February 20 2010

Weekends sure seem to take a long time to get here and once they are here you blink your eyes and they are gone again. We should have two day work weeks and 5 day weekends and then I couldn't be more happier.

We were fishing an area that comes out of a channel between to lakes and as you enter this part of the lake, there is an underwater deep point. We had holes drilled in ranges from 10 feet out to 16 feet of water. Was marking fish in most holes but a lot of lookers versus being biters.

My son was going to be the one that tried to catch most fish today and it took him a number of failed hook sets before he finally started getting his groove together. These fish were not inhaling the baits as they were more or less nipping at the tails.

Over the course of the day I think he said that we had caught 12 in total with 1 perch, 1 smallmouth, 1 pickerel and 9 largemouth bass to show for our efforts. All in all it was a good day and we have seen better on this particular lake but as long as the two of us are enjoying our time on the ice, in my mind that is all that matters.

We are counting the days already for our next adventure and may have to switch gears and head to our favorite crappie hole. Seems that we haven't seen to much ice time this season but hopefully the next few weeks we can pick up the pace as late ice is coming and this is the prime time of our ice fishing season.
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February 13 2010

Weather has been getting better now that we are well into February and the nights are still cool but the days are warming nicely. Which makes getting on the ice nicer as well as the trips are getting to last longer.

 

There is a lake that we fish that is fairly large in size for our location and plenty of structure as well. This body of water generally isn't a high producer for numbers of fish on a day but the ones that are caught are usually of a much nicer size. These waters contain perch, crappies large and smallmouth bass which each species grows to rather large size.

 

The concentration was to be in search of large crappies and also find the elusive smallmouths that have eluded us in the ice season. We fished an area that is fairly deep and gets down to 35 feet as we wanted to locate suspending crappies. We had a few bites and missed most but caught the above nice perch. Worked all around this area drilling a large number of holes and just couldn't seem to find anything other than a few more of these perch.

 

Picked up and moved over away where there is an underwater humped and drilled holes up and down this contour line. Worked here for quite sometime and only produced a few more perch but one of them was a very fat 13 incher. Moved out into deeper water once again but we just couldn't seem to locate anything and watching the number of other anglers out there, they were on the move all the time as well.

 

Ice conditions are excellent as we had a solid 14 inches and no snow on top is making travel very easy. Looking forward to our next trip which is going to be taking us to New Hampshire where we are going to be searching for sumo perch, fat smallmouth and aggressive largemouth bass. A possibility of a little snow this week and hopefully that misses again as traveling on the ice right now is optimal for us.
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February 6 2010

The weekends this year have been so busy with family things and kids activities that ice fishing has taken a back seat with only being able to get out a couple of times. So this weekend we have put everything aside and after swimming lessons today the fishing weekend starts.

Since it was early afternoon already, figured that we would stay close to home and hit a local pond and try for some crappies and sunfish. Ice conditions are shaping up very nicely as there is no snow on top and this pond we are looking at 13 inches. Today's weather was cool and breezy and definitely still feel the chill of winter out there.

This particular pond is a water reservoir and we stayed near the dam end in deeper water. The area that we were working is the transition area from the shallower backside to where the water drops off into deeper water that is on the face of the dam.

Once dropping our jigs down there the Vexilar screen lit up with fish and they were there the whole time we fished. There were many lookers but with the cold front that had come through many of these wouldn't commit to the bait.

As I was working my bait my son says "dad, I have a fish on" and I look over and his rod was doubled over. I told him that was not a crappie that we were looking for and was something much bigger. He was struggling to get this fish in and after coaching him to try and tire the fish out, a nice 3 pound bass came up through the hole.

He was very excited and wanted his picture taken and was ready to catch whatever was willing to bite. We fished these fish for a while and caught some crappies and sunfish and was nice getting on the ice again. This is our fishing weekend and tomorrow we are leaving first thing in the morning for a trip to New Hampshire and in search of large and smallmouth bass.
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January 16 2010

Since our last trip was cut short in search of a few pickerel the last time out we had decided to head back to our favorite pickerel lake. This particular lake is shallow and the weeds are generally 5-6 feet under the ice. Making sure that the lines are set shallow enough so that the minnows don't get tangled into the weeds.

It was a nice weekend and this day we had mid 40's for temps and little wind as well so that made for a very enjoyable day to spend on the water. Snow is melting on the lakes very quickly but staying firm enough so it isn't sloppy out there.

We set our traps out around the area we were in and it took a while before any action was to come along. Once the first bite came the others came fairly regularly the rest of the afternoon. There was even a time when we had 3 traps going at once.

We would set the traps shallow with the minnows only a couple of feet under the ice and the fish were still coming in to take a look. For the afternoon out there we caught 11 pickerel that went from 12 inches up to 3 pounds. Also, caught a fat and very nice perch as well.

The way the day started wasn't sure if we were going to be catching anything and already planning on other options. But moving around some and searching the fish out made for a productive day.
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January 2 2010

Finally the ice season has come to New England and not to soon. Was wondering if we were going to ever get on the ice but most places are locking up well now and not a lot of snow on top to insulate so the cool nights are producing ice all the time.

With so much time to prepare for this season and trying to decide where that first trip will be, the hour and a half that I had to get out dictated a quick run to a local pond in search of crappies and sunfish. The day was cloudy and fairly breezy with snow showers happening the whole time.

A few new pieces of equipment for this ice season to try out and they proved their value in quality, craftsman and functionality. One was a new 24 inch Austin fishing rod which proved itself fish after fish and the other was a StrikeMaster ElectraLazer auger that is battery powered and made swiss cheese of the ice very quickly.

For this pond there was 5 inches of clear black ice with a coating of 5 inches of snow on top. The snow is still light so there is no water seepage after drilling the holes allowing to keep us dry. Punched a number of holes and put the Vexilar to use in search of fish and there were a few holes that were very active.

This particular pond has an abundance of panfish but have noticed that size has come down some but quantities are still there. Was working water depths of 13 feet of water and using a black/white T.H.E. Jig on 2 pound Gamma Ice line and this combination proved well for the 10 sunfish that were caught.

There were a number of lookers taking a gander at the bait and lightly working T.H.E. Jig to entice the feeders proved to be the combination to get that tug on the fishing line. All in all it was a good day to finally be able to get on the ice once again and this weekend a trip of pickerel fishing is planned.
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November 9 2009

When the heat comes to New England especially when we are into November, with the air temps at 70 degrees, how can you not want to hit the water and search for a few fish? Got the kayak ready and loaded a couple of things into the truck and headed for a close pond for a couple of hours of fishing.

This time of year it is time to start getting into the mode for ice fishing and breaking out the ice fishing rod/reel combo and the Vexilar flasher to do some vertical jigging. The air temps were around 70, with this comes a fairly stiff breeze to deal with and the waters vacated of any sign of human life and this gives me the solitude of having the lake to myself.

With a couple of hours, panfish were the targets for this outing and searching for sunfish and crappies is always exciting at this lake. These fish are not the biggest compared to other waters, but being close to home, the numbers are definitely there. There is one deep hole in this lake that I fish mainly when fishing here and usually never fails in catching some fish.

Luckily the area that I wanted to fish was protected to a point from the shoreline trees and the wind wasn’t too tough to fish today. Once getting to the area I turn on the flasher and start paddling around and looking for fish on the screen. Doesn’t take long before they are located and lowering the anchor so that I can work this area without getting blown away.

Today’s bait choice was to be a pink/purple colored T.H.E. Jig with a couple of small split shot above it to get down deeper a little more quickly. Water depths were in the 18 foot range and the most active fish were suspended at around 15 feet. The suspending fish were much more active then the lookers that would come off of the bottom.

Didn’t take long and the first crappie came to the surface and so did many more after that. A few sunfish were caught as well but they were on the small side. The last couple of seasons have noticed that the crappies on this lake have been a small side with average sizes of 9 inches are the most common.

By watching the flasher this allows me to see how the fish are relating to my bait presentation and also lets me know when the fish were ready to bite. By fishing vertically just like we do in the winter months, this practice gets us ready for the ice season ahead. This was the first trip in the kayak this fall with many more to come and today there was 17 crappies, 2 sunfish and a perch caught.

This abnormal warm weather makes it very hard not to take advantage of wetting a line and hopefully there will be many more days like this as well. I am very ready for the ice season ahead and can’t wait to walk and fish on hard water once again.
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October 27 2009

 

This week weather wise here in New England is going to be a roller coaster ride to say the least. Monday was beautiful day with near 60 for air temps, Tuesday and Wednesday a storm system moving through and cooler and windy temps. Thursday and Friday back to beautiful fall weather to finish the week off.

 

I had one day to fish this week and Tuesday was the day with cool temps, lurking storm center hovering overhead and light winds to start and picked up in the late morning. Air temps to start were 36 degrees and steam rising off of the water is always something that I enjoy seeing while out fishing.

 

The big boat had been put away for the winter and this trip marks the excursions out in the kayak to some of the smaller lakes and ponds. This time of year I generally start switching over to panfish and fishing with my ice gear in the kayak, but wanted to give a smallmouth lake a try today as well as some of the big crappies that swim in the lake.

 

This lake has been drawn down 6-8 feet already and kind of makes the lake quite a bit smaller when they do that. My objective today was to fish deep water and look for suspending fish there. Concentrated in water depths from 25 to 30 feet of water and as long as the wind holds off should be able to hover in these depths.

 

I usually fish with my Vexilar and hang the transducer over the side and then using my ice fishing gear, vertical jig for the fish I seek. This lake has a good mixture of fish with crappies, perch, largemouth and smallmouth bass swimming in some decent sizes as well. When vertical fishing for these species I generally use the Salmo Chubby darter and bring along a selection of various colors.

 

First area I started in 28 feet of water and had fish marked on the flasher fairly quickly but more lookers than any takers. I am finding over the seasons that if the fish are locked to the bottom, they will generally come up and look, but don’t like to commit. I hovered around this area for a little while before paddling off to the next spot.

 

In the open water fishing that I have done here, I generally stay on one side of the lake and wanted to make sure today that I would get to the other side to try. So that was where I was headed. While paddling there I would keep my eyes on the flasher and watch for suspending fish as these generally are more aggressive fish.

 

Arrived where I wanted to hit and wasn’t long and a fish came flying off the bottom and slammed the bait. Fight was on and you never know what you are going to bring up but to my surprise the first fish was a nice 14 inch crappie. These crappies aren’t as long as they should be but have some thick backs to make up for that. Worked around this area for a while but couldn’t seem to find another crappie.

 

Moved out a little deeper and then another flash came flying up to take a look at my bait and slam, another fish on the hook. Couldn’t tell what this one was either and when the fish surfaced a nice 2 pound largemouth was thrashing on the waters surface. Was feeling pretty good now and figured that as long as the wind wasn’t blowing too much yet I was going to work this area over.

 

I moved over some to some irregular bottom features and the screen lit up like a Christmas tree and the fishing rod loaded right up for a strong battle. While fighting this fish you could definitely tell that this one was going to be a smallmouth and it did not want to come up or give up the fight. Was a lot of fun catching this 2.5 pound smallie on my ice gear and this gets me pumped up for the coming ice season.

 

The wind was starting to pick up and fished a little longer around this area and caught another small largemouth bass. Moved back across the lake to try and get out of the ever building wind but wasn’t able to find any activity in this location.

 

Pulled the plug before noon and for the 2-2.5 hours out there, wasn’t a bad day with a crappie, smallmouth and 2 largemouth bass. All in all felt good to be on the water again and if I can find another day that the winds are laid down, I want to go back out there and try and find more of these fish.

