Keeping my fingers Toasty Warm

[Snagly]

I own more pairs of gloves than Imelda Marcos' shoe collection, but when it's really, really cold you need a heater or handwarmer, too.

What are people's favorite handwarmers? When I was a kid with a newspaper route back in Ohio, handwarmers were fueled with lighter fluid, lit and tucked in your pockets. About 20 minutes later your pants were on fire they were so danged hot. I've got to believe the technology has moved on so what are you winter steelheader diehards using?

PS Best gloves for overall warmth are the unlined neoprenes with fold-back index finger and thumb slots. ("Glacier Gloves" and the like). They are warm even when wet. Occasionally you see them on sale but usually they're $30-$40 They're worth it.

When it's not that cold, the half-fingered capilene gloves from many makers work fine. Just get two pairs -- not much good when they're wet.

[Phish_on]

Mr. Heater, Jr.

Stanley thermos cup full of coffee

emu

[smilesforu]

There are some chemical heaters for pockets these days. Some are rechargeable by boiling or microwaving, this type is water proof. Another variety is one that works great but isn't designed for water contact.
But in a boat its mr heater and a full bottle of propane.
Tight Lines

------------------
Marty M
Steelheader.net (http://www.steelheader.net/)

[OneLastCast]

I had a guy who worked for me use one of those old hand warmers and left it on the dash of the company truck when he went outside. After 20 minutes he and his partner looked back and were trying to figure out what that orange glow in the windshield was. It turned out that was the second time he had done that. He works for someone else now.

OneLastCast

[Centerpin]

I fish with the thinsulate lined wool gloves with the full flap cover over the fingers. I use a single action reel so there is not much complication and if it gets wet you can warm it up and still use it later on. Also the handles are easy to turn and the drag is simply your other hand. When my hands feel warm I take the flap off the front. When they are cold I flip her down for a while. When you can't feel your fingers anymore you reel with your palm. I guess it just boils down to how much weather can you stand.

PS it wasn't Billy who was playing the fish it was another fella. Billy isn't afraid to pull those babies out of the slush. He just isn't very good at tying knots afterwords.

CP

[meyersbilly]

I agree with CP on this one, wool is the best that I’ve seen. If I get completely dunked (head under and everything) I want nothing but wool and more wool next to my body. I have gone completely under, crawled back up the beach shaken off and continued fishing on more than one occasion while wearing wool. Unnatural fibres and I’ll beat Carl Lewis back to the truck.

If I could only get some polar bear waders and a set of seal skin mittens, I’d be happy.

[Deleted User]

Back when I was guiding I spent many a miserable day fishing in blistering cold weather all day for winter steelhead. Fishing 5 or 6 days a week helps you get somewhat accilimated to withstand that better. But now I've gone back to gettin' a little bit wussie after a few hours in 25 deg (-7 C.) east winds or 35 (3 C.) deg steady rain and wind all day, with water eventually finding it's way in to wet my clothes no matter how good of raingear it is. I agree with Snagly about the neoprene gloves completely. For those with options, I think bank fishing or being the guy on the oars helps keep you warmer with the activity. Some days after hours of it I just want to put the propane heater right inside my pants, so I won't become a neutered brass monkey (no BBQ jokes http://www.ifish.net/forum/images/graemlins/smile.gif ). - RT

[Snagly]

Apparently our Alaska guide hadn't heard of "Mr Heater" (Sr. or Jr.) so we had a 7-Up can full of gas and lit for a handwarmer one blizzardy day in April '99. That story's been told elsewhere, but fishing hotshot Slick managed to kick the can not once but twice. Watching one grown man dance around the back of a boat trying to stomp out a gas fire while the other guy stands there fighting a steelhead has to go into the memory banks as an all-time surreal experience (no mushroooms division).

Billy, apologies for besmirching your Arctic Credentials. You boys are hardcore. I've contacted my friends at PETA and as long as you don't mind the seams I think we can do up a baby seal coat for you. (Polar bear is scarcer this season.) As for wool next to your skin, you boys from the Island must have grown up wearing hair shirts. There's nothing wrong with wool -- my wife's nightgown is made of it and it certainly protects her! -- but if you have a chance and get some capilene garments you'll notice the improvment. (Gloves excepted, granted.)

Centerpin, surely you don't use a single action reel to pitch spoons?

Marty, I like the idea of waterproof handwarmers. Any thoughts on brand names?

OneLastCast, the fellow you refer to now is a managing director in charge of global equity sales at a major investment bank. I know -- I used to work with him (or his twin brother).

[Gizmo Man]

To keep warm I take several pair of gloves with me. I too have a large collection of them.

I also have two pocket hand warmers. The kind with the fuel cell (sticks that you lite the end of and place in metal enclouser, with the wool baggie. They look like the old Jonees hand warmer except they don't use the liter fluid. Several yrs ago, I bought a hand muffler. It is insulated and waterproof.

It looks like a sleave off your jacket. It has a strap that you wear like a belt so it is in front of you.

If you have an old nylon jacket you can cut it off and use it. Place a hand warmer in it and when you are not fishing place your hands inside the sleeve.

I also take a Mr heater Jr. that fits on the small propane bottle. Works great. A 16 oz bottle of propane lasts 4-5 hrs if you place it on low.

If you are using an outboard motor, check the pee tube and if your motor puts out warm water then build a small tub that the water flows into with an overflow hose. You can wear rubber gloves and keep your hands in or near the warm water. The rubber gloves keeps your hands from pruning.

Finally, if you are rowing and it is raining, put some plastic over your gloves to keep them from getting wet. Or buy industrial lined rubber gloves. Keeps your hands warm and dry.

Giz...

[Ramstrong]

I agree with snagly, glacier gloves reign supreme. In more mild conditions their Kenai gloves with fleece backhands work nicely. I am a bank maggot, and if it's really bad I use a pocket hand warmer thats sodium acetate and water with a metal clicker to get the reaction going. They are nice, and you boil them to re use. The only thing that is bad is if you have a pre mature heating, then when you need the heat it isn't there.

[smilesforu]

Sounds like ramstrong uses the same type I do. Mine are on loan to the fiancee so I don't have a brand name right now. Will try and get it for you. Ramstrong is right about premature clicking but I always have several so I am prepared.

[Centerpin]

Snagly,

I can cast just about everything on my single action. I use it to throw spoons right now because I have 2 broken down level winds and I am too lazy to get them fixed. Besides I hate changing reels all the time.

I can't believe your guide has never used "canned heat" before. Sterno in a can.

[Snagly]

CP, I'm tempted to write "You Canadians are all wimps -- real men use rocket fuel for heat in the boat" but you're absolutely right. Even Slick -- certainly not Mother Nature's gift to outdoor safety -- was saying, "Uh, Bob, do you think we need to set the 7-Up can on top of the gas tank?" Bob's reply was that, since he was running the boat from the back and it was his fingers that were stiff, he would just as soon keep the "hand warmer" (Molotov cocktail) close by. There's 3" of snow and slush in the bottom of the boat, the flakes are falling thick and fast -- so heavy I can't see my line -- and the fish are lining up to bite anything that's drifted by them.

Come to think of it, we should use raw gas as a hand warming agent more often. Best steelhead fishing day of my life -- and I didn't even get any third degree burns.

Forget about fixing your multipliers -- go to the BCDF Forum and give those fly-only country club types a good whacking!