Cold weather impact on fish

Anyone venture to guess what impact the cold snap will have on fish and fishing? Especially worried about trout.

Not too concerned. Thursday is going to be back up in the 60s in the daytime. And hopefully work don’t get in the way and I can sneak off Thursday and find out.


I am fragile. Not like a flower. But like a bomb.

It will probably drop the temps down to around 50 or so in the shallow waters and slow the activity and bite down, school them up some and shift them to winter pattern for a few days. I think the water temps are to high and the cold period is to short to put a stun on any fish. So fishing in the afternoon and in the deeper areas close to shallow areas will likely be better fishing.

Off the Chain and 40 Inch Reds, thanks much. I am glad to hear what you said, both for the fish’s sake and because I have plans to drive from Charlotte to Edisto next week for a couple of days fishing.

No reason to be worried, so far, so good!


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At folly river on Saturday, average water temp was 54-56 F. just from what I saw


F/V Tinny will live forever

Last week in the creeks water temp was reading 59-60 on surface and fish were aggressive . I fished Monday and Tuesday this week, water temp was 51 Monday and 50 Tuesday with air temps in 30’s. We still caught plenty of reds and few black drum, just fish weren’t aggressive and was soft bite and took them a while to commit , but they still fought hard once hooked.

I think we’re about bottomed out on the current trend for now, glad we had 60-something to buffer us this week

For comparison: data for spotted seatrout critical temp from 2018 snow/freeze event, credit to Dr. J. Ballenger for graph (SCDNR)

Went out yesterday, the 26th and water temps were down about 5 degrees, and much cleaner and clearer, from Brown to green and a couple inches of visibility to a couple ft. It seemedThe sheepshead bite was slower, I couldn’t get on the trout in the same spot they’ve been at the last 3 times I’ve been out, on the same tide phase but there was a lot of dolphin activity in those areas, but caught reds in the same spot. The reds still thumped it but didn’t thump and run immediately like last time so I’d say they slowed down a little. The most it’s seemed like winter fishing this season.
Threw 1 cast got a hit and next cast broke off switch size and color no action after about 6 cast, switched size and color again and got a hit first cast. All were at the same piece of structure and in less then 5 minutes. So I’d say the clearer water made them a little more choosey.

My fears of cold weather impact on fish were completely unfounded. Thanks for the insight provided by all. I did fish the South Edisto Monday and Tuesday. Between myself and two friends, we boated around 20 red fish plus 1 small trout on Monday. All returned to the water. On Tuesday two of us caught 8 reds and 2 trout, including the little guy shown here. Bite was slow (but steady) so we kept changing up what we threw at them - cut shrimp and live minnows under popping corks and 5 different types of plastic. We caught fish on everything, just not at a frantic pace. Maybe this time of year they have fewer dining choices so are less particular about what they eat?

I’ve been working on a theory lately that most areas have small minnows, or mullet and most the shrimp you catch in the cool months are big or super tiny, hard to use a artificial that small short of jigging. So a big shrimp imitation, or finger mullet or small minnows should be what’s most likely to get hit. Seems like it would cover most artificials. The real thing is knowing where to work them. The small minnows are every where so that should work every where, the big shrimp are in the deeper holes for the most part and finger mullet are in the flats and back creeks. So that should help some. I fish popular areas so a lot of the good fish get kept but I usually catch fish 13 to 20 inches but I usually throw 3 inch paddle tails so that good be because of the bait I’m throwing. I’ve been thinking of switching to bigger profiles because larger baits cast further and I could cover more water and in winter covering water can be a key until you find them in the winter and it seems like fish should be schooling up since water has been around 55. I thought I found schools of reds the other day but only caught about 4 in a spot each time so not a major school, but I could of had bad timing.

I’m glad you got some action.

Sunday I downsized and it make a big difference.

I use a pole with 12lb line on it. That 12 lb line makes the big red a little tougher to maneuver around. but I can get real long casts out of it. And that smaller bait slips into the water a little quieter.just something I thought I would try after seeing a lot of small minnows in the creek the week before.


I am fragile. Not like a flower. But like a bomb.