I saw some people fishing the other day in 16 degree Fahrenheit (-9 Celsius) weather at 4:30AM. They were not ice fishing with a little hut, but standing at the base of a bridge with no shelter or campfire. People are at that bridge fishing regularly when it is cold but that was the coldest temp I have seen so far. Why is it so appealing to them?
I dunno. Yet I’ve gone deep sea fishing in Oregon, getting up at 4:00 am to go out in dark foggy weather and spending all day heaving and ho-ing (!) on the high seas. And getting up before dawn to go “clamming,” i.e, breaking all your fingernails digging through rock and sand in wet cold water.
And crabbing also, which I prefer because at least you get to sit in a boat and cruise around most of the time, waiting to pull up the traps. I enjoyed it all, but I was a lot younger then. I just like being out on the water - it’s not so much the fishing, although I had a grand time deep sea fishing.