The Boating Forum - How cold is to cold?

I live in Jacksonville Fl. (North Florida) and the temperature is pretty mild most of the year. But sometimes it drops down below freezing but not for long, Last night it got down to 29 degrees here for about 8 hours. I don't keep water in my fresh water tank on my boat when I am not using it. I always use it to clean boat on the way back in from fishing. That way it is empty when I get back in from offshore. It holds about nine gallons, and the holding tank for my toilet is about 12 gallons, but both are always empty while boat is at home. My question is, When I pump it out, do you think there is enough water left in the line or pump to freeze and harm it? I always pump it until nothing but air is coming out. I hate to go to the trouble of putting something in it to keep it from freezing, because here in Florida it can freeze one day, and the next day it might be 60 or 70 degrees and I'm back on the water. Boat is my 24 ft. Wellcraft (WAC) I am retired and fish 2 or 3 days a week, and sometimes more. I sure you guys up north are laughing now about how rough we have it down here in Florida. But give an old "Redneck" a break, and help me out here.

Also what is the coldest temperature you guys fish in up north? I take the day off when it is in the 50's. :grin:

I open the seacocks to drain my water lines for livewells and washdowns, then spin the pumps to clear them. I run the boat year-round so it is never winterized.

Coldest? I personally have never gone out colder than -1.

Gone fishing tomorrow and its going to be in the high 20's in the morning. My buddy went this morning and said there was ice on the boat. But the fishing right now is insane, so I'm just going to freeze. By the way, were catching as many stripers as you can possibly reel in and today he caught two over 40lbs.

The smaller or more metallic the line is, the faster it will freeze. Might want to stick a 25 watt light bulb on a timer under the sink, and a 60 watt under the toilet.

Fishcop, where you from? We're sitting here in South Jersey waiting for the blitzes that are happening up north to get down here. We have fish but not like up there. ;?

Maryland...........Although tomorrow I'll be fishing in the Virgina portion of the Chesapeake Bay. It's been really good here for like the last two weeks, Gannetts and Pelicans diving and four foot rockfish rolling around the boat. I have friends fishing all the way down the bay to VA beach and supposedly its wide open all the way down to there.

I live in Cheapeake and do all of my fisihng next door in Va Beach. Usually CBBT or the ocean. The ocean bite is INSANE right now and I fish till they are gone. I went last Jan and it was 15 degrees when I left the house. It had warmed up to 16 when I splashed the boat and a nasty 25-35 mph wind has caused all of the spray to form ice on everything. I had to stop several times to de-ice the boat. It was cold, but worth it as we landed many nice stripers keeping our limit of 40"plus fish.
There is no such thing as too cold. If the fish are there we will go out there for them.

Yep! thats what I'm talking about..........tomorrow were not gonna even keep a fish under 40inches.

fishcop - 12/15/2004 7:51 PM

Gone fishing tomorrow and its going to be in the high 20's in the morning. My buddy went this morning and said there was ice on the boat. But the fishing right now is insane, so I'm just going to freeze. By the way, were catching as many stripers as you can possibly reel in and today he caught two over 40lbs.

In the 20's WOW!!!!!!! You Da Man fishcop. But the way your talking about those big fish, I guess that would make a body warmer. I love going up notrh on vacation, there is some pretty country up there, but give me the warmer weather and the flat lands of Florida. :grin:

Yeah personally, I'll take the warmer weather anyday. But if your ever up here in the winter and you want to freeze your nutt$ of and catch some bigfish give me a call.

HOW COLD IS COLD

when u go toggin and stop for 10 minutes touse the head, and when u come back to make a drop and your reel has frozen up and u need to go into the cabin and hold it against the heater for a few minutes!!! This was last January on the capt al out of Freeport. also slim pickings but always worth it.

Ive fished the lower niagra gorge in the middle of winter before , you power up and drift down catching many different kinds of fish. The guides up there are tough, going out in below zero weather but you have to be quick when you come off the water not to freeze anything up. Mostly 20 foot lunds and some crestliners though.

twinstex,

Every New Year's day for the past 20 yrs. or so I'd be found in the gorge, even if I'm casting from shore. ;) Some yrs. it's down right cold.

When I live up by the Yukon, we fished all the time in the winter. Minus 25 to - 35 below really isn't that bad. The biggest problem was keeping the holes open. It was until I invented a nifty little contraption.

