I wanted to get out and fish our best crappie lake and we had checked the ice on Friday and there was 6-7 inches at that time. Upon arriving there on Sunday I noticed that there was an open water channel through the middle of the pond and wasn’t about to try getting out on that. I checked two other lakes in that area and they were in the same condition, unsafe.

Finally made it back to our backup pond and there was around 9 inches of ice there but the first 4 inches is all honeycombed and soft. Hoping that the bite was going to be better because of the late season I had punched a number of holes in varying depths and proceeded to fish. First hole produced a nice sunfish right away and figured that this was going to be the way the day was going to go. Well it didn’t take long and a number of holes later I was right back to having to really work at getting the bites going.

Over the course of a few hours I had drilled at least 60 holes over a good 1/3 of the lake and varying the water depths from 8 feet out to 19 feet. The best action was in the shallower waters but the size was nothing to write home about. Anything of size was in the deeper water and ended up going back to where I had started to see if I could find anything better. The baits that were used were CKOutdoors T.H.E. Jig and also used the Loby Baits Maki. The bite was somewhat of a light bite and a number of times you didn’t even known that they had the bait in their mouth.

I was hoping that this was going to be one of those days that the bigger fish start showing themselves as we are getting towards spring and their activity will start picking up. But, lately this seems to be the norm and working to catch fish is getting to be a regular thing. This ice season is now in the books as the next outing will be on open water. We had a great season and one of the longest ones that I can remember and I was fortunate to be able to travel to MN and ice fish there as well. I have learned a lot over the course of this ice season and I am already pumped for next ice season as I am not ready to give it up yet.
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March 7, 2008

The weekend was coming fast and making the decision as to when to hit the ice again was going to be a tough one. Friday looked to be the best day as there was little wind, sunny skies and low 40’s for temps. Friday night and all day Saturday was going to be heavy rains and local flooding coming through and Sunday after the storm we had 40mph plus winds all day. So by going on Friday we had picked the better day weather wise.

My son had half a day at school and I left work early to pick him up. I had recently ordered an Austin Custom Rod for him since he is getting heavy into ice fishing and low and behold we got home and there on the doorstep was his new rod. Couldn’t have timed that better and after seeing his new rod he was ready to get to the lake and see how this rod works against the fish.

After our walk through the woods to get to this particular pond, we were greeted with open water on this shoreline and had to make our usual walk around a good part of the lake to get to the shoreline that is in the shade. One thing about this pond is that the times that I have fished there this winter there hasn’t been one other angler out there and this day was no exception. We get to our first spot and notice that the surface ice is honeycombing and drilled a hole and we had 2 inches of this honeycomb and 4-5 inches of clear solid ice under that.

Wasn’t long and my son had his first fish on his new Austin Custom Rod and the bait that was tied on was T.H.E. Jig in the char/black combination. This color combination for this lake has been very good for us so I usually have that tied on his rod. After that fish it went back to normal for this lake as they don’t congregate in a certain hole and you have to keep moving and looking for active fish. Luckily the ice isn’t that thick anymore and I am able to drill numbers of holes in our search.

We moved out to 20 feet of water and this seemed to be much more productive than the 16 feet that we were trying. Wasn’t long and the Vexilar screen lit up and my son’s rod started to jiggle a little, he reared back on that new Austin Rod and I could tell right away that he had a good one on. He was reeling as hard as he could and then as the sinker came out of the hole and right after that a 14 inch slab crappie followed. This thing was huge and I had never seen one that big out of this lake and for him to catch it, that just made my day and watching his excitement was priceless.

We kept moving around and we would catch one here and one there but I couldn’t catch anything of size and this day was his day for catching nice fish. Baits that we used were Loby Baits and T.H.E. Jig. We kept a few for a meal and these cold water fish taste so good at this time of year. The bite definitely died off after the few hours that we were out there and we had decided to call it a day. Unfortunately I have a feeling that this may be our last trip to this lake as the shoreline on a good portion of it was open and with the few inches of rain we had with very high winds that followed, I think that this lake is on its way to opening up. We have one other lake that I am hoping we get out on once more and within a week or two I am figuring that all ice will be unsafe to venture out on and then look forward to the open water season.
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March 2, 2008

This New England weather is a none stop roller coaster into this later part of the 2007-2008 winter ice season. We had another very weather changing week and this is definitely putting the fish into a funky mood. This time of year we should be experiencing the start of late ice season and aggressive fish should be following. But with the weather fronts that keep coming through every few days, the hit and miss of hitting a good bite is getting to be the resemblance of gambling.