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September 28 2009

Days like this weather wise don’t come that often when we get this late into September, light and variable winds, air temps going to the mid 70’s and high sunshine all around. Not many more trips will be had till ice season for fishing north but made probably the last run up to New Hampshire till ice covers the lakes.

I wanted to fish a lake that I frequent quite a bit and had a little surprise upon arriving at the landing. They had lowered the lake around 6 feet for repairs to the dam and this made it impossible to launch a bass boat there. Pulled out and headed south to another lake in search of finding the smallmouth and largemouth that swim there.

One thing about fishing this time of year is that arriving at the landing, there is usually only a couple of trailers compared to the summer months. Lakes especially during the week are void of any activity and this is allowing you to go to any location to fish that you want.

This particular lake after a long idle ride from the landing to the lake, decisions are always tough in where to start. Water temps were anywhere from 60 to a little under 64 and the clarity is definitely getting clearer as the waters cool. With the wind picking up and blowing into the left side of the lake, I figured that I would concentrate on the windy side to see if the fish are searching for baitfish.

Areas of concentration were going to be deep shorelines as well as long deep points and working these with crankbaits. This time of year I am looking for active feeding fish and crankbaits allow me to cover a lot of water looking for actively biting fish. Starting on a point and then working down a deep shoreline wasn’t producing anything until I hit a little shallower water and a 15 inch largemouth nailed the deep diving crankbait.

Continued to do this same thing on similar shorelines with no success and moved into an arm that comes off of the main lake. The front side is somewhat deep but as you go further back into this arm it gets shallower to the 5 foot depth. Switched over to a rattle trap style bait and fan casted and caught another 13 inch largemouth bass.

Moved back out into the main lake and back to the deep shorelines and points and hit one area that was a little shallower and caught a very small smallmouth. Since seeing that the fish that were caught were coming from shallower water worked a small shallow finger with a wacky rigged BearPaw Hippie Stick to no avail.

Moved around the main lake to similar areas and just couldn’t coax anything into biting and decided to call it a day. Only three fish were caught with 2 on the deep diving crank and one on the rattle trap. Days like this are going to be far and few in between and the fall bite really hasn’t kicked in yet but shouldn’t be long.

Most water temps are still hanging in the low to mid 60’s and for fall fishing that is still a little warm. Once we get the waters to the low to mid 50’s this is when the fish really start putting on the feed bag especially once we get through the fall turnover. Any fast moving bait will catch these fish and take a look at their stomachs when you do as they are going to be very fat as well. Take advantage of these fall days while you have the lakes all to yourself, the fish will also be all yours.
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September 22 2009

April 14 2009

Oh to have spring days once again and to see the open waters of our favorite lakes and ponds once again. Sad to see the ice leave but many of us are ready to bring on the open water season and that is where you are going to see us from now on.

The decisions we have to make when picking out the first few spring trips is always a mind boggling thing but a choice was made and off to the lake I head. Fishing during the week has a few advantages and the main one is you don’t have to deal with much traffic on the water.

The weather was sunny with temps expected to reach the mid 50’s and early April these are always welcome. There were a few trailers already at the ramp but this lake is big enough that you may never see those boats. Light winds are always a pleasant sign to keeping the cool air from the water cooling you down.

Water temps are reading 44 to almost 48 degrees in the back shallow protected coves and that was the first place to check out. This is a flat on the front with a creek arm going towards the back with depths ranging from 3 to 6 feet deep. Worked a number of different baits in this area but couldn’t coax anything to bite.

The baits that were being used were jig/pig, weightless fluke, Carolina rig, spinnerbait, mid range crankbait, lipless rattle bait and dropshot. Left this shallow area and went to a deep hump that comes out of 20 plus depths to around 15 feet. Figured that maybe the fish were still hanging deeper off shore and worked a dropshot all around this area and couldn’t find anything there either.

I continued into a cove that averaged of 5 foot depth’s and worked the lipless bait and Carolina rig but to no avail. Deeper back in this cove the average depth is around 5 feet and decided to start covering a lot of water with the lipless crank. Fan casting in all directions finally felt some dead weight and the first fish was on. Wasn’t a big bass but a chunky 1.5 pound largemouth and nice to finally get that first one of the season in the boat.

Kept working the area and hooked another fish and this turned out to be a small pickerel and these two fish were the only ones caught. The water temps were getting over 47 degrees and I always find the afternoon has a better bite as opposed to morning at this time of year. Another thing is that when a fish strikes it is not ferocious but more like dragging dead weeds back and always set the hook if any question is in your mind.

April 10 2009

Well spring has finally come to New England and the open water season is underway. At least for southern New England most if not all waters are ice free but there still may be some ice in the northern regions. Many anglers have been venturing out already searching for their fish species of choice.

We are no different and my fishing partner is set on catching some pickerel this early season and wanted to try his hand at it. There is a reservoir not far from our home and is a shallow town water supply and this place is loaded with pickerel. Have only fished there a couple of times, and have been noticing that the size is on the smaller part but for a kid that doesn’t matter.

My son is really into using minnows for his fishing trips and after a stop at the local bait shop to load up on shiners we were off to the water. Don’t think that I have been to this lake and the wind doesn’t blow and of course this trip was no different. But fishing the wind blown side in the spring does have its advantages as the fish are looking for food that is blown into this side of the lake.

This lake is flat and the weeds are located 4 feet below the surface so setting the minnows under a bobber about 2 to 3 feet down is the norm. Doesn’t take long and the first bite of the day is occurring and the excitement that races through my sons face and actions is second to none. He grabs the rod and with a sweeping motion says, “Dad I have a big one on”.

He reels in his first pickerel and measures around 14 inches but size to him does not matter and he wants a picture with his trophy fish. This continues on for another hour and then the bite dies off. So we go to a couple of other areas but they weren’t producing any bites at all. So we headed back to our original spot to see if we could coax a few more fish into biting.

March 22 2009

Where or where has this ice season gone, as it only seems like yesterday that I was waiting for the ice to form and now it is gone. This past trip found unsafe ice in southern New England but if you drove north there was still ice to be fished. So we headed to New Hampshire for our last ice trip of the 08/09 ice fishing season.

My partner was up for catching anything that would bite and since that was the plan, we were off in search of our quarry. Since the last couple of times out found our area a little slow, we decided to try a different area from recent trips.

We were running holes in 8 feet of water all the way out to 24 foot depths in search of some hungry fish. Not much happening in the mid rage but had a little activity in the shallower side as well as the deeper part of this run. Nothing wanted to commit to our offerings so we packed it up and headed to a different location.

We went to a flat that we have been fishing quite a bit this ice season in hopes that the fish would be cooperating there for us. Didn’t take long and the first smallmouth was iced and now my son was ready to do some fishing. We drilled holes all around this area and started moving from hole to hole in search of finding fish.

Weather wise it started nice first thing in the morning but there was a good 25 mph wind blowing and that only got worse as the day went along. Typical New England weather was playing its cards as we had a good snow storm thrown in there for good measures. Lake access wasn’t too bad in the morning but coming off in the late afternoon found to be a little tricky but did manage well getting off.

This area seemed to produce much better and fish were being caught and my son was having a good time. 6 bass were caught in total and this trip gave my son more to talk about in his fishing adventures on the ice. All in all it was a great season and sad to see it go but the open water season is now here and within a week we will be transitioning over to that.

March 15 2009

The weekends seem to be getting a tradition of making a run to New Hampshire to do some ice fishing. This weekend was not out of the norm and found us back at the same location we have been fishing much of the winter here. Conditions were very favorable with weather very nice and cooperating to make a great day on the ice.

My son is really enjoying chasing bass through the ice and can’t seem to get enough of it lately and wants to go all the time. His enjoyment other than the fishing side of it is to be able to play around on the ice while the slow periods between fish are happening and I get a great enjoyment watching him having a great time on the ice.

Seems as each week passes that the fishing is getting a little tougher each time we are out there. Not sure if the fish are getting use to our offerings and avoiding our presentations or are they just vacating this area for another area in their pursuit of getting ready for the spring season ahead.

Fish were still caught but work was a part of getting these fish and size I felt was definitely down as well. Was fishing 15-19 feet of water and this area is deep and these depths run right up to the shoreline. One thing I have noticed even with the depth is that we are not catching any smallmouth here and that is what we primarily catch in the summer months there.

For the most part 5 bass were caught but there really wasn’t any fling of numbers and was just one here and one there. Talked with a friend of ours out there and he was having similar results and did mention that the day before nothing was happening out there at all. Ice conditions were excellent with 15 inches of good ice yet and shore access was good as well and hoping to get another couple of weeks at this lake before it is gone.

Planning on going out there again this weekend but we are probably going to be exploring a different area. The area that we would really like to go is a very long walk as that part of the lake access is gone from the sun melting the ice from shore. Fewer anglers are venturing out onto the ice these days and this is allowing us to be able to choose where ever we feel that we may catch fish. Looking forward to getting back to NH soon again and my little partner can’t stop talking about it.

March 10 2009

We are getting to that time of year that the ice trips out are getting fewer by the day. This trip will probably be the last one to this particular lake as the warming weather is doing a number on the ice conditions. What is meant by this is that the ice depth is getting less every day and also the condition of the ice is weakening as well.

Snow has melted off of these lakes and travel is easy once again getting to the areas to be fished. Upon checking the ice it was 5-6 inches thick and the first drilled holes revealed that the ice is in the honeycombing stage and that is not a good sign for longevity of how long this ice will be here.

Still in pursuit of the giant crappies that swim these waters headed right back to previous places in my search. Times are definitely getting tougher now and thought that they would get better but that is not the case. Marking fish on the flasher was a huge chore as I had worked at least 60 holes looking for fish.

There was a little activity towards the bottom but just couldn’t get any thing to commit to my offering. Finally found one hole that had a fish suspending off of the bottom and it came into my bait fast and hit it and the fight was on. Was a lot of fun getting this fat crappie through the ice and once again this was the only crappie caught on this outing.

Seems to be a trend here in getting one or two good fish and that is it. Gets me wondering if these big crappies are few and far between and catching one here and there is more of a blessing than not. Did catch a number of good sized perch once again and they always fill the void when searching for crappies.

Since this was my last trip here, I had searched for large and smallmouth bass as well but they have seemed to void me this ice season and my gear. The last year or two they have dropped off as well and not sure if their numbers have dropped or if the fishing pressure is starting to take a toll here. Other than that I look forward to open water trips here and this lake will be one of the first opening this spring.

March 7 2009

The New England weather is like changing your clothes, one day it is cool and dry, the next day full scale blizzard and then the next summer like conditions. Today was not going to be any different as we had experienced a good amount of snow but today was going to be 50 degrees and spring like weather.

These are the days that I really enjoy being out on the ice as you are not fighting those cold frigid days and rather enjoying the day on the ice. My son was ready to get out there and wanted to go bass fishing again so we headed to New Hampshire in search of large and smallmouth bass.

I knew that today was going to be sloppy out there but couldn’t have imagined that we went from a few inches of snow on the ice to plain standing water. But the fish were not bothered by what was going on over them and were going to be very cooperative for this young angler’s day.

We started out on the flat that I have been frequenting all winter and didn’t take long for him to get his first bass of the day. This was a nice 2 pound largemouth and gave him a good fight and that started the day. The thing he likes fishing on the ice is that he enjoys using tip-ups to catch his fish as when that flag goes up he races across the ice to see what is lurking at the end of his line.

We weren’t able to find anymore fish in this area and decided to hit an area where the deep water draws near the shoreline. Didn’t take long and the first flag was flying and another 2 pound largemouth was caught and released and now my sons blood was really pumping and he wanted to do it more and more.

