Jan 23rd report. To fish or not to fish this week...
A slight chance of rain, snow, and freezing rain before 1pm, then a slight chance of snow between 1pm and 2pm. Patchy fog before 4pm. Otherwise, cloudy, with a high near 32. East wind 3 to 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.With the slightly warmer weather, creeks are freeing up. We saw a pretty significant increase of non iced up water yesterday and with the warmer temperatures and slow melt we should see more today and through the rest of the week.
If you just need to get outside, by all means do so! This is an excellent cabin fever elimination week. Get out there and enjoy some unseasonably warm winter weather!
If you are laser focused on fishing, the week will be dicey. Yes there is fishable water, and a few fish are being caught, but things are weird.
First, the ice is still covering quite a bit of our water. You can spend some time in the car finding open water, but some of your usual spots are probably still locked up.
Second, the melting is causing the water temperature to drop quickly in the day. Overnight temps are barely below freezing. This means a trickle of snowmelt is hitting the creeks early and lasting all day long. Ideally you want things to refreeze in the evening and slowly melt in the afternoon.
Third, the forecasted rain later this week. So far it is only supposed to mist/drizzle, but if it gets any heavier it could mess up the creeks a bit clarity and temperature wise.
We will keep you posted on how things look throughout the week. If the rains do not hit hard things will be good later on in the week. Again, do not expect lights out fishing, but focus on enjoying some time outside and hope for a pleasant surprise!