The week consisted of spring like weather followed by decent amounts of rain as well as plow-able snow accumulation as well. Throw in a few fairly cold nights to firm the ice up once again and each day brings along with it a new conditions that the fish have to relate differently to and this is affecting them as much as us.

With high winds in the forecast we already knew that the bite today was going to be tough and one that we are going to have to work at if we are going to catch anything at all. The ice is getting thicker every time that we come to this lake and this reassures that a power auger is in our future for next ice season.

My son is enjoying his first ice season very much and joins me again today and with the tough bite I was curious as to how he was going to handle it. He started off by catching a nice sunfish on T.H.E. Jig in the pink/purple color in 15 feet of water that was 5 feet off of the bottom and unfortunately that was the only fish that he would catch for the day. Being the bite was so off he had more fun venturing and playing along the shoreline and on the ice that he was very content doing that.

There was one area that held fish consistently but they would come up to look at the bait and then would drop back down. We were changing bait colors, sizes and depth of water fished and seemed to be a consensus as to their mood that they were lookers and not takers. Towards the end, the fish started getting a little more active and the bigger fish were coming from not far below the ice. But after 2-3 hours of not much action he was ready to head out and the fish weren’t coming in fast and furious so we left on that note.

What I had learned as time progressed was that the color scheme wasn’t that much of an issue but it was the size of the bait. The fish that I finally did start catching were all caught on the 1/100 oz T.H.E. Jig and they were not inhaling it either as it was right on the edge of their top lip. These fish were much higher off of the bottom and at least 10 feet up which we haven’t seen like that on this lake before. Thankfully for my electronics we are able to work the fish at the depths they range and without that, on a tough day as this, there may not have been any fish caught at all.
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February 24, 2008

With the snow storm that moved in Friday into Saturday morning this made for some very interesting adventures out onto the ice. My son wanted to head out with me once again and I think that I may have a fishing buddy that will possibly be going on every adventure going forward.

We arrived at the lake with bluebird skies, not much wind to talk about, temps a little above freezing and the whole lake to ourselves. Of course since it had been warmer earlier in the week, this had soften the shoreline access and with the new 10-12 inches of fresh snow on the ice, we had to walk around part of the lake, with my son in tow, to be able to get onto the lake.

Since there were no wind and moderate temps we were able to get away from bringing the fish house along. We enjoy sitting on the ice much more and enjoy the outdoor experience instead of sitting inside. We arrived at the first spot and got setup and wasn’t long and David had the first crappie lying on the ice and I think that I was just as excited as he was when that first one came through the hole. When he is able to get a fish through the hole, this really reassures him that he can do this and enjoy himself doing it.

Wasn’t long and we were off drilling more holes and searching for fish but every move took work between the two of us to get setup in all of the new snow. We were working water depths from 16–20 feet of water and there wasn’t any particular depth that they were really concentrated on.

Of course he had caught the biggest fish of the day once again at 12 inches in length and was caught on T.H.E. Jig. The baits that we used were the Loby Baits Polli and also T.H.E. Jig. The fish were caught suspended off of the bottom typically around 5-9 feet off of the bottom as anything that was marked near the bottom was very inactive. The bite was a very tough one and we were only able to catch 6 fish through the holes but they were all nice fish at that.

I am really enjoying taking my son out onto the waters and so glad to see him enjoying himself so much. It was his idea to go out with me fishing as I have learned over time not to force them into doing things like this. I know that I will always look forward to our next trip together as I had enjoyed similar trips with my father and grandfather when I was his age. To be able to instill the outdoors into our kids when they are this young, this will ensure that we have a generation that will carry on the true spirit of the outdoors into future generations.
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February 19, 2008

Here in New England at least in Massachusetts, our school systems take two weeks off during the winter months, one in February and the other in April. My son wanted to go out and try ice fishing once and this was the perfect opportunity at getting him acclimated to the ice and fishing through a hole. He does very well in the summer months but never showed much interest for going out in the winter until now.

We decided to spend some time close to home so if he didn’t care for the ice fishing experience then we could get home fairly quickly. We went to the lake that I frequent quite regularly and had a good feeling that this lake would give him action to keep his interest peaked. After getting everything unloaded you could see the excitement in his face and also his step and as was pumped to get out and try this thing we call ice fishing.

