This past fall I was out surfcasting a couple outings in some sub 30
degree temps and wearing the stormr neoprene gloves, which
normally do a decent job of keeping the hands warm.
Not so these outings…
Too cold and the wind was cranking too hard for them to do their job. (30-40 mph winds)
I was in a decent pick of striped bass…catching and releasing fish, keeping
the fish in the water, so i would not damage them in the cold air…
My hands were in agony.
I meditated on it a bit and started thinking…I need a wind block for
my hands. Sort of like what a windbreaker does for a wetsuit.
So this winter I did some research and really was trying to find a
three finger mitt shell…but settled for these Outdoor Reasearch
Revel Shell Mittens.
Perhaps with some mods can be surfcaster friendly. I noticed in the
fall my crank handle hand…was the coldest because of it’s posture. I
think a mitten is fine for that hand but a three finger glove would be
better for the casting trigger hand.
These shells have no insulation, so you wear gloves under them.
Mittens are better than gloves because heat is shared with the
whole hand. I bought an XL size so I could fit my neoprene gloves
under them.
I fish for trout all winter, and becauseTenkara fishing requires no fingers to fish
effectively… I only need fingers to change flies.
I was out with these mittens trout fishing and it was 22 degrees with
a wind. I wore gorilla grips under the mittens and my hands were
plenty warm. I even got the gorilla grips wet a couple times catching
and releasing a couple of rainbows…and even wet… my hands were
comfortable under the mittens. Took the mittens off when I had to
deal with flies or fish.
I thought I would share this, as it is the first solution I feel is
approaching a perfect solution for surfcasting. For Tenkara, its perfect.
If you have not tried those gorilla grip gloves they do a pretty good job for a tight fitting non insulated glove. One side is mesh the other is rubberized. They are 5 bucks at home depot.
You could say that if it is too cold for your hands it is too cold to fish. True…but some morning start really cold and then warm up. I know the rule of thumb is that one should fish winter in the warmer times of the day. Most of my rivers get heavy traffic and I find the early bird gets the worm…not to mention I can get out and back to the house before the family gets out of bed.