There were many flags flown that day but the results were the same time after time with flags tripped and nothing to show for them. If all of those flags were caught, he would have been in bass heaven as we had one tip-up that flown at least 15 times by it self. The depths that we were fishing were around the 20 foot mark and I was marking fish on the flasher but they didn’t want my jigging offering.

All in all it was a great day and my son had a wonderful time out on the ice other than having wet feet most of the day. But he is fired up to go again this coming weekend and the weather man is predicting similar temperatures so we should have a great time out there. We are looking at 17 inches of ice at this point so should be good for a couple of weeks yet.

March 6 2009

Time to give a small water supply pond a try and it seems the last few years I don’t get to fish here until almost the end of the ice season. Not quite sure why that is but after fishing there I am always ready to come back to it as soon as possible again. This trip was no different than previous ones in the past.

I generally start on the backside and then work my way towards the front as the backside is shallower than the front side. This particular pond gets little pressure as many don’t know that it is fishable and has a good variety of species from bass, pickerel, sunfish and crappies that swim its waters.

I had decided to run a couple of tipups in hopes of catching one of the big bass that swim here while searching for panfish with my ice gear. The tipups weren’t very active as I had moved them a few times as I switched locations and had a couple of flags with nothing to show for it. One flag did yield a fat 2-3 pound pickerel and gave a good fight before being let go back down the hole.

In search of the panfish here, started punching numerous holes around the area and the first location yielded very little activity if any on the flasher. This continued onto the next area as well but did have a little activity in a couple of holes but was unable to coax them into biting. With some aggravation I had moved further towards the front of this pond and found a hole in this area that was around 18 feet deep and ran close to shore.

Was only a couple of jigs of my bait and the flasher screen started lighting up and there was a lot of fish down there now. They were biting very lightly on my St. Croix spring bobber and continued working the bait to entice one of these fish to bite. I was working T.H.E. Jig in the pink/purple pattern in the 1/60 ounce version and added a piece of plastic to the bait as well.

These fish couldn’t take it any longer and the feeding frenzy had started. With the first hook set I knew right then that I had found the honey hole that I was searching for and a fat crappie lay on the ice at my feet. Without hesitation I dropped the jig back down there and bam, another slab was lying on the ice. The flasher’s screen was not clearing out at all and hooked into another fish and this time it was a nice bluegill.

I punched a few more holes around this area following this school of fish and it didn’t take long to having a couple more nice crappies iced again. Of course time was getting short and that seems to be the way it is in fishing, when they start biting you have to leave. Hopefully the warm weather and rain doesn’t take a toll on this pond as I want to give it at least one more go before this ice season is over.

March 4 2009

Winter doesn’t seem to want to give up its grip on New England and delivered another load of snow at 12 inches. The ice here is starting to give way and some shorelines are getting a little soft and need to watch the points of entry. Throw this latest snow on top and makes for a little tough time seeing what the ice looks like being you can’t see it.

I wanted to take advantage of the ice conditions yet especially at the lake that I was at last week looking for big crappies. This water seems to open fairly quickly as opposed to others and wanted to catch more of these big crappies. You don’t find too many waters that have this caliber of size and I waited to long to try this lake this season so wanted to give it another try.

Getting to the lake and looking at all of the snow, I knew that this was going to be a workout getting to the area that I wanted to fish. Walking through 12 inches of fresh snow made it for a long walk to get out to the middle of the lake but when you want to fish, you will take on any conditions that Mother Nature throws at you.

I don’t think that there has been a day that I have been here that the wind doesn’t blow and of course this day was no different. With 20 mph winds and gusts up to 30 made the lake look like the arctic tundra with the snow flying and whipping around. But at least the sun was out and wasn’t so bad but you definitely had to be dressed for the conditions.

After trying to figure out if I was in the right area starting drilling holes and found the water depths to be 32 feet deep. Was close to where I wanted to be and setup for a day of fishing and searching for these big crappies. Started marking fish and the perch were very active and is fun catching these as well since they are a nicer sized fish and give a great battle.

But I am not there to catch the perch and wasn’t long and found a spot that had some suspending fish. I was working the chubby darter and the fish were looking at the bait and determining if they wanted to bite. Kept working the bait and the fish slammed it and the battle was on. After bringing the fish out of the depths and a nice slab crappie lay on the ice.

Looking at the bait it was deep in the crappies mouth as it had inhaled it and I was not going to lose that fish. Get a few pictures and released the fish back down the hole for another days battle. Drilled many holes around the area but just couldn’t locate anymore of these crappies but the perch made it entertaining anyway. Hopefully with the warm weather coming in there will be another trip out there to search for these elusive big crappies.

February 27 2009

It has been almost a week since hitting the ice and with the weather getting very warm was time to hit the ice again. There has been a lake that I have wanted to try for a long time that have not fished in the winter and is known to have big smallmouth bass, jumbo perch and big slab crappies.

With temps getting near 60 degrees how could I pass this up as anytime you can be on the ice with this warmth, being out there is great feeling. Of course when you get temps like this that means you are going to have winds and man was there wind, gusts over 40 mph and they were there the whole day. The snow has all melted and there was plenty of water on top of the ice with also the top layer starting to honeycomb.

My goal today was to fish mainly with the Chubby Darter as my search was to find and locate the bigger fish in the lake. I started fishing the deepest part and following that up to a flat to see if I could locate the smallmouth. I was having some activity in this area and in the holes but was catching some jumbo perch in this area as they are very fat with eating and getting ready for the spawning season ahead.

Was working around the area flat that starts at 30 feet of water and worked up to the 17 foot range but was only able to catch some perch on the Darter. There was an angler out in the middle of the lake that seemed to look like he was having some activity and as I was watching him figured that once he had left I would move out there and see what was happening.

That angler had left so I picked up and moved out there and one nice thing about fishing in these warmer temps is that the holes stay open. After walking around for a while I finally found the holes that he had been using and you really had to watch your self as the water on top was rushing into the holes and undermining the ice away from below.

This area the water depth was around 33 feet deep and starting noticing activity fairly quickly as well. The activity that was near the bottom was perch but smaller ones and not the jumbos that I was looking for. Then started getting marks at the 27 foot range and these suspending fish are always the ones that I am searching for.

The fish started coming through at that depth and would come right up to the Darter and the first fish was on. As I was reeling it in, the fish was fighting good and thought that I had found the smallmouth I was searching for. The bait was nearing the hole and to my surprise a slab crappie came out and my excitement level went up a notch very quickly. I laid the crappie on the ice and measured it at 14.5 inches, it wasn’t that long but fat and heavy and these big crappies do exist in this lake.

Now my blood was pumping as I wanted to catch more of these fish and didn’t take long to find another one to hit the bait but lost it halfway back to the hole. About this time the winds really kicked it up a notch and that seemed to have an affect on the fish. Since that point, and after jumping between a numbers of holes, I wasn’t able to locate anymore of these suspending fish, was still catching perch but much smaller fish.

As the bite had died of tremendously, I had decided to start making my way back to my entry point to the ice. Drilling a hole every 25 steps or so and see if I could locate a school of crappies again. Many holes were drilled with no activity in any of them. One spot I did get some activity and the fish struck the bait but lost a good fish halfway to the hole again and have a good feeling that may have been a bass.

I made my way back to shore and didn’t catch any more fish along the way. It was a very nice day to be on the ice and really want to go back once more at least but have a feeling that this lake will not be usable very quickly. The ice was around a foot thick and getting soft and now there is heavy snow forecasted coming in. Temps will be dropping again next week but this lake will definitely will be a touch and go situation if I am able to get out there again.

February 21 2009

Time to head back to New Hampshire and search for more of the bass that swim in this lake. Had a great time the last time we were there with getting my son into some bass fishing utilizing tip-ups and rod/reel to catch his fish. He enjoyed the tip-up version much more and was a better choice for him on that outing.

Today he was not going to venture to the lake with me as I was planning a full day on the ice with cold temps and high winds that blew all day long. I wanted to fish the area that had yielded my biggest bass of the season but unfortunately there was already a group of anglers staking out the area with their tip-ups.

They had positioned themselves all around and over the flat that laid there and my decision was to stay in the area and concentrated a little north of them. I hadn’t fished this particular spot before and after drilling a number of holes, found that the flat drops sharply off in this area and thought that may be the ticket.

I positioned a couple of tip-ups with one on top of that flat in 8 feet of water and the other off the side in 12 feet of water. The tip-ups did produce some fish and the deeper one had yielded a fat 2.5 pound pickerel right away in the morning but that was the only one that would come out of that hole. The shallower one yielded a very small pickerel but also lost a few fish in the thick weeds that lay below the ice on top of that flat.

While those sat there I drilled a number of holes around the vicinity ranging in water depths of 10 feet out to 18 feet of water. I was working these holes with a Chubby Darter and the first hole starting catching bass but only ones around the pound mark. The bass were in this area but the size definitely wasn’t there that I was looking for and caught around 8 there but couldn’t find that big fish.

The other group of anglers had packed it up and headed out so I went and explored a few of their holes with my Chubby Darter. While working the Darter very lightly like I have in the past I could see that there was activity in these holes as well. The other anglers that were fishing here had tip-ups in all of these holes and had caught a number of fish but never seen anything very big.

The first bass I caught here was a nice 1.5 pound largemouth and felt good reeling it in on my new Austin Rod. As I moved from hole to hole there definitely was fish here but with all of the activity in the area, they were a little shy of the bait. As I fished my last hole of the day here, a fish came into the Vexilar screen and working the Darter lightly, it hit the bait and the fight was on. After a good battle, a fat 2.5 pound largemouth lay on the ice and made for a nice close to the day.

After working these holes after livebait had been in the area, seeing and catching some nicer fish there, that definitely was the area that I should have been in but I had gotten there a little too late. From seeing what I had caught earlier in the day and seeing also what I had caught in this area after being beaten on some, I feel that the bigger fish were still relating to that underwater flat and just didn’t really want the livebait. If there would have been some artificial baits worked through the area, there may have been some very nice fish caught but that is why it is called fishin and not catch’n.

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February 18 2009

Now that my son has been bitten by the ice fishing bug, ice is flowing through his veins and being it is vacation week, he wants to get out as much as possible. He hasn’t had much luck in bass fishing in the summer months and I have been doing fairly well lately in that department, this is something that he wants to do, catch a bass through the ice.

Typically when I take him along fishing, I don’t plan on fishing much myself and just want him to get the most out of every trip. This one was no different but at the same time I wanted to catch some bass as well but this was his day. We headed back to New Hampshire and across the lake we went and thankfully the snow is gone and making traveling on the ice that much easier for the long walk ahead.

Since I wanted him to catch as many fish as possible, this trip was going to be a little different than what I normally do. We were still going to work the depths with the Chubby Darter, but as well we were going to fish with a couple of tip-ups as well and this will allow him the opportunity at catching more fish on the outing.

This proved to be a value added for him as we arrived at the area we were going to fish; the first hole was drilled and tip-up readied. I barely got the second hole started and that first flag went flying and the excitement in him was indescribable as he went running for the flag. At this point I explained the operation of a tip-up and what he had to do next and after a tug on the line, a decent 2 pound largemouth bass came through the hole.

This first bass really got him fired up and he was ready for a day of fishing now and there was going to be no stopping him what so ever. We were placing the tip-ups in water that was around 12 feet deep and the general area that we were fishing was an underwater point that has boulders on it. Bait of choice was 4 inch shiners and they were really the ticket for what was going to happen this day.

For the 4-5 hours that we were out there he had caught that largemouth bass, three smallmouth bass, one perch and one pickerel. Even with the temps dropping and winds picking up, he didn’t notice the cold at all since he was running after flags the whole afternoon. Towards the end he really wanted to jig up another bass on the Darter so we kept drilling holes until we found some active fish.