We get out to the first spot and drill a couple of holes and then the explaining of equipment and things that he can touch and not touch especially when it comes to the auger blades. After getting the Vexilar going and explaining to him what he was seeing he actually seemed to understand that the green he was seeing was his bait and the red that was around it was the fish he was trying to catch.

I rigged him up with T.H.E. Jig as well as my lines and we proceeded to fish. The first location wasn’t showing any action and I decided to drill more holes a little ways away. As I finished drilling the holes I turned around and looked at David and he was fighting a fish that he had caught all on his own. The smile that he had on his face when that fish came out of the hole was priceless and one that I will be remembering for quite sometime.

Since now he was hooked on ice fishing he caught a few more from that hole and when the action slowed down he wanted me to drill more holes over there and that is what we did. He started getting the hang of setting the hook and also how to jiggle T.H.E. Jig to entice the fish into biting. The action started slowing some and so did his interest so he did like any other boy and ventured around a little on the ice.

Then the highlight of his day was to have a snack out there on the ice and this was a big moment for him as he thought he was so cool sitting there eating and fishing. We moved a few more times searching for some fish and as the afternoon wore on, so did the cold front that was coming through. The temps were dropping and the wind was picking up speed but he was a trooper and didn’t want to leave at all.

We were out there over 4 hours and he still wasn’t ready to go but the bite was getting none existent and you could see that his interest was waning. So he decided that it was time to go home and play in the backyard for a while, but he is definitely looking to shaping up to being his father’s son. He is hooked on ice fishing and wants to go again this weekend and I may now have a new buddy to take along with me fishing.

One thing that I have learned over the years is that you cannot push these kids into doing the things that we enjoy doing thinking they will as well. I want them to come to me and tell me that they want to go and try these things out so that way their interest is their doing and not me forcing them to do something that they don’t want to. I have found over the years that if you rush kids into these things they take a disliking to those activities and don’t want to do them at all as they grow older. I look forward to many more days on the ice with him and watch that excitement grow in him over the coming years.
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February 17, 2008

Always seem to pick the wrong day weather wise to go out fishing but when other things need to be done there is nothing that can be helped. We ventured back to the lake that we have been frequenting the past couple of weeks in search of the elusive bigger crappies that live in those waters.

Since it has been a little warmer and raining some as well, the ice conditions were not bad other than being very slippery on the surface. Of course there was another storm front approaching with rain for the evening. What we had to deal with was high winds up to 30 mph that didn’t allow us to setup any type of wind break so we had to sit in the wind. Thankfully the temps were somewhat mild and were bearable but made it tough to watch the line for those light biters.

We concentrated mostly in 20 FOW and found the crappies were suspending up to 5 feet off of the bottom. Apparently with the approaching storm, this has triggered the fish into biting and bigger fish than we normally catch. After catching a few fish we were right into the 13 inch crappies and were able to catch a number of these before the bite died off. There wasn’t any sunfish caught at all and usually there is always a mixture between the two species.

The bait that we were using was the Loby Baits Micro Flei in the pink color and we have been using this particular piece of plastic for the last couple of outings. This goes to show the durability that these baits are made from and why plastics are fantastic. This was the only bait that was used as they were keying very nicely onto it.

As the winds persisted the bite started to dramatically drop off and after drilling more than 20 holes they were reluctant to bite very aggressively. This particular lake the shoreline was finally frozen solid once again but with the coming warm temps and rain, this may hamper our opportunities of fishing here again. This lake turns the big fish on when late ice starts and now is the time to get out there and find these bigger fish.
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February 10, 2008

If you are not familiar with New England and the weather that we have here, all you need to do is to wait five minutes and it will change. With the news that a major cold front was going to be coming through in the afternoon we hit the lake in the morning looking for a good bite back on the pond that has some good slab crappies.

Upon arriving the sun was shining and there was a light breeze blowing but off in the distance you could see the cloud bank coming. After drilling a few holes it wasn’t long and the fish were biting and hitting the ice while using the Loby Baits pink Micro Flei we were able to locate and catch some good sized sunfish but average crappies.

As the morning wore on so did the weather and this really was the story of the day. Once the cloud bank arrived overhead the winds started picking up and it started to sprinkle. Thankfully I had brought my Otter fish house as the rain became fairly hard and consistent. The rain continued for about half an hour and let up and so did the wind.

