Ice on Mobile Bay

Carl

Carl

Well-known member
Staff member
Yep, thats how cold it was this morning, the shallow calm areas of Mobile Bay had ice on them. There was also ice sheets and piles all over the mud flats from when the tide dropped out. Saw many ice encrusted crab traps.
Something we only see about every 10 years or so.
Didn't have a chance to take photos, might go out after rush hour traffic dies down and see if I can get some.
Had 19 on our back porch.

4 days of strong north winds have our water levels 1.5' below predicted, spots i normally hunt were almost all high and dry. Yesterday it was even lower, a full 2' below predicted.
I didnt see a single boat trailer at the ramps, freezing cold and no water make it tough to justify going out until the tide changes.



View attachment Tides01-02-18.jpg
 
This cold air should give you great opportunities down there
You may start seeing some true exotics for your area
 
Geo Kaiser said:
This cold air should give you great opportunities down there
You may start seeing some true exotics for your area
Click to expand...

GIven that everything north of here is frozen, we should get a big wave of gadwalls over the next few nights.
We also tend to see a few scoters when it turns this cold. And a few more pintails.
I wont be able to hunt until Saturday, on pins & needles until then!
 
Dang, that is cold. How often do you get ice on the bay?

The only water open here is the rivers. The geese are shoulder to shoulder on the Kokosing here in town.

Tom
 
I've been here since 1997 and can remember about 3 or 4 other times we had ice on the bay..
 
Yep especially up on your end of the state. You gonna hunt or wait for things to warm up? Given that all the backwater is probably frozen the main lake should be covered in birds.
 
Ice has just about shut us down here in NJ. At least most of the areas I frequent. Back to work for me anyway after the holidays, waiting on a thaw before all the birds boogey south.
 
I'm going to hit it this weekend, I can only hunt weekends because of work. As of tomorrow morning every last bit of back water should be froze up, still saw a few open pockets this morning.
 
Carl, how brackish is the bay in the area where you typically hunt? Keep us posted on how your hunt goes tomorrow!
 
It varies, the upper end of the bay can be completely fresh at times, then in late summer/fall, brackish. In drought years, it can get saline enough to kill vallisneria, this happened in 2006/07.
Lower part of the bay can get pretty salty in late summer/fall, but then you may have a huge spring flood, like this year when surface salinty was zero at the mouth of the bay.
Bottom layers in the deeper parts stay fairly brackish to salty and there is big salt wedge on the bottom of the Mobile River that goes way north.

MS Sound, especially west of Bayou La Batre, is pretty salty all the time. We have true seagrass (Haloduli wrightii) down there, plus lots of Ruppia.

Still not 100% on where I will hunt tomorrow. Water is still really low. Decisions, Decisions....
 
This coming Monday morning is supposed to be our first forecasted low above freezing for this year, and our first forecast for a normal high temp for the year.
I think that set some kinda record.
 
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