He was lightly working the Darter up and down and the flasher filled with fish and wasn’t long and the rod tip jumped. He set the hook and started reeling on the new Austin Custom rod and the fish wasn’t a match for that rod or the 7 year old boy that was holding it. Finally a 2.5 pound largemouth bass was iced and there was one happy boy with another bass to his credit and now he can say that he can catch bass.

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February 15 2009

My son really wanted to get out on the ice and the few times he has been out we have been catching smaller sunfish and crappies. This trip was to head to a great crappie pond and search for some slabs and the best bite is usually in the afternoon. So the plan was set and adrenaline running high with the anticipation of getting into those slab crappies.

This particular pond has yielded his best crappie at 14.5 inches last ice season and all he talks about is catching one that is bigger. I have been there a couple of times this winter and only in the morning with marginal results and the big crappies were void pretty much for morning activity. So figured that being he wants a big slabber, we will hit it at prime time and mid to late afternoon.

This was a wise choice as we started concentrating our efforts in the 18 to 20 foot depth range and wasn’t long and started marking fish. I usually don’t fish when I take him along as I want him to have the full experience of catching fish and my total concentration there is to help him achieve this. It always takes a few fish to get his hand back at hooking them once again and after a few misses he was right back on track.

The crappies were of a nicer size and their range was in the 11 to 12 inch class and great battlers at that. Generally you won’t catch a number of these fish but for quality we will sacrifice some quantity to achieve this. Bait presentation ended up being T.H.E. Jig in the black/white pattern in the 1/80 ounce version also tipped with a white plastic. There were a few nice sunfish caught as well and worked two general areas with our first place producing the best.

Most of the fish that were caught were suspending around 4 to 5 feet off of the bottom and had to be enticed into biting. We are in February and the bite will usually drop off a little but moving around and checking all holes all of the time, will still put fish on the ice. Good electronics are a must and a very vital tool in determining the catch of the day as this is allowing you to watch and adjust to what the fish want and are looking for.

With these warming days lately this is wreaking some havoc on our shorelines and this particular pond may succumb to an early open water season. The shoreline was opening up where we walked on and not so cold nights in the forecast are not a good sign for this particular pond. Will have to try and get out there a couple of more times before this season is over and see if we can find one of those slabbers that he is looking for to top his personal best.

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February 11 2009

With a beautiful day in store with light winds and 50 degree weather predicted it was time to venture north once again. We usually get a few days where the weather turns very nice and mild in the middle of winter and why not spend a day on the ice enjoying what Mother Nature gives us.

Wanted to try a couple of other areas that I frequent in the summer months and I haven’t been to yet this winter. The area that I started in was a cove off of the main lake and is deep on the front side with the backside having some shallow rock shoals. With the water levels down a few feet one of the shoals was sticking through the ice and that is where I had started.

Drilled a few holes and the water depth was around 13 feet of water and there was baitfish activity in all of these holes. Went to work with my Darter and didn’t take long for that first strike of the morning and a nice fat 2 pound smallmouth came through the ice and nice start to the day. Still working the darter the same way, with light movement of the rod tip and changing color patterns to figure out what offering they liked best.

By mid morning the activity in this cove, after drilling a number of holes was definitely dropping off as I had caught three smallmouths out of this area. Was hoping to get into more fish and hoping they were feeding up to the shoal but they vacated the shallows and I went out deeper looking for them. Worked my way out to 16 feet of water and just couldn’t find any activity at all and figured that they have vacated the area and headed for deeper water.

Decided to head across the lake to another area that I hadn’t fished yet this winter and this area entails a ridge that runs across the mid section of the lake. I fish this area a lot in the summer and catch nice largemouth off of it especially on the downward slope of the ridge to deeper water. The top of the ridge generally has good weeds beds and there are also areas that rock piles are scattered in the weeds. Started drilling holes and searching for the location that I wanted to try fishing.

Finally found areas where the water was 13-14 feet deep and there was activity in every hole that I had drilled in that particular area. What I generally do is drill 6-10 holes and once they are all drilled then I start moving from hole to hole searching for active fish. I am not one to sit at an ice hole waiting for them to come to me and my philosophy is to search for them just like I do when I am in the boat.

I run five different color patterned baits and always changing between these until I find what they are more focused on as at times they will look at the bait and not touch it. This is when I switch it up and start working again and usually this will trigger them into biting. I worked this area for a couple of hours and was able to catch 5 largemouths there and the biggest was around 2.5 pounds. Still not the fish that I was looking for as this lake will produce much nicer fish.

The weather was definitely changing at this point and it was getting later in the day with clouds rolling in and the wind shifting from north to south. The largemouth weren’t very active there anymore and figured I might as well go back to where I started since that was the direction that I needed to walk anyway. With the warm temps the holes were still open and made it easy to start moving from hole to hole again.

There were only a couple of holes that had any activity and one hole that was in 10 feet of water I had caught a nice 2.5 pound largemouth. This was the only fish caught here at this time and was a nice way to end a great trip. With weather the way it was and sitting on the ice getting sunburn, life doesn’t get any better than that and you need to take advantage of days like this because we don’t see too many of these here in New England.

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February 9 2009

With only a few hours to fish and needing to get that fix of a tug on the end of the line, decided to head over to a local pond that I frequent a lot with my son. Usually we can go there and have a successful day no matter the conditions as these fish are generally in the deepest part of the lake and that is where I concentrated my efforts.

With the warming temps the snow on top of the ice is disappearing quickly and making lake access very easy these days. This particular pond usually gets a lot of activity over the weekends and could see that people were out and had holes drilled every where. Seen some holes peppered over and around an underwater point and figured I might as well check them first and that way I didn’t have to drill any holes.

Checked at least 5 holes and there wasn’t much activity in and around these holes especially the ones on top of the point. The last couple off of the end of the point had some activity but was generally small fish there and it was time to move on to other areas that generally hold fish.

Moved over to a shoreline that is fairly deep near the shore and started punching holes around the area. There definitely was a lot of activity in this area and started catching fish with crappies and sunfish being caught. I wasn’t catching a lot as they would come and look at my jig and then shy away. I went to changing the colors of my jig to see if there was a certain color pattern that would trigger them to bite more frequently. A green/black started getting more fish but I also had to add a small piece of plastic to the bait as an enticer.

There were a number of small panfish caught but I know there are bigger fish in this pond so moved further down the shoreline to another area. Decided to change colors again and started catching fish with a blue/yellow colored jig and tipped this with a pink piece of plastic. Was getting the same results as fish were being caught but all small fish again and I am seeing that there is a good year class of panfish that will play into a good thing in a year or two.

Went to one last area that has been producing better quality and that area is in the shadows of the shoreline trees. Definitely had activity here as well but thankfully the size was a little better but not what I was really looking for still. The sunfish and crappies were bigger but I was also looking for a meal but never found enough of these fish to do anything with. Did set the hook into an aggressive small bass and that was fun on the small jigs that I was using. Being I wasn’t finding the sizes I was looking for, decided I might as well head out and will come back another day. Numbers of fish were caught but small was the name of the game for this outing but is always nice to feel that tug on the end of the line.

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February 6 2009

Seems lately one trip is for panfish and then the next trip will be for bass and this has been giving me some nice variety of fish being caught this winter. So this trip was back to New Hampshire in search of bass again and decided to work the last area a little more looking for that big bass once again.

Wanted to spend the day working more of the last area and once again was rewarded with numbers of fish but size definitely was down. Numbers were still there for the amount of time that I spent there, but an angler is always looking for that big fish to bite. The conditions were definitely a little different as a cold front took over New England and it was in the single digits as well as very windy.

Ice conditions have gotten a little easier getting around as the snow has settled and everything has frozen up with the cold temps. Drilling holes is getting to be a chore as the top layer of ice is 3 or 4 inches and then there is a slush pocket with another 10 or so inch’s after that.

I started the day on top of the flat that comes out of an arm in 7 to 10 feet of water, was only able to catch a small pickerel right away. With the cold front made the decision to start moving out into deeper water figuring that the fish may have dropped off because of this. Making this move did prove out to being a good decision as it didn’t take long and bass were starting to be located.

The best productive depth ended up being around 18 feet of water and had a mixture of small and largemouth bass mixed together. The last trip to this area only yielded largemouth but I had not gone out to these deeper depths. The slope of the drop was somewhat quick as drilling holes 10 feet apart it was dropping off a couple of feet at a time.

Still working the Salmo Chubby Darter and not working it in a ripping mode as most anglers do but lightly jiggling the rod tip for minimal action. You are able to see the fish come into the flasher and by working it in front of them generally entices them into striking the bait. Most bites were fairly aggressive and didn’t have too many light biters as other outings out there.

Towards later afternoon a number of anglers came out to the area and peppered the ice with tipups as there were 8 anglers out trying their luck. Didn’t stay to long after they came out to see how their success was going to be with livebait versus a lure that I was fishing. For the day there was 10 fish caught with five of each species caught and the biggest was 2 to 2.5 pound largemouth.

Planning on another trip out there this week and going to work a whole new area that I haven’t fished in a while. This is a deep cove that on the backside has good rock shelves and on the front side drops off into deep water heading out into the main lake. Hopefully success in this area will be good as well but time will tell if my decision will be a good one for that. Looking forward to the day coming up as we will be experiencing near 50 degrees with light variable winds and this will be very enjoyable in my search for big bass.

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February 2 2009

After having great day ice fishing with my on Sunday I wanted to go and scout some other waters and get a feel for his next trip out. Went to a pond that we frequent a lot and harbors some very nice fish as well with crappies above average in size and sunfish that are bigger as well.

Generally we fish this pond mainly in the afternoon and that is the better time that the crappies start moving around while they are feeding. Unfortunately I have not been able to get to this pond in the afternoon yet and this is my second trip there in the morning. Last year never fished it in the morning so covering waters that I generally fish in the afternoon searching for the bigger crappie that swim in this pond.

There are two areas that I work regularly and the first is an underwater point that has deep water that comes near shore. Started in this area and drilled a number of holes and only was able to catch a few small perch and small sunfish. Generally I am looking for suspending fish which usually are crappies if I can find suspenders to catch. After fishing these holes I never was able to locate those suspenders and the crappies were void of this area.

Picked up and moved over to my other area and there is nothing specific about this area other than I work the 12 to 19 foot range. Drilled a number of holes in various depths and doing the same and looking for suspending fish. 15 feet seem to be the best depth in this area but was not able to mark any suspending fish as well. There were a number of sunfish caught around the holes but nothing really of size.

For the day was not able to locate any crappies at all and will have to switch times of the day to fish this pond and go back in the afternoon. Sunfish have not been anything spectacular as well and they have been keeping me entertained but still looking for more size than what I am finding. The weather has been very cooperative and we have been experiencing mild weather lately here in New England and can’t deny that. There is always another day and we will locate the crappies in this pond before this ice season is over.

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February 1 2009

Finally found some time that the kids weren’t doing something with any of their activities or other family obligations and my son was more than ready to hit the ice. When taking my son ice fishing I generally stay somewhat close to home so that if things aren’t working out or he is ready to leave it won’t take long to get home. So we headed to a pond that we frequent often that has an abundance of crappies, sunfish and perch but the sizes are generally not huge but fish can be caught frequently.

My son was much pumped as he hasn’t been on the ice yet this year and today couldn’t have been better day weather wise. Sunny conditions and little wind with warming temps near the 40 degree mark made it great weather to have him out there. He doesn’t really need nice weather as generally he will go out in anything and always finds something to do either catching fish or doing a little playing and exploring.

This particular pond I usually concentrate in the deeper part of the lake and decided to work the 14-18 foot depths. Wasn’t long and he had his first sunfish on the ice and I could see that excitement in his eyes as he told me that he won first place by getting the first fish of the day. I had decided that today I was not going to fish and wanted him to have an experience that he will remember and want to do it again.