Then there was a noise coming from the adjoining woods and as I set my house back up the gail force winds hit and with all of the snow it was a white out conditions and there were times that I had to do all I could to keep my house from moving across the ice from the force of the wind. This went on for about half an hour and once that blew over the sun came out and the winds died down and it was like nothing had happened.

Usually don’t get weather like this extreme from one to another but here in New England this is fairly common throughout the year. The fish were still biting but had slowed a little so we switched over to T.H.E. Jig and worked those finicky fish into biting. Most of our fish came from 18-20 FOW and were suspending 2-5 feet off of the bottom. Towards the end we were fishing one hole that had numerous fish activity in it and when they would bite we missed them but they all felt heavy. Not sure but this may have been that school of 13 inch plus crappies that we were looking for but unfortunately were not caught.

The shoreline at this lake has firmed up over the last couple of days but still unable to walk on it and we had to walk around a part of the lake to get on. Monday we are looking at 10 degrees and high winds and this will definitely help in keeping the ice there and firming the shoreline up that we may head out there again on our next outing to search for these crappies.
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February 3, 2008

With the warming temps and the rains that we have been receiving our ice is starting to take a toll and making things a little interesting. We decided to head to a pond that is known for having large crappies and this was going to be our focus for this trip. Upon arriving at the waters edge there is something going on as this shoreline that we get to first almost always has open water on the edges and is open once again. Have to walk around a part of the lake to get to a place that the ice is safe enough to set foot on. 

Since this pond has some big crappies in the 13” and bigger class we decided to stay out in deeper water and search for suspending fish. After drilling a few holes we started catching a number of nicer sunfish on T.H.E. Jig and they were coming in fairly regularly. We had to down size to the smallest jig as the fish on the Vexilar would hover around T.H.E. Jig but at times showed no interest what so ever. Since the crappies weren’t coming in we forged on and drilled more holes in our search. 

At this point we switched over to the Loby Baits micro flea in the pink color and the crappies started gobbling this bait up. We were catching more crappies than sunfish and that is what our quest was for this day but the size wasn’t what we were looking for and catching 10-11.5” fish fairly regularly. We decided to move out into deeper water and this is when we started connecting with bigger crappies. These fish were in 20 fow and were suspending anywhere from 17 feet up to 14 feet. These fish that were suspending were more aggressive than the ones that were lower towards the bottom. We were able to catch a bass as well and this fish came in and slammed the micro flea and gave the Austin rod another workout which it handled the fight very well. 

All in all it was a good day out on this pond but we never did find those 13 inch plus fish that we were looking for. With the weather being warm and a light breeze all day the ice is getting worn and the top layer is definitely softening up here and we need to get some cold nights once again and freeze things over nicely. From the times that we have been to this pond we usually don’t catch numbers of fish but on this outing we caught a number of fish and the crappies were good fighters. We will be back again soon as the search for those slab crappies will continue.

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January 27, 2008

This day was one of those days that were going to test you in every way possible once getting to your fishing spot and the walk before. The previous day was gorgeous with high sun and mild temps but projects around the house had dominated that day and we were unfortunate to be able to take advantage. So Sunday arrives and we wake to a snowstorm with gusting winds to 35mph.

We arrive at the lake, one that we usually only fish a couple of times a season, and there is between 1-2 inches of fresh snow on top. If someone wanted to make a home video to send into one of those TV shows, this one would have done well. Since there was a fresh coating of snow the footing that we had was never really there. The ice surface was very slippery and while pulling our portable house along with us I had fallen to the ice at least 15 times before getting to where I wanted to fish. As I sit here and type this report my right knee is still in a good amount of pain as well as one of my elbows. There were a couple of times that I laid there on the ice wondering why I continue but I wanted to fish and made my way to that area.

We concentrated on a deeper hole of the lake and punched a number of holes looking for active fish. What we were finding were a number of dead holes and finally one produced a couple of small sunfish for our efforts. I had decided to work my way towards shore as I was contemplating walking the shore back to avoid another round of slamming myself to the ice. As we worked into a little shallower water the last couple of holes started producing and started with a pickerel. After getting that fish out of the area the bigger sunfish started coming in and there were a handful of nice ones caught.

