Fishing pressure?

[Gus]

Starting to see houses pop up like wildfire. Do you guys think there is more fishing pressure during the winter or the summer? Do you catch more fish in winter or summer? This might be a good poll question. Not sure how one starts a poll.

[Nutty Fisherman]

From what I see you started one. I catch more fish in the winter then the summer because I fish more in the winter.

[Dan_L]

I seem to catch more in the winter. when we have our perm out we spend alot more time waiting a toughing it out. summer ya seem to be a bit more on the go, bite hungry

[EBass]

I catch more in the spring and fall than I do in the winter or summer. Maybe it's just me.

[Maximum12]

I catch more in the summer, but I tend to bass fish half the time.

Curious to see what others think of the pressure question. I think a lot of lakes get more pressure in the winter than in the summer. My rationale is that you need a lot less stuff (boat, motor/canoe, etc.) for open water fishing than ice fishing. The other thing is that I rarely if ever see a lot of people on my favorite lakes in the summer, but there always seem to be a few around in the winter.

Ice fishing also lends itself to hanging around & doing nothing (& drinking!). So it appeals somewhat to the lazy in people (myself sometimes included).

[Eric Wettschreck]

I can very honestly say, hands down, no question, I catch more fish in the winter.

This is cuz I fish a LOT more in the winter. Time is not on my side in the summer. Work, home repairs, family stuff, etc takes much of my summer. Winter is for fishing and snowmobiling.

I can only speak for the area where I live, but is there more fishing pressure in the winter???? Yup, there sure is. Compare the number of boats on the lake in the summer to the number of trucks on the lake in the winter. The difference is huge. There are way more people on the lake once the water gets hard.

[Mark Christianson]

Do lakes get fished more in the winter, than they do in the summer?

Buffalo Lake had a creel survey done in winter 2002/2003 and then a creel survey done May 2003 to October 2003.

The numbers surprised the heck out of me.

48,275 angling hours were spent on the water in the summer survey.

72,228 angling hrs were spent fishing in the winter survey.

I would have NEVER thought winter fishing was more than summer fishing, and the difference really surprised me.

Obviously this is one lake, but its one really popular lake in the west metro.

[Willy]

I think the reason that you see more people fishing the lakes in the winter is that a lot of the good ole boys get laid off in the winter so they have more time to fish. In the summer, anyone that is working construction has to work till dark and many don't have time to make it out there.

[rosspj59]

How many of those hours are spent actually fishing do you think? One thing about winter fishing is people don't move as much around the lake so maybe less fish are actually caught as a whole for all the fisherman out there. I try to be mobile, but many others aren't. I usually catch more fish in open water because it is easier to move around and try more variations in presentation of lures/bait. You guys are correct that more hours are probably spent ice fishing. It's amazing too that in the summer some lakes only have one or two boats on them and during the winter they have a 100 shacks on them. Fishing pressure is definitely higher on the hard water.

[PikeTipper]

Another factor that increases the angling hours in the winter for those surveys is spending the night out in the fish house. In the summer I may only fish from 6 - 9 so when the DNR guy asks me how long I fished I tell him 3 hours. In the winter I might get out to the house at 3, I might move around and really try to catch some fish for an hour or so during prime time but I'll stay in the fish house until 11 drinking beer and playing cards with friends. When I get off the lake I tell the DNR guy that I fished for 8 hours even though most of that time I wasn't fishing nearly as hard as I would have in the summer.

[hanson]

It might be simple economics. If you missed this thread from a few days ago, here you go-

Just starting to ice fish, equip. recommendations

Ice fishing can be as simple or complicated as you make it. It also opens up large bodies of water to people who are otherwise unable to fish them due to lack of an appropriate sized boat, motor, electronics, etc.

There are some lakes such as Upper Red that you can't touch with a boat during a windy day, yet the only problem wind will cause in the winter is cold or poor visibility but you can still fish.

When I was a little kid spending time at my grandpas place on Lake of the Woods, we would go up for a 3-4 day weekend and not even fish because the wind and waves were so bad. Once again, in the winter it will just make you cold.

[psegriz]

I think everyone here is right in some way.

I work construction I fish 3-5 days a year in summer 6 max. That includes the 3 day family camping trip.

During winter about 60 days or more (already been out 14 days)

Most people in winter do not seriously fish after first ice. They still might go out later but I wouldn't call most of it serious fishin. It can be a bigger workout than summer fishin, if you drag everything through couple feet of snow. Most people don't do that, they'll stay home. Once your set up it can be real lazy and easy to watch your bobber if that's all ya want to do.

If we didn't have shelters and heaters how many hrs would be spent out there. Not as many, but we can still go out there and be just as comfortable as if at home. Are we always fishing really that hard. I'd guess most say no.

I remember going fishin with gramps and when it got real cold he'd go to shore and gather wood, build a fire on the ice to stay warm. I don't know of anyone who'd do that anymore. We've made it so comfortable and easy.

EDIT: BLB you were surprised, but in what way. I'm myself surprised that summer fishing had close to that many hrs. Ice fishing is MN'S favorite sport but more fish are caught in the summer.