful daily.

dbright wrote:

Not that it would apply to many of you guys but I have had ice bump my reverse gate while on plane and cause a nice wave of water over the transom a few times this winter. Nothing like throwing it in reverse at 30+ mph.

Any other issues with the ob jet in the ice? Mine seemed to get every little piece of ice possible stuck in the intake bars when I’ve had it out at first ice out.

Mr. Derek wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>dbright wrote:</div>
Not that it would apply to many of you guys but I have had ice bump my reverse gate while on plane and cause a nice wave of water over the transom a few times this winter. Nothing like throwing it in reverse at 30+ mph.

Any other issues with the ob jet in the ice? Mine seemed to get every little piece of ice possible stuck in the intake bars when I’ve had it out at first ice out.

I have had the gate freeze up a couple times but once it is in the water it does not take much time to thaw out. I just make sure it is moving before pushing off now.

The best way to deal with ice is WFO. They slide across it better then breaking it.