For those of you that know about fire places, you know the grates that are often found in the fire place, the ones you put your logs on and then set fire to. Well I made up the same thing but instead out of pipe. By having the one end of the pipe up in the air and the other end of the pipe pointing downwards and the fire buning on top of the pipes, the air is heated and blows out of the pipe on the downward side. This very hot air is allowed to skip across the surface of the open hole/water. My grates were 8 pipes wide with three pipes pointing downwards and the others straight outwards. So not only was I able to keep the ice from forming, but was also able to warm the hands. :thumbsup:

I fished once out of st augustine when the temp dropped all the way to 48, blowing 5-7mph!.....still got sunburned......roughin' it in FL.....Mick

The problem is not really that water freezes in pipes, the problem is when the pipes are so full of water that there is no where for the expanding ice to go except through the wall of the pipe. If you're running your pumps to the point of pnly getting air then you've taken out enough water to prevent damage. Open up and drian everything you can but I wouldn't bother with adding anti-freeze or anything like that...

Lucky, I'm in Jax too and for NE FL it has been cold! We were just talking about the same thing since it is supposed to get even colder this weekend and first of next week. Bring on Spring!

Back to the subject.



A few hours one* night of 29 degree weather isn't going to hurt anything.* Don't worry about it.* If it were going to stay below freezing for a couple of days you might want to make sure there is no water setting in the heads of pumps or in metalic pipe or tanks.*

By the way, I overslept this morning but it was 6 degrees at 8:00 AM.* Its gong to get a lot worse, and I do not care.* I either have 9 or 16 days until retirement (I haven't decided yet to quit on the 3rd or the 10th) and so my days of having to get up in the morning and go out into that nasty**** are almost over.

I have little doubt that fishing in an ice covered boat with reels frozen solid is great good fun, but I'll find something else to do until it warms up.



Thom



Thom

Yesterday was the coldest day in Mexico this year, and it dropped 34 at 7000 feet elev where I live. The guys in Puerto Vallarta also complained that it was chilly there too with a high of 86 and a low of 69. Burrrrr.

OK. You guys that are talking about fishing below 20deg are freakin' certifiably crazy. ;) I try not to leave my house when it's that cold. Heck, I freeze my a$$ off below 50. Give me 100+ w/ 90% humidity any day over the cold.

neckbone - 12/16/2004 5:01 PM

OK. You guys that are talking about fishing below 20deg are freakin' certifiably crazy. ;) I try not to leave my house when it's that cold. Heck, I freeze my a$$ off below 50. Give me 100+ w/ 90% humidity any day over the cold.

You sure are livin' in the right place for that!! I lived in Cola Town for 4 years and I kinda got used to it after two.

When I lived in Norfolk, we Striper fished just about every other weekend until Valentines day. Some days it was cold out there. If all goes well, I'll be back this weekend freezin' my butt off before sunrise!!!

Tom

My hats off to you guys that can fish in that cold weather,
I guess its all in where you live and what you are use to.
I just talked to my fishing buddy, and we are going bass fishing tomorrow in a small creek. He thinks it might be a little cold. Weatherman calls for 62 degress tomorrow. I can't wait to tell him about what ya'll fish in. :grin:

Also thanks for the info. about my hose's freezing on my boat.

I really am "Lucky LaRue" to be living in Florida

;cool;

thubert57 - 12/16/2004 5:15 PM

neckbone - 12/16/2004 5:01 PM

OK. You guys that are talking about fishing below 20deg are freakin' certifiably crazy. ;) I try not to leave my house when it's that cold. Heck, I freeze my a$$ off below 50. Give me 100+ w/ 90% humidity any day over the cold.

You sure are livin' in the right place for that!! I lived in Cola Town for 4 years and I kinda got used to it after two.


Tom


I've been here for 10 years and Myrtle Beach for 16 before that. This past summer was a cold one for us. Only a couple days over 100 and many in the 80's. Many more like that and I'll have to move further south. :grin:

LuckyLaRue,

I don't know what your bass are like when a cold front moves in, our stop bitting basically al together. Good luck.

Oh you've got e-mail. :thumbsup:

Garett - 12/17/2004 10:21 PM

LuckyLaRue,

I don't know what your bass are like when a cold front moves in, our stop bitting basically al together. Good luck.

Oh you've got e-mail. :thumbsup:

Garrett,

They did not stop all together, but close :( We caught five bass, only one keeper. When I catch Black Bass that I can keep we put them in a friend of mine pond. We went just two days before yesterday trip and caught about 10 with 3 of them keepers. That was before our little cold snap. It sure made a difference. :grin: