Winter Soft Water fishing

As we approach winter this year I would like to spend more time winter soft water fishing on the river. I ever really went down this road before so I’m looking for any advice, tips, etc. for motor maintenance when we expect below-freezing temps at night.

I run a 115hp Mercury 4 stroke. My thought is to just always make sure motor drains completely when removed from the water, but is there anything I might be missing here?

I appreciate any tips or tricks you all can offer

Thanks

Spray down the trolling motor shaft with wd40. When pulling it from the water give it a second for the water to run off the shaft.

Tilt the main motor up and down a couple times to drain it. Or even turn it over real quick to blow out the water lines.

Bunk or roller trailer?

Let the trailer drain before pulling up the ramp as to not ice slick up the ramp.

Make sure to break some ice with the boat as often as possible. Its good luck for fishing.

I don’t fish at that time but I have heard guys plug or disconnect their live-wells so you don’t get frozen lines. Maybe Mike can confirm or deny that process.

Thanks guys!

Mike- It’s a roller trailer. Anything I should lookout for on that front?

Dutchboy- good call on plugging the live wells. Too bad we have to have plugs out on the road, I’d rather leave them plugged permanently during the winter but don’t want the fish police to come ruin my day.

Will the boat be stored in a heated garage while not in use?

I’m also curious about this. Roller trailer as well and no heated storage.

I ran a roller trailer the last few years while winter fishing – I didn’t do anything special out side of letting it drain while sitting on the ramp as Mike mentioned.

The only thing I worried about was draining the motor – pull out of the water and use the incline of the ramp to drain it as dry as you can.

I didn’t plug the livewell, either. No issues but I don’t think it’s a bad idea. My boat was stored outside at all times and I never had any issues.

If you have removable carpet take it out – if it gets wet and you store outside it’s a mess to deal with.

I prefer to leave the carpet in during the winter, mostly because when you get water on the glass floor it becomes a slipping hazzard. If you have the textured vinyl floor that may be better.

Matt Moen wrote:

If you have removable carpet take it out – if it gets wet and you store outside it’s a mess to deal with.

It’s always a bit of a fight, but the things that have gotten me the worst are the ones you wouldn’t really think about. All your compartments will freeze shut if it gets wet (particularly the bow storage). Ive had my boat freeze to the bunks pretty bad as well. Had to let it sit in the water at the landing for half an hour before it melted enough to pop loose. If you have a screw in plug, the water collects in the threads when you pull it. It then freezes and you cant put the plug back in without melting it. In my opinion, you really need to let the boat thaw out between uses if you’re going to be doing it on a regular basis.

The only time I run into issues is on trips where you don’t have access to heated storage. I still am able to bring it home and thaw it out after a long weekend though. It would be a pretty big fight to do it on and off all winter long without ever letting everything thaw out.

I should also mention that these are issues that seem to happen when you have really cold winter temps. Ex. highs in the single digits and teens and lows around 0F

Many of these problems seem to go away when you have highs closer to 30 with the sun shining.

I always tarp my boat for travel and overnights. I also plug in my battery onboard charger.
With that in mind, when I’m in freezing temps I carry a ceramic heater with me and sometimes a small fan too. With the boat tarped, the heater set to low and a fan to circulate the air under the tarp, all gets dried out rather well! No frozen hatches, nothing iced up and the ole girl is a happy camper!

The boat that is.

I never did anything special when fishing open water in the winter but I fish out of flatbottom boats and it was usually above freezing when I left the water. I never had any boat or motor issues

Big thanks everyone! I won’t be fishing soft water once there’s enough ice to hit the hard water But planning to be on the river as much as I can before I hit the ice so all the advice helps.

Boat is stored tarped outside. I could put it in the garage now and then to let it warm u a little, but I also don’t heat my garage so might not be worth it. I’ll probably avoid going out in the snow so not too worried about everything getting wet either.

Cheers, just got my ice shacks all set up and ready for the season, I couldn’t wait any longer to bust them out of storage!

Fished a few hours outside of Prescott on Saturday, not much going on out there right now. The water is pretty high right now, the weather sucked, and all I caught was a cold

Im about the opposite of that. Fishing late season and all the nice fish we catch cures me of wanting to go stand on the ice.

My boats are stored outside to. Its nice to have a cover to keep the snow out. You learn what to watch out for as far as frozen hatches. Fishing in winter rain can turn things slick. Have had to throw a few hand fulls of sand in the bottom of the boat from time to time. If you fish in the snow keep your gear tucked away or it may get thrown over board when its time to shovel out the boat. If you do freeze thing up well borrow someones heated garage or a quick trip to a heated car wash will help get it back in shape.

I have a new boat, motor and 1st time bunk trailer this fall. Even as much as Ive fished in the winter there will be learning going on.

Road salt will be rough on most parts, try to avoid trailering when the roads are wet. I do it, but it shows…

Always bring a small propane torch with you, you never know when you might need it. My duck boat has manual trim, it will freeze and keep itself from locking when in reverse, not a fun thing to deal with..