Wasn’t much longer and number 2 sunfish was coming through the hole and now he wanted to catch a crappie and was ready to do a little work. I rigged him with T.H.E. Jig in the yellow/black pattern and the active fish were definitely taking to that color. There were many inactive fish that were just taking a look and wouldn’t have anything to do with the bait. But as I drilled more holes we started running and gunning those holes to find active fish and to get him use to setting the hook and catching some fish.

Finally started finding some suspended fish and I knew right away that these were the fish that he was looking for. With that first suspended fish hovering around 8 feet down it didn’t take long for it to come and inhale T.H.E. Jig and the fight was on. When that first crappie hit the ice he was so excited that crappies were found and he wanted to catch another right away.

Since he is a year older from last ice season he really has matured more and is able to do more on his own. He was able to set the hook, but still missed a few like we all experience, but he definitely held his own today. Think he told me that his final tally was 11 fish for the day for him with the 2 sunfish and 9 crappies in total. His goal was 20 but he really had a great time out there and maybe if we would have gotten out a little earlier he may have hit his goal.

I can’t wait to get him over to our big crappie pond and see what we can do over there as for the two of us he holds the record for biggest crappie at 14.5 inches on that pond and I know that he wants to beat that. Weather wise, we are looking pretty good for a while as the temps have moderated and we will be getting another snow storm this week but think he will be ready and willing to hit the ice again next weekend and can’t wait to share a few holes with him again.

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January 30 2009

Since my plan last week worked fairly well in targeting bass through the ice I had decided that I will venture back up to New Hampshire and give it another try. Decided that I wanted to try a few of my other summer spots and see if they will produce as well as last weeks trip did. So the plan for today was to visit the opposite end of the lake and try a few areas.

Since we have had snow once again since my last visit here and rain after that, getting across the lake was not an easy chore. There is a foot of snow with slush underneath as well as an inch layer of frozen snow crusted on top. Lately I have been carrying my snowshoes with and on this trip they were invaluable as they allowed me to stay on top of the crusted snow and making the walk across the lake a little easier.

I decided to start my day on a protruding rocky sharp corner that was shallow on top with the sides dropping off into deeper water with some weed growth mixed in as well. Started working the depth around 15 feet of water and the first hole produced an average largemouth bass on a chubby darter. There were more fish down there as well as the flasher was lit up but was unable to coax anymore into taking my bait.

Drilled a number of holes following the contour lines of this area and staying in the 12-16 foot of water range and most of the holes had activity in them. Unfortunately these may have been sunfish or perch as I wasn’t able to coax any other bass from this area. The next move was to run a ridge that crosses the main lake but a group of fishermen had come onto the ice and setup along a good portion of this ridge so I decided to go elsewhere.

Next move was to a deep shoreline area that had deep water next to shore and frequently the smallmouth hang in this area in the summer. Working the depths from 12 feet out to 18 feet and had a little activity in a few holes but again wasn’t able to coax these into greeting my bait. Moved further down this shoreline that has a good weed line from a flat out into deeper water and this area was void of any fish at all.

I had one area left on my mind that I wanted to check that I use to fish a lot years ago and I haven’t fished it much lately. This area is another flat that comes out and then drops off into the main lake depths and there are boulders scattered around as well. Drilled the first hole and dropped the bait down there and brought the bait back up and it was covered in weeds which you don’t see much of in the winter.

The area was around 7 feet deep and I have not fished this shallow in a long time and decided to give it a few minutes before moving to deeper water. I was jigging the chubby darter and then the screen on the flasher started lighting up and figured that some panfish moved in. As I worked the bait these fish were not leaving and I was trying to make the decision to get ready to move a little deeper when a fish hit. I set the hook and knew right away that this was a good fish and she was not going to come to the hole. Luckily I was fishing shallow water and just had to get her nose started up the hole.

As she came to the top of the ice, all I could see was my 8 inch hole filled with this fish. I haven’t seen a fish this big in a while and it was a giant largemouth bass at least 5 pounds and maybe more. My excitement was running wild and I was shaking so much that I couldn’t get the hooks out of her and had to take a moment to get myself together. To catch a bass this size through the ice is my cup of tea and this really got me fired up to work this area more.

I proceeded to drill a number of holes around the area and they were ranging in water depths from those 7 feet out to 11 feet of water. The deeper holes were not very active and the shallower holes seem to have more activity in them. I was able to catch 2 more largemouth bass from this area and one of the other bass was a good 2.5 pounder as well as the other was about 1.5 pounds.

My time was running out as I had to be other places at a certain time and the last couple of holes I had lost one of the bolts to my auger blade and that made that auger useless. Luckily I always carry two augers with me so I was able to drill a couple of more holes and the last hole I had five minutes left and that is where I had caught the 1.5 pound bass.

I really would have liked to work this area much longer and see if I could get a pattern running for there as it seem to hold fair numbers of fish. The next trip back I will definitely be hitting this area first and see if I can get more of those bigger fish and hopefully see more of them as well. I am really getting to like fishing for bass through the ice and so far my trips have been very well rewarded and I always look forward to the next one. Snow is coming in again next week and hopefully after that I will be back out there once again trying to ice some bass.

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January 27 2009

Cooler temps have taken over New England once again and with an approaching major snow/ice storm coming, decided to head off to my favorite crappie pond. Had a number of things that needed to be taken care of before heading to the ice and only had a couple of hours of fishing time left when I arrived. This particular pond fishes better in the morning or later afternoon versus mid day for crappies.

But I wanted to wet a line and give it a try and see if I could locate some of these big crappies. Nice surprise to see that the snow has settled quite a bit compared to a week ago and made it much easier getting around the ice. Instead of heading back to the underwater point that I fished last time decided to concentrate more on a deeper flat that the fish travel around on.

Upon drilling the first three holes there was fish activity in each hole but they were all lookers and there weren’t any takers. Changed the size of my jig as well as the color and just couldn’t get any of them to commit to the bait. Since my time was short and these fish were not cooperating decided to make the walk over to the underwater point and try there. Definitely wasn’t much activity in this area but one hole did produce a very nice sunfish and that was the only fish taken there.

Since this area was dead walked back to where I started as I only had a little time left and started working those holes once again. The activity was still there and finally found a color combination that they were looking for and that was T.H.E. Jig in the orange/yellow pattern. Started catching some small sunfish and then the white perch started taking over. This was the first time that I had caught white perch in this lake and didn’t even know that they were in there. They made for some fun fishing as my trip was winding down there were a handful of sunfish as well as white perch but no crappies were iced today. Keeping on the move is the way to keep you in fish and for those that do that success should follow them around.

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January 22 2009

This is the day that I have been waiting for a long time to try and have never committed myself to doing it. I wanted to go out ice fishing and target bass once and see how I could do out there and if I could actually find them. Took off early in the morning for my favorite New Hampshire bass lake in hopes of finding some large and smallmouth bass. What was going to transpire was beyond what I could have ever imagined.

Today was strictly a search for bass and although I had my pan-fish rods along they were to never leave their case. There were two areas that I had picked out and could only fish one of them and had to make that decision. With all of the snow on top of the ice there would not be an opportunity to try both as one was a deep ridge that ran across the lake and the other area was an underwater deeper point near a channel that has rocks on it and the latter was the choice of the day.

My efforts were going to be concentrating in the 8-15 foot depth ranges and I started in 8 feet and there was fish activity there but was only perch. So I started moving out deeper drilling holes and working these searching for bass. It wasn’t until I reached the 11-12 foot depths that the fish that I was seeking were starting to be located and activity was greater as well.

Many anglers that target bass on the ice use tipups with minnows here in New England but I don’t like using livebait and decided to go with the Salmo Chubby Darters and jig these. So armed with my Chubby Darter I finally hit that magic depth that the fish were relating to and the first smallmouth bass slammed my bait and the day was underway. At this point I didn’t know if I was going to catch a bass or not as it was getting to be 11 am and I was questioning my decision but now that I iced the first bass I knew that I made the right choice.

This area I stayed in for the rest of the day but drilled a number of holes around looking for active fish. I had around 12 holes that were working and they were in depths from 10-13 feet of water and they all had some activity in them. The fish were biting much better when there was a cloud cover as later in the day the sun became more prominent and the bite really faded off. For the day there I iced 8 bass with 3 largemouth and 5 smallmouth and I think that is the most smallmouth that I have ever caught off of this lake for the day. 

I was running two different Chubby colors and they were the perch pattern and also the shad pattern with the shad pattern producing more fish. I would lower the Darter to about 1.5 feet off of the bottom and just lightly jiggle it up and down. Watching the flasher screen I could see them come in and this allowed me to work each individual fish to see what they wanted. I had lost a couple of bass at the top of the hole as well as after setting the hook I lost a couple after the first few reel cranks. 

There is 1-2 feet of snow on the New Hampshire lakes and this is causing slush to form where the ice meets the snow and good boots are a must. Also, there is a good 12 inches of ice with only a 2 inch layer of frozen slush and the rest is solid. I am planning on getting out there for another trip next week and hopefully the results will be similar or better as I have found a new passion. Targeting big fish is always fun but it is a lot of work and many days the results aren’t that great. But for a plan to come together as this one had, it has me hooked now to give it a try and learn as I go. I do this similar thing in the summer where if I want to learn something I only concentrate on that for the day and by sticking to my guns on finding bass, I have done this in the winter as well.
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The Labor Day holiday weekend found us camping at our favorite place in New Hampshire. Unfortunately when we do go camping the boat has to stay home as I am unable to tow both a camper and a boat. So I decided to bring along the kayak and also my underwater camera and I wanted to take a look around some of my favorite spots and see what was down there. By taking this opportunity to try this, with no fishing going on, forced me to do something that I have wanted to do in quite some time. Went out to the first spot which is a point that has rocks on the end of it and there was definitely baitfish activity there but didn’t see any bass cruising around. The water clarity on this lake was allowing me to get to around 25 feet deep before it would get to murky to make anything out. Moved over to a ridge that is lined with rocks but after scouring the bottom for a while there no activity was found. Then moved to my best spot and right away this area was teaming with life with baitfish all over the place as well as bass but these bass were 6 inch or less. Moved to a deep underwater point and didn’t see any fish activity but did see some trees as well and stumps that lined the bottom in this area. Moved once again to a spot that I frequent quite a bit and once again I had seen plenty of baitfish as well and a nice smallmouth and largemouth bass swimming in the area. Started noticing a pattern forming as to fish location and the only areas that I had seen any activity whatsoever there had to be weeds around because any rock or barren bottom areas were void of life. Figured that I better start heading back in so I decided to stop at the mouth of the arm that we were camping on. As soon as I lowered the camera down, life was everywhere and so were the bass. As I floated this area a school of nice smallmouth bass swam by and I was rotating the camera to see them again as I wanted to see how many there were in this school. As the camera was rotating, I caught the tail end of the school but following them were three very nice largemouth bass and this had made my whole experience with my camera so worth its weight in gold. I haven’t used my camera much at all as I will start using it in the boat, but my wanting to fish always takes over and the camera gets put away. But by going out on this day and not bringing a fishing rod along, forced me to do something that I had wanted to do for a long time and I feel now that anytime that I go camping, there is a new pastime to explore on the waters that we camp. I felt I had an understanding of what was going on down below the waters surface, but until you actually see it with your eyes, this opens up a whole new world and also educates you in the relationship of what these fish do in our lakes and ponds. I know that I am looking forward to many more trips out with my camera as well taking it along on the ice this winter. Now I just need to start recording what I am seeing and this will allow me to put videos and stories together to educate other anglers as to what fish are doing with the habitat that they live in as many fishers don’t get to see this and it really is something to watch.
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August 27 2008

The dog days of summer are definitely here and now with the cooling nights this should finally get us moving towards better fishing within the next couple of weeks. The leaves are starting to change and a few are falling, the kids are getting ready to go back to school, so the fish should be getting ready to put the feed bag on once again. Fishing has been tough for many these days and it sure isn’t from the lack of trying. Pressure on these fish should start dropping off and also the activity level on our lakes after this weekend will disappear fairly quickly. It has been a very busy summer this year and not a lot of fishing on our part. This year has been the first in a long time that there was more time spent doing other activities other than being on the water. But once we get past this Labor Day weekend, that will change and fishing will be every weekend until ice up and then the hard water season starts. Hope everyone has a great Labor Day weekend and be safe out there but also enjoy this last weekend of this years summer.

