Keep your hands warm

[Scott McKee]

The biggest obstacle I have to overcome while fishing in the cold is not getting Muskies to hit my baits.  I am generally content they won't, but I like to torture myself for as long as I can and that can be a problem when the air temperatures dip into the low thirties and twenties.  My hands are the problem.  I have a hell of a time keeping them warm.

I damaged my hands years ago releasing a dinky musky holding it upright in fridgid water for about a half-hour on the last day of the 2000 season.  The little fella went bonzai during the fight with a Plow in his yap and even though the hooks came out easily and the fish was never out of the water, he just wouldn't swim away.  I went from someone who barely needed gloves to someone who couldn't keep their hands from aching and becoming almost useless under even mildly cold conditions.

Couple this with my advancing age and the blood thinners I have to take, cold weather is hell for my hands.

This is unfortunate since cold water fall fishing is my favorite.

What follows are a few tips I mentioned last night in my presentation on hypothermia and keeping warm and safe this fall.

Keep your hands as dry as possible.  This is not easy while fishing.  Rain, snow, reel spray, removing weeds and leaves from lures, changing lures, reaching into coolers, handling wet ropes,  releasing fish, etc., much of what we do on the water gets our hands wet. Wet hands in the cold is a no-no.  The best way to keep your hands dry is vinyl or latex food preparation gloves.  If you wear these babies the entire time you are fishing and replace them whenever they spring a leak, I can guarantee you your hands will be dry, provided of course you don't catch any fish.  During the release process your hands will almost always get wet.  This is when you'll need a towel or towels, in the case of our more successful anglers.  After a release dry your hands and replace your food preparation gloves.  I can't take credit for this little trick.  JoJo has been doing it for years. I am thinking of bringing a rosin bag on board, much like you'll see a pitcher using, to dry my hands even further after using a towel.

My next layer of hand protection is fingerless gloves.  Although my fingers get colder with the exposed tips as opposed to full fingered versions, I can't tie knots, regulate spool speed casting, control my rod and reel or fight fish as well in full fingered gloves.  The best fingerless gloves I have found are the Simms Exstream.  They are windproof, fleece lined and water resistant.  The Simms have a pocket in the wrist that conveniently houses a chemical hand warmer against the underside on the wrist.  Believe it or not, having a heat warmer there and on the top of your hand in fingerless gloves keeps your hands reasonably warm and more importantly serviceable.

I carry five pairs of fingerless gloves on board in the fall and I replace them whenever they get wet.  In the cold and wet you must have numerous pairs of gloves and mittens in order to stay ahead of the hand killing damp.

While trolling or when my hands start to lock up from the cold chucking, I wear mittens, really big mittens.  I carry three pairs of mittens with me in the fall.  All three have long gauntlets that easily fit over my float suit sleeves or layering and exterior shell.  Whenever these mittens become damp, I replace them with drier ones.  The first of the three pairs I carry is the NB4 Flier Mitt.  These Air Force surplus gems are only about $30 on EBay.  They are not 100% waterproof, but they are wool lined and leather-palmed. They have a very handy snot mop on the back and they have numerous draw straps on the gauntlets enabling you to tighten them up as much as you like.  The second pair of mittens I carry is the Ice Armor Extreme mitten. The mittens have a 100% waterproof shell and I generally wear them in the rain. The pair I save for really cold conditions and are the warmest mittens I've found other than $200 Antarctic exploration bad boys, is the Cabela's Trans Alaska Mitt. These babies are waterproof and boast a 1000 gram Thinsulate lining.  When it is brutal outside these puppies keep me trolling longer.

Inside these mittens I put two or three hand warmers depending on the conditions.  I insert the hand warmers in my mittens and fingerless gloves prior to even leaving the house.  This way they are already toasty warm as soon as I pull them out of my glove and hat dry bag.  Yes, I have a dry bag dedicated to just my cold weather accessories.  It's a good idea to keep these items in a dry bag. If they get wet, they are useless.

I go through a lot of hand warmers each year. Yes, they cost money, but without them I would be unable to fish in the cold at all.  Walmart has these chemical godsends for $5 for 10 pairs. Peanuts.

Here's a quick recap and a few other tips I can give you to keep your hands dry:

- Don't snug your wrist cuffs too tightly, just tight enough to keep the wind from blowing up your sleeves.

- Keep your mittens as loose as possible. You will want to be able to shuck them off quickly if you have a fish on.

- Don't forget the hand warmers on your wrists and the backs of your hands.

- Don't drink cold beverages.

- A hot cup of coffee, tea, hot chocolate or soup, is the best tasting hand warmer ever made.

- Keep your hands as dry as possible. Take the time to dry them as completely as possible when they get wet. Wear food preparation gloves.

- Acquire numerous pairs of fingerless gloves and high quality mittens and use them. Replace them with dry ones whenever they start to get wet or even damp.

Good luck this fall. Keep your hands warm and you'll be able to fish longer which might just result in you catching the fish of your lifetime.