When it gets really cold, I mean by New England standards, it's difficult to balance warmth with dexterity when trying to find the right glove.
I take water samples outdoors year round and have tried neoprene and didn't care for it. Didn't keep me warm enough. Sometimes a thin layer of sweat inside a thin glove can feel like wet hands and no gloves. Now I mostly take samples [of clean water] bare handed.
For icefishing and live food collecting, I tend to carry two pairs of heavy wool mittens, one active pair, one pair in some dry reserve spot.
I use my bare hands to bait hooks, scoop bait, handle fish or pick through a bushel of wet pond weed. I go as long as I can bare it, then dry my hands and put the mittens on. Fingers warm up much quicker held together inside a mitten. For less dextrous tasks the mittens work. I'm scrupulous about keeping my mittens dry but the wool can absorb a surprising amount of water without great loss of warmth.
I suppose I'm not a good example. I guess when I went out in a snow storm today and drilled through a foot of ice, stuck my bare hand and arm down the hole and grabbed handfuls of pond weed some people thought it a bit extreme. The swarm of midge larvae and various other tasty critters I harvested from those weeds and the fun of watching the little blackbanded sunnies stalk them made it worthwhile.