May 21 2008

This has been a very tough week for me fishing wise as the shoreline fishing was hampered quite a bit from the prevailing winds. Since air temperatures are not rising very much, this is not warming the waters very quickly and with the nights are staying cool as well not sure yet if the fish are through their spring duties yet. Over the last week I had been out 4-5 times and today was the first day that a nice fish was finally caught. Towards the end of last week there was one outing that I had caught a couple of male bass but that was it. Finally today a nice chunky 2.5 pound largemouth fell victim to my presentation. The area that I am fishing is a shallow flat in a cove and ranges from 1-3 feet as far as I am able to cast. Working a Texas rigged tube bait crawled slowly along the bottom has been the pattern as long as there are fish in the area. These are hard fighting fish and are a blast to catch and always wanting more whenever I am able to get out there. Unfortunately at this time I am restricted to a little time during my lunch time and if I were able to find a few hours I think that more fish could be caught. Just before leaving another male largemouth was caught and capped off the outing and finally felt good once again to have that tug on the line.
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May 14 2008

Today was shaping up to be a better day than the last two and I was hoping that the winds would have died down from what they were...the winds were considerably lower in speeds but was enough and also blowing into this area once again...the sun was bright with air temps in the mid 60's and hopes of the smallmouth moving back up were on my mind...the lunch trip was going to be short and only 20 minutes or so as I have a hot project at work that needs to get done...fishing with a tube bait once again and making long casts into the wind was the tactic today and fishing in 2-3 feet of water and I was telling myself that I need to get going and figured three more casts will be it...two casts later this largemouth latched on and definitely gave the WaveSpin reel a workout and also had the drag system screaming as well...this was the only fish caught on this shortened trip and we are going to be having rain coming in again tomorrow and the next few days as well...I have been checking to see if the panfish have moved in yet as well but the waters are a little cool for them in the usual places and no signs of them yet...
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May 13 2008

With the cold fronts blowing through and dropping the temperatures all around New England this is not helping the bass with their spring ritual...the last two days we have been experiencing gale force winds once again and the area that I have been concentrating on was getting a beating from the wind...at least spring like weather has come back and the sun was shining but the white caps were tough to fish through from shore...under these conditions it seems from past experience that the smallmouth will vacate these areas until calmer weather comes around...so my plan was not to spend to much time there and fan cast to see if any fish were cruising the area...was just about done and threw my tube into the cove on my left and under the windy conditions I was still able to feel the tap and set the hook...the fish was jumping out of the water and could see that it was a nicer fish and figured that it may be a smallmouth as it was jumping quite a bit...when it finally had gotten closer I could see that it was a very nice largemouth bass...biggest of the spring so far and definitely made my day under these wind conditions...tried four other spots going back to the truck but nothing going on at any of these...chalk this one up as another productive lunch and looking forward to tomorrow...
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May 9 2008

Was fortunate to be able to get out fishing during my lunch time once again and really had to watch the clock this time as I had another appointment right after...made the trip back to my usual spot to see if the smallmouth were going to be home...weather conditions were drastically different than the previous day as the temps were 15 degrees cooler, stronger wind blowing into this area, cloudy skies as well as rain spitting a little...made many casts and definitely could tell that this coming weather was playing a role in not getting bit...but was fortunate to at least catch one largemouth bass that was around a 1.5 pounds...this fish came on the tube bait and was cruising the shallows checking things out...this was the only fish caught and tried a few other areas before pulling the plug...didn't get out at all over the weekend and we have weather fronts coming through for most of the week so this will definitely be an interesting week of fishing...
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May 8 2008

Was only a couple of days ago that I was wondering what was going on with my spring fishing this year...usually I am into fish and this year isn't the case...but within the last two days I can say that my thoughts of a crummy spring have left my head and we are into fish and now let's keep that line in the water...

Yesterday I was able to catch a nice largemouth bass...today I went back to the same spot during lunch and the smallmouth bass are taking residence of the area...since the topwater bait wasn't doing anything yesterday, I used the tube today and they were liking that...wasn't long and the first of three smallmouth was coming in...at a 1-1.5 pound fish this was a great start and this fish had gotten my blood pumping for more...kept casting and a tap on the line and his brother was coming in for a look see as well...I could definitely see that the male fish were moving in and wasn't sure if the females were in suit yet or not...only a few more casts and that question was answered with a 2.5-3 pound smally battling my WaveSpin reel and tube combination...

Conditions were the same as yesterday with mid 70's air temps, sun bright, but there was more wind today versus yesterday but this area was still protected and the water is warming...fishing a tube bait with a 1/4 or 3/8 oz bullet weight and this heavier weight is allowing me to make very long casts and also able to work more water by doing this...tried a couple of other deeper spots on the walk back to the truck but no takers there...I had taken a shortcut through a part of the woods to get to my spot but the deer ticks have let me know who the ruler of those woods are...hoping to get back out there again tomorrow but will have to see where the coming storm is at when lunch time rolls around...in two days my dreary spring has started on fire and tomorrow and the day after that can't come soon enough...
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May 7 2008

My early season spot is a good walk around part of the lake and has a nice sand and rock flat that the bass seem to use for their spring time activities...so far I have only been able to catch a pickerel or two off of this area but today my first nice largemouth bass has appeared...the last few days have been gorgeous with temps right around 70 degrees and bright sun with little wind...I started fishing this area with a jointed floating jerk bait and there wasn't any activity that the fish wanted with this presentation...after grabbing the other rod that that I carry with me there is a tube bait tied on it and on the second cast I caught a nice 2.5 pound largemouth bass...this area usually holds numbers of smallmouth bass in the spring time and the way this fish was jumping, I thought for sure that I had a big smallmouth on...my WaveSpin spinning reel showed this fish who was going to win and it was finally nice to be able to catch a good fish again...hopefully this is now a sign that things are turning around and good things are coming going forward...I have been having a very tough spring this year compared to others and this fish will hopefully turn this around... 
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April 24 2008

With the beautiful weather New England has been experiencing, we would think that the fish would be on fire. There are many reports around the area that the fish are on fire but we haven’t been able to experience this yet. We went fishing on a small local pond in hopes of finding some bigger females getting ready to spawn. I have been diligent in fishing with a jig/pig combination and flipping to every piece of structure searching for these fish. So far this combination has not been working for me and need to start venturing to other bait combinations. With the winds blowing fairly persistent and keeping the boat under control, fishing the shoreline was a fairly quick and power fishing approach. Before leaving I pulled out a spinning rod with a BearPaw Grizzly Jerk and started casting the shoreline with this. Wasn’t long and my first bass of the season came to the boat and was a whopping 9 inches. Kept moving down the shoreline and casting and working the plastic jerkbait and wasn’t long and the next fish hit. Could tell that this was a little nicer fish and when it approached the boat we could see that there was another fish behind it. Couldn’t tell what the other fish was but could see that it was much bigger and my son put his bait down there to try and catch it. But the wind was blowing too much and the fish was gone and I lifted the 1.5 pound bass out of the water to see a set of teeth marks on both sides and tells me that other fish was a big pike. That would have given my son quite a fight if he would have hooked that but unfortunately that was not the case.
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April 22 2008

Weather has been beautiful and this is warming the waters of our lakes and ponds very nicely. Water temps this last weekend showed mid 50’s and this is going to get the fish starting to move shallow with the spawn not far behind. Our fishing has not proved very well lately and we haven’t had a bass come into the boat yet. Been catching our share of pickerel, as they are cruising the shorelines quite regularly seeking the warmer water. Have not seen any panfish utilizing the warming waters of the shore yet and that would be the case that the smallmouth bass haven’t come shallow either. Many reports of big bass being caught in different parts of the state, but the lakes we fish have not turned on for us yet. Will be trying again here in a day or so and will have to see if our luck is better.
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April 13 2008

What another wild weekend of New England weather at its finest. Nice weather all week long and as usual when the weekend comes everything goes downhill very quickly. The weather consisted of coolness, dampness, wind as well as hot humid sun at one point.

We made our maiden voyage out with the boat and gave it a good run in the cool, windy and rainy conditions. But you don’t notice some of those things now that we are back on open water and able to start our fishing season once again. Cranked up the motor and idle around some and also made a few runs around the lake to make sure that everything was working and sounding the way that it is suppose to.

After doing that I had decided that might as well fish for a little while since we are there and see if the bass are in the cooperating mood. Reports of late have fish biting mainly on jigs and jerkbaits so I was going to concentrate on jig fishing any and all wood in the water that I could find. Wasn’t a productive day at all and only had one pickup that was detected and missed as well. It was just nice being out there and working the shoreline once again and can only get better as the season goes along. Did notice that the Rainbow Trout were starting to jump around the surface of the water and must be going after the bugs that are hatching.
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April 4-7 2008

New England is playing its weather game as usual and this is making the fishing somewhat tough to start this open water season. With the winds, sun, cold temps and rain at times, fishing is fair at best as the water temps are not raising that quickly to get these fish fired up. So far we have caught a few pickerel and that has been it. The bass have not started their move towards shallow water so far at least where we have fished. I am hoping that the panfish start soon as well as my son want to get out there and can’t wait to wet his line. I have a couple little things left to do on the boat as the major things have been done and it will be ready to hit the water soon. Soon the reports should start showing some nice fish as the waters continue to warm and get ready to start their spawning ritual. It will get better and keep checking back as the reports will start getting more frequent as I get more opportunities to fish New England waters.

Now that our lakes and ponds are getting void of ice, I am able to start doing some fishing during my lunch hour once again. I am very fortunate to have a reservoir about 10 minutes from work and this gives me 30-40 minutes to fish every noon day. This particular reservoir is loaded with fish, some say there aren’t any fish there, but from the ones that I have caught there, I continue to fish there quite a bit.

This reservoir is fairly good sized and apparently is a flooded golf course with the raised tees, roads, trees and the New England stone fence as structure under the surface of the water. The fish that I have caught here so far are sunfish, perch, pickerel, largemouth bass and smallmouth bass. The bass population is doing very well and this reservoir has a very good population of large smallmouth bass. Topwater and also deepwater tactics have worked here and nothing better than watching a smallmouth fly out of the water after a topwater bait.

Mar 31: I started in my deep water spot and this area has some weeds mixed in and there are a few shelves that I work my bait up and through. The wind was blowing fairly briskly with snow/sleet/rain falling and with the water level very high right now, there wasn’t much action going on. Was nice to be able to start casting and throw tubes and jerkbaits once again after the long winter season.

Apr 1: Since the wind was much stronger than the day before and the deep water wasn’t doing anything thought that I would make my walk to my shallow cove flat area and see if anything was cruising and searching these shallower waters. Stopped at one area that has a gradual drop towards deeper water with a lot of broken stone but there were no takers there. Made my way to a large flat area that has some mixed weeds, wood and broken rocks throughout. The wind wasn’t blowing near as hard here and casting the jerkbait was a little easier and I started fan casting this cove. After a few casts and doing the repeated jerking motion of the jerkbait back towards me, the line got heavy and started screaming off to my right. Wasn’t long and the fishes tail was splashing out of the water and I could seeing that this was a nice fish. Working it back towards shore it was a nice pickerel in the 2-3 pound range and a nice way to start off the season.

