Hey Hall of Fame family,
I hope this blog post finds you warm and well. As I write this, much of the country is under a freeze warning, and it is currently 9 degrees outside. We haven't seen temperatures above 15 in five days. All the lakes and rivers have frozen, and people have taken up ice fishing to still get on some fish. The freezing temperatures have me remembering some of the times I've been fishing during intense weather events. I can remember fly fishing for blue ribbon rainbow and brown trout one year at the end of January. The high for the day was 12 degrees, and there was a drizzling rain that persisted. We started off the morning slow, catching a fish here or there. However, we took a break at the only open tackle shop we could find to buy some new warm, dry gloves. By the afternoon there was still ice forming on our guides nearly every cast, but we still managed to stay warm and catch trout (I'm so glad I had brand new waders!) There has been more than one rainstorm I have been stuck in while fishing. In the Midwest, surprise thunderstorms can arise out of nowhere, and they can be intense. There's rainstorms that seem to have no wind, and the rain falls straight down. This has happened to me at a few ponds, and one time while kayaking. I had to bail water out of my kayak due to the amount building up in my boat. These storms with no wind aren't nearly as bad, and the fishing seems to be decent before and after the rain subsides. The storms with high winds are a different story. I can remember two separate times when out on a boat, on a lake I'd never been to, where a storm with severe gusts pick so strong that it's difficult to see in front of the boat. Rain blowing sideways type of storm. On Dale Hollow Lake, we were fishing in a rented bass boat, and the skies were clear when we left the marina. After a few hours, the sky turned green, than quickly black, and we were a few miles from the marina. Before we knew it, a storm picked up and rain was pouring down sideways. We immediately went back to the marina, but barely made it due to such limited visibility. The deck hand was shocked that we made it unscathed. Another time was on Elkhart Lake on a small 'bass raider' boat with a 36 thrust trolling motor. It was overcast all day, but rain held off. After fishing all morning, we turned the corner into a large, open cove. We had caught fish to this point, and were dry. Then out of nowhere, the sky turned black and the rain began to pour. The winds picked up, and our small boat could not make it out of the cove. Again, we could barely see in front of out boat. We ended up just waiting out the storm in the boat. Both times we were completely soaked. I can recall other times in sweltering heat, upwards of 110 degrees, catching bass by pitching creature baits into thick cover. Other times, I remember catching bass in straight wind gusts on Sam Rayburn and Kentucky Lakes. It was impossible to keep the boat in one place. In each instance, we caught fish, and the weather was less than ideal. My best advice is to always make sure you have water, no matter if it's hot or cold. Thanks for reading!
Tight Lines,
Erik Hoffman, Hall of Fame Outdoor Co