Cast a couple of other areas on the way back towards the truck but there wasn’t any action that I could find. I haven’t iced fish this lake or been out there in a boat yet, kayak lake only, but with the structure that is there this could make for a very enjoyable day. I am planning on doing the work of getting my kayak up and into this water this coming weekend as from reports that I have heard over the past, there are a few fish that I need to search for. The crappies are known to get up to 2 pounds there, the perch that have been caught have been over a pound, and the bass population that I have caught there makes me come back as often as possible.
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March 30 2008

Winter is fading away and spring is definitely here and open water comes along with that as well and that is where we headed. Very nice to be on open water once again and we took the kayak out to our favorite crappie pond. The air temp was 39 degrees and throw in a light breeze, but just being on open water kept me warm as the excitement of catching fish again had taken hold.

When fishing out of the kayak I generally fish ice style while using the flasher over the side. I use my ice fishing rods and fish vertically underneath the kayak and watch the flasher for when the fish go through. Generally I paddle around the area that I am going to fish and watch the flasher until I start marking fish. Drop the anchor to hold my position but the wind always plays games with me as it will turn the kayak around the anchor so one minute you are over fish and the next you are off again. 

Started fishing where we had left off from the ice season, but wasn’t marking too many fish and would keep moving after a few minutes. There was some activity near the bottom of the lake but after catching a few perch that was all that was down that low. Really wasn’t marking many suspended fish, until one of my moves the screen on the flasher lit up. Quickly dropped the anchor and lowered my bait and a couple of jiggles later and the first crappie was in the boat. The school of fish hung there for a few seconds longer and they left and were never seen again. 

Moved around the lake to try and get out of the wind but the winds on this lake are always switching directions and this makes it tough. All said and done I had caught a handful of perch and that one crappie. The bait that was used was the Loby Baits Maki in a bubble gum color and the durability of this bait allows you to catch numbers of fish on that one bait. Since the wind was picking up I decided that I might as well head home as the fish were not in the cooperating mood. Once the temperatures raise the water temps some more, we will be back to search the shorelines for these big crappies that live in this lake.
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This weekend the fall like weather has really shown itself here in New England as the morning temps were 45 degrees and brisk. With the cooling nights this will start getting the fish into that fall feeding mode and numbers of fish and size of fish should start getting better with each passing day. Decided to hit a small local lake and see if the bass want to come out and play. Nobody at the landing, staying home keeping warm I guess as the steam is rising off of the water. This off colored lake has lily pads all around a majority of the lake and this is where we concentrated our efforts. After dissecting a good portion of the shoreline with a variety of baits, only one small bass fell victim and time to move to deep water. We concentrated on deep underwater structure that consisted of rock and gravel but to unveil there was nobody home either.  Did notice that there was some surface activity in the shallow water of a sunken hump and remembering that I had a rod rigged with T.H.E. Jig, wasn’t long and fish were coming over the side of the boat. Thankfully I remembered that and T.H.E. Jig saved my day as we caught numbers of sunfish and a few bass were thrown into the mix. By being able to switch gears and species of fish, we were able to salvage a day that was looking very dismal....
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September 10-13, 2007

The heat of summer was still hanging around but the nights are getting cooler as each day passes. The beginning of the week started out cooler and damp but that didn’t seem to do anything to the fish. Usually when the weather is such, this will turn them on and fishing is usually fantastic but we were unable to get anything going. Have been fishing a few spots and they just are not producing at all. The lake that we are fishing frequently is 4-5 feet down in water and making finding any deep water from shore a real chore. One day we spent our time walking around a good portion of the lake and wasn’t able to find any depth of water on that stretch. We were able to catch one smallmouth but we must have just casted into the right spot at the right time as that was the only fish caught. Was a very tough week and glad to put this one behind us and hopefully with the cool temps rolling in, this will get the fall bite going strong….

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August 30-September 6, 2007

With the holiday weekend and we had a very nice long one, one would think that fishing was on our minds but this past Labor Day was for family and friends. For the 5 day long weekend we headed for Maine and met up with a bunch of old friends and their families for a great camping outing. The days were spent on the beach or at the playground with the kids and the evenings spent around the campfire with a couple of guitars strumming into the night. Weather couldn’t have been better and the company was great and we are all looking forward to turning this into a yearly event as this was our 2nd in the last two years....

Once we got back to work and get back into our lunch time fishing outings, the week started out slow and the weather couldn’t be better for the beginning of September. Lately the weather has a high sun with no clouds and very light winds blowing. The bite has been off as well as there were a few strikes lately and a couple of broken lines on hook sets but no fish caught to talk about....

Until today, figured that the weather was going to play into our hands as the clouds have moved in and there was a good breeze blowing into this shoreline. After making multiple casts and changing up the bait, there weren’t any bites to be had. Figured that I would move down the shoreline a little and try a few more casts before leaving and this had paid off with a good fish. One thing that I can’t stress enough about fishing is that you really need to watch your line after casting. The fish will hit your bait before it hits the bottom and if you don’t watch your line, you don’t realize how many fish you are missing. This nice 3.5 pound largemouth did just that and I doubt that he would have been there after it hit the bottom and I started moving the bait....

The lake that we fish during our lunch is dropping at least 2 inches a day as of late and is at least 4 feet down right now. They are talking rain next week but it is going to take a lot to get this lake back into any type of shape. This is hurting the shore fishing as the deeper spots that you were able to cast to are disappearing and the shallow water is extending further out. Seems lately the bait the fish are looking for is a tube in any sort of a green hue color. Finesse worms have been getting bites but not putting fish in our hands. The weekend is approaching and looks like it is time to get the boat out again and go searching for some line jerking and rod ripping fish and hopefully we will have some good reports to share at the end of the weekend. Enjoy the weekend and fall is approaching and if you are not a hunter, the lakes are going to be getting less pressure and more relaxation can be had as the lake dwellers are calling it a season and heading home....
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August 24-29, 2007

Was this last weekend hot or what, weather wise and not so much fish wise. We spent one day of the weekend on a New Hampshire lake and while dodging all of the tubers, skiers and boaters trying to stay cool in the 90 plus degree day, fish were hard to come by. We were able to catch a number of fish but mainly on the smaller side as we were not able to find any concentrations, but kept moving from spot to spot picking up 1 or 2 here and there. Carolina rig was the happening technique and match that with the BearPaws Hippie/Swim bait, fished thicker weeds in 8-12 feet of water. Was nice to get on the water as it has been a while without a boat down for repairs, but seems that now we should be able to get out more once again....

Spent a good part of the week at our favorite lunch time shore spot but this week was brutally tough on us as well. Weather wise there was high hot sun, which is not good for the bite on this lake and the wind was so light and variable that the bite was none existent for 3 of the 4 days....
 
Today was the only day that we were able to get a bite and turned out to be a nice 3 pound largemouth with a very full and fat belly. We were fishing the Catch-N Ring-N tube and the fish must have followed the bait almost all the way to shore before hitting it. Was an awesome fight and made the drag on the reel sing like a bird. Snapped a couple of photo’s and released her back into the water to fight another day. Was nice to finally feel that tug of a fish once again as with the bright sun and light winds, these conditions have not been favorable for us at all at this lake....
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August 23, 2007

After having a very good day yesterday, I better get out to the lake again and give it another whirl. The conditions couldn’t be better, cloudy skies, light breeze blowing into the shoreline and cool temps that make it feel like fall. As I came to the spot that I frequent a lot lately, the excitement that overcame me was unbelievable and my hands were shaking with excitement. I haven’t been this excited and nervous fishing a spot that I had to take a few breaths to settle myself down....

I made my first cast towards the sweet spot and let the Catch-N Ring-N tube sink to the bottom. As I started moving the bait back towards me ever so slowly, all the excitement had made me warm and I decided to take my sweatshirt off. As I turned to throw my sweatshirt behind me I noticed that my line was starting to move and with one hand releasing the sweatshirt and the other swinging the rod to set the hook, the fight was on. This was a very hard fighting fish that tried to come up but never made the surface and came unhooked, all on the first cast....

Put myself back together and checked the line for nicks and made a few more casts out there again. Wasn’t long and you could feel weight on the line again and set the hook but only was able to get a few cranks of the reel and off that fish came. Now frustration was starting to set in and decided to change the bait to see if that would make a difference. After a few more casts and deciding if it was time to go, the line got heavy once again and as I set the hook the line snapped....

At that point I decided that this was not going to be my day and might as well head back to work and try and put this outing out of my mind. There were a couple of factors that played into making this a tough day. One of them is that since we are fishing areas with rocks and sand, you need to check your line all the time for wear and nicks because if you miss one of those, that may cause a break in your line. The other, I am using G-Lock worm hooks and these are going to be thrown out very quickly. I generally use EWG worm hooks that have a wider gap to them compared to the G-Lock hooks that the gap I feel is not open enough and if you do use the G-Lock worm hooks, you may want to go up a couple sizes for better hook-ups....

Looking forward to tomorrow as we are going to try in the morning first off and then again at lunch time and see what happens. Suppose to be sunny and warm tomorrow so it will be another day that we will have to see what the bite will be like. If you have 15-30 minutes of time and want to wet a line but don’t think that isn’t long enough, get out there and give it a try as you may be very surprised in what you catch....
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August 22, 2007

Didn’t think we were going to be able to get out to our lake to fish today during lunch, but was able to sneak out for a little time there. Last week we thought that we had the weather conditions figured out as to what the bite would be like. Well today threw all of that out of the window and at this point, whenever we get a chance to wet a line, no matter the weather conditions, we are going to get out there....

Arrived at the lake and we had partly cloudy skies and a light breeze coming down the shoreline. Figured that the bite would be tough but on the third cast a scrappy 1.5 pound smallmouth attacked our bait on the fall. We have been fishing finesse worms a lot lately and figured it was time to change our bait selection. We decided to go with the Catch-N Tackle’s Ring-N Tube and this was the hot ticket for this outing. We had 4 bites and were able to get three of them in for pictures and observance of what a great fishery this lake really is....

Seems to be one spot there that the fish are hanging around and from what we can tell, there is a little vegetation there and that is what is holding them there. The next fish to fall victim to the tube was a 2.5 pound hard fighting smallmouth. Wasn’t more than a few more casts and the line tightened up and the third fish was on. As we were fighting this fish in, it jumped like a smallmouth but was a 3 pound largemouth and really gave the equipment a workout....

From fishing as of late, our technique is coming down to one thing, slow and short. We are working the bait very slowly along the bottom and are only moving the bait 2-4 inches at a time. The faster we move the bait, the fewer bites that are detected, so each cast may take 2-3 minutes to get in. If this is what it is going to take to get these fish, then the few casts that we are allowed in our short time span that we are there fishing, this is what we are going to do. So the next time that you are out fishing and aren’t getting the bites that you think you should be getting, try this ever slow pain staking approach and this may help put more fish on your line....
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August 21, 2007

Was able to get out again for a little while during lunch and sadly I had forgotten my camera on my desk at work as it would happen. Was uncertain as to what or if anything was going to be biting as the sky was overcast but this shoreline had little wind in the area. After trying to figure out the best conditions last week didn’t think it would pan out today....

Made a couple of casts out towards the area that I normally get bites in and then the third cast that heavy feeling on the line was there. Set the hook and we had a good fish on, as the line was raising towards the surface my biggest smallmouth from this lake jumped into the air. It was near three pounds and had the most brilliant colors that I have seen on a smallmouth especially from this lake. Marveled its beauty and released her to fight another day. Made a few more casts and if they are there you will know fairly quickly and figured since there wasn’t any bites coming I would move. Wanted to fish off of a point but a couple of KIDS got there just before I did and I settled down the shoreline. Wasn’t long and a tap and another smaller smallmouth was caught and after that was time to head back to work....

After work I went back to my original location but there was another angler there and we went to another lake for a few casts. The next lake has darker muddy colored water so instead of a texas rigged worm decided to put on a Ring-N Tube for the extra vibration in the water. Wasn’t long and the first largemouth was on and wasn’t anything big, but for casting from the boat landing, take whatever was biting. Made a cast to the edge of the lily pads and a hard hit I had broken my line. Made a cast on the other side of the landing towards the lily pads and a couple of taps were rewarded with a nicer largemouth. This was the most productive this lake has shown me in quite sometime and really made for a great ending of the day....

All in all was a good day to be casting as the cloud cover was there and a slight breeze to break the water surface. Depending on the color of the water, you will need to adapt the baits that are going to be the most productive as the clearer the water, the lesser commotion works. As the water gets darker, a bait that puts out more vibration works better so that the fish are able to locate the bait a little easier....
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August 13-16, 2007

This week I had gone to the same body of water during lunch as previous outings and wanted to see what the different conditions would warrant for fish caught or not caught. There is becoming a pattern, sort of speak as to what conditions the fish want to bite at this location. Here is the breakdown:

Monday: The sun was shining bright and there was a light breeze with not much waves or ripples on the water’s surface at this spot. I am finding that this condition makes for tough fishing and seems that the fish are void of this area when it is like this. There was only one bite detected and was missed as well....

Tuesday: The sun and breeze is almost a carbon copy of what Monday had brought and was another tough day for fishing this spot. At the end of this trip there wasn’t any bites what so ever detected and made for a long lunch time....

Wednesday: The weather and conditions have changed dramatically this time out and made for better fishing but still not great. It was cloudy and some good wind blowing into this shoreline which is always a plus that I am finding. There were a number of bites detected and one nice 2 pound largemouth bass caught....

Thursday: The weather does another change and the sun is back but the winds are blowing stronger today and still blowing into this shoreline. This day was by far the best of the week and we had numerous bites, broke off baits and a nice 3 pound largemouth was caught. On Thursday we had tried in the morning and had no luck, tried at lunch time which was the best and then after work which the wind was stronger and was almost impossible to fish there....

We are finding that after fishing there the last four days; we are getting a feeling as to what conditions the fish want. For smallmouth they are looking for cloudy, dreary day with the wind blowing into this area. For the largemouth they are looking for sunny, partly cloudy day with wind blowing into this area. As long as there is wind blowing in here and somewhat partly cloudy, there should be fish caught. If it is high sun and no winds, might as well try somewhere else for catching fish. We are fishing plastic worms texas rigged and fishing them extremely slow. The bigger fish are starting to come on the smaller worms....
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August 11, 2007

Decided to try fishing my favorite lake in New Hampshire once again and after arriving at the campground and having lunch we hit the water. This lake has been very finicky for us the last two years and was very tough over the week of July 4th this year. Since we haven’t been back till now decided first off to try the Crankbait bite and see if that was still going. We were finding out very quickly that the Crankbait bite was virtually non-existent and decided to switch over to the Carolina rig. I can fish only a Carolina rig in this lake and do very well but since the rains of 2 years ago, the lake has been going through a change and the 20 plus fish a day are in the past now. Our previous outing in July the plastic bait bite was non-existent and only a Crankbait would work. Now it has switched and after putting on a BearPaw Hippie/Swim bait, it wasn’t long and the bites were starting. We concentrated on the outer edges of the weeds in the 8-12 feet of water and with the Carolina rig we are able to cover water fairly quickly. We did notice that if the bait was in an area that didn’t have weeds around there, the fish wouldn’t be hanging around those areas. You had to work the edges or through the weeds and that seemed to be the pattern that was working for us. We hit 4 spots in the 2-3 hours that we were out there and put 7 fish in the boat and broke a couple off as well. We are finally catching fish where they should be that we haven’t caught this year yet. Loads of traffic on this lake and that always makes it interesting fishing dodging the tubers and water skiers, but if the fish are willing to bite we will put up with that and keep on catching them. Nothing was really note worthy of taking a photo of, as they are still cookie cutter 2 pounders. This lake has numerous large fish of 5 plus pounds but the lake is fishing very tough this year and we haven’t seen any of those yet. Talked with another angler that I see out there quite frequently and he had the same story as the fish are long with big heads and tails, but they are fairly skinny bodied and we are uncertain as to why that is. Looking forward to getting back out there again but probably won’t be for a while again....
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August 10, 2007

Decided to try a few different things on this day to see what the fish’s mood and feeding was like. It was overcast, breeze blowing into this shoreline and trying to rain as well. With these conditions I had figured that the bite should be very good from what I have been seeing in similar conditions. After trying for a while there was nobody around or willing to bite so we headed off to work and get ready for the lunch time go around. Lunch time came and the rain turned to light sprinkles every now and then. The wind was still blowing well and the skies were overcast. I figured that since I was planning on taking an extended lunch I would walk some shoreline that I have not fished to see if we could find some new areas that held some better concentrations of fish. After working our way through some brush and downed trees and stopping at several spots to fish, we were only able to get a few bites in a couple of areas and so after that we went back to where we usually fish there. Upon arriving it didn’t take many casts and the first fish was on and as I was fighting it back to shore, not ever seeing it, it came off of the hook. Re-rigging and getting back out there, made a few more casts and thought that I was hooked on a rock. Then the line moved a little and there was a big fish on the line as it never came to the surface and went where ever it wanted to until it snapped our line. Retied and cast a few more times and decided to move a little down the shore to get a different angle at where I was casting to. A couple of casts and had another huge fish on the line that was fighting as hard as the last one, not sure if it was the same one or one of similar size that broke the line a few moments ago. This fish surfaced so that we got a good look at it and it was a largemouth bass that went at least 5 pounds and just as it went to jump, the line snapped again. After a huge disappointment and being frustrated, we decided to end this excursion and get back to work and relax a little. After work we went one more time to try and see if we could catch one of those big fish that had us fired up like you wouldn’t believe. We spent an half hour fishing there and had one small smallmouth hooked and when it went to jump, it threw the bait as well so that was number 4 fish that we lost that day and decided to quit and go home. It wasn’t our day to catch those fish but is always nice to have that line being tugged on....
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August 9, 2007

Went out at lunch time once again to see what the action was like at the lake near work. Nice having a body of water that is within 10 minutes of work and be able to fish for a little while during lunch break to get away from the grind of the job. This afternoon was sunny and little to no wind and I am finding that certain conditions prevail what type of bite is going to happen. Fished for most of the lunch time and one of the final few casts I get a bite and hook the fish. It was a pickerel and the weird thing about it that there was a 3 pound plus largemouth bass following it into shore. As I frantically tried to get the pickerel off of the hook so that I could give a try at the largemouth, the bass was gone and disappointment set in as that was one of the nicer fish that I have seen come out of the lake. At that point it was time to head back to work and at least there was one fish caught and gave up a good fight....
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August 8, 2007

We went fishing for round 2 of looking for lunch time shoreline smallmouth bass and the weather of course was different. Morning rain showers and a gusty wind started the day but by lunch time things were looking different. Arrived at the lake and the showers were over, sun was trying to peak out with high humidity and of course the wind was blowing into this shoreline as usual. Started in the weed beds from previous trips and with the wind made it tough fishing there but no one was home. Moved down the shoreline and made a few casts here and there and wasn’t getting any bites. At the last spot before leaving we had hit an area that had numbers of fish hanging there. A couple of casts and the first 2 pound smallmouth came in, and wasn’t long before the next fish was hooked. Unfortunately that fish came unhooked and never got a look at it, but it definitely felt like a much nicer fish than the first. Kept casting around this area and hooked a smaller smallmouth to round out the lunch time outing and 3 fish were caught. All of these fish were caught on an 8” needle worm and the size of this worm is not having an effect on these smallmouths as they are loving this bait....until our next outing, tight lines and enjoy the outdoors....
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August 6, 2007

With the heat of August setting in we haven’t been to any of our lunch time lakes as of late and needed to start checking them out again. Spent this lunch time at a reservoir that we had done very well at this spring and seems to be hit and miss here. The weather was drizzly and overcast with a light breeze blowing down the shoreline. We are starting to figure out where the weed beds are and concentrating on them and around them as well. Trying to fish the outside edge in our search for fish and this day proved to be a good one. Was fishing one of these weed bed edges with an 8” needle worm Texas rigged and wasn’t long and the first smallmouth was coming in. A little surprising as we figured that the largemouth would be there but will take a smallmouth anytime. This first fish was caught on the edge of the weed bed and the fish picked it up on the initial cast on the fall. It is very important to watch your line at all times as a number of times they will hit it on the fall. Worked this area for a little while and with no more bites moved down the shoreline, after a couple of spots hooked into another smallmouth on the same bait and was a little bigger than the first around 2 pounds. Worked here for a while and after no takers there moved into the corner of the reservoir that gave up another chunky smallmouth. In the 45 minutes that we had fished this reservoir from shore we had landed 3 smallmouth and they were all healthy and had fatter bellies as well. We weren’t to confident about catching to much from these warm shoreline waters but now with new ambition and fish willing to be caught, we will be back on the lunch time hunt once again. Haven’t used this type of a worm before but has made a very good impression on us and will be using it again soon….get out there and enjoy the outdoors….
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July 19, 2007

We were on vacation for some time and spent a little time in Northern Minnesota during the week visiting family and friends and never seem to have enough time to spend in this great state. The fishing was top notch as usual on this small lake that my parents live on and lived up to my previous years of fishing there....

When we didn’t take the boat out I would fish with my son on the dock and he was enjoying fish after fish while fishing with T.H.E. Jig. He used one jig the time that we were there and caught numerous numbers of sunnies, crappies, perch and bass. He was really enjoying being able to walk out of the house and onto the dock and start catching fish right away. He is hooked on the sport of fishing and really couldn’t get enough of it while we were there....

When the wife and I would take the boat out we only fished one spot that consisted of an underwater hump that came out of 25 feet of water and topped out at 8 feet with weeds on top. She was using the weightless fluke baits and that seemed to be working mainly in the evening and caught numerous bass up to 2.5 pounds. She was casting it out and working it slowly above the weeds and the fish were nailing it at times cast after cast. Tried this technique in the morning but was not as effective at all and we figured that the bass were cruising the tops of the weeds looking for food in the evening....

Since she was concentrating on the top part of the water column I decided to look at the bottom of the water column. I would anchor the boat either on the face side or the back side of this particular hump. Then I would cast the tube bait into deeper water and slowly bring it up the hump towards the weeds and that is where I was catching all of my fish....

The fish that I was catching in this area were of a better quality but you had to work harder at catching them. The slower I worked it the better size of fish was being caught and when you would get to the edge of the weeds, the sparse quantity of weeds on the edge of the top of this hump seem to have concentrations of fish on them. The first time out wasn’t productive doing this but the next two times out were very productive and I had caught my biggest yet from this lake. Of the three outings we had to this hump, there was 40-50 bass caught there from 1 to over 4 pounds....

We haven’t found too many areas like this one but by reading the electronics and looking around and seeing what the “lay of the land” was like made for a few great outings. To bad that our time in MN was short but at the same time was sweet with the numbers and size of fish caught. Looking forward to getting back again but it will be a while before this is happening....
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June 30-July 7