With the winds and snow howling outside and not much action happening inside of the house we decided to pack it up and head out. Most of our fish came in 10 feet of water and were caught on a green/black T.H.E. Jig worked ever so slowly and the smallest jig that I had along with me. These fish were very inactive and fortunately the last hole that we drilled there were some active fish to save the day. This lake has numbers of these bigger sunfish and that is what we were looking for but with the cold snowy front passing through the area, I have a feeling that most anglers out there had a tough day as well.

One piece of equipment that I need to purchase this week before going out again next week is a good set of boot cleats as I am not going to put myself through that punishment again. We as sportsman put ourselves through some very tough and demanding situations to do what we truly love to do. It takes dedication and sometimes a little craziness to keep getting out there and going but when that day comes where everything falls together, those are the days that we live for. Would I do it again and the answer will always be yes as my wife asked me that when I came limping and hobbling into the house.
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January 19, 2008

Finally to be on the ice once again as the weather and conditions here in New England do and will change from day to day. While we were in MN for a week the weather here was in the 60’s and that melted a lot of the surface of the ice as well as opening up the shorelines on many ponds. We heard many reports that folks were using long board planks to get out onto the ice and after having another 12 inches of snow we had decided last weekend to stay off of the ice and wait for more favorable conditions.

We ventured out onto our favorite winter pond this day and with the spud bar in hand and the ice picks around our neck we found very favorable ice for our latest ice fishing adventure. The total ice thickness was around 12 inches with the top layer of 6 inches of frozen snow and the rest being hard ice. The thickness that we had now was thicker than we have had all winter and we should be set now for the rest of the winter with the cold temperatures coming in this week.

Since the snow has melted from the surface of the ice, this made for easy travels around searching for our fish today. Drilled a few holes right away and concentrated in depths from 13 – 18 feet of water. On this particular pond this area that we fish is the deepest hole of the lake and we always figure that there are going to be concentrations of fish here and usually are never disappointed at that.

Our game plan for this day was to fish for crappies and sunfish but at the same time we were going to jig for some bass as well. Upon dropping the transducer of our Vexilar down the first hole we were marking fish and dropped the Chubby Darter down and a couple of jigs later had the first bass on ice. Unfortunately since this fish had hammered the bait and taken it fairly deep we easily worked the hooks out and quickly released this bass back into the water unharmed. We tried a little more with the Chubby Darter but were more focused on searching for panfish and concentrated our efforts more towards them.

The plan that we generally use is drill around 20 holes in a circular pattern and once that is done then we will start hole jumping until we find active fish. As time goes by we generally find that there are only a few holes that are very productive and that were this case this day as well. The fish that we were marking were suspended from 3 feet to 9 feet off of the bottom and if we were to see the higher fish those were of a much bigger size. We had caught a number of fish but a majority of these were in the 4 – 6 inch range and we haven’t seen this many small crappies in this location ever.

After weeding our way through a number of fish we were able to bring home a few for a small fish fry and they were greatly appreciated on the dinner plate. The fish that were caught were caught on the Loby Baits Mousi in the white color and also others were caught on a yellow/orange T.H.E. Jig which we are finding as a popular color on this particular pond. The lift method was used on all of the fish that were caught and if they were reluctant to bite after working them for a few minutes then we would move onto the next hole.

We had figured that the bite would be much easier than it was as a small storm front was going to be coming through the area and the temperatures are falling as well. But that didn’t seem to matter as the fish were there and fish were caught but the numbers of fish that we did catch were worked for and were not going to come easily. Now that we are getting our ice forming more firmly these days this is going to open many more avenues for us and start looking for more reports from us and we are going to start venturing to lakes and ponds that haven’t been visited yet this winter.
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January 4 - 10, 2007

Week spent in Minnesota

As I sit here back in New England and reflect back on my trip that I made to Minnesota from January 4-January 10, 2007, there are many memories that I have taken and already I am starting to look and plan for the same trip next winter. I am really looking forward to being able to make this trip on a yearly basis and also meeting with old friends, business acquaintances and new fishing pals along the way that made for a very enjoyable trip this time around.

January 4, 2007

After being able to get an earlier flight at my connecting destination, I was able to get into Mpls a few hours earlier and met up with a friend for a few minutes as a surprise as he didn’t know that I was coming into town. Always good meeting up with him but I really need to get him out of the office and back onto the water one of these days. Then the road trip started towards St. Cloud to meet up with my old hunting buddy and we haven’t seen each other since I have moved here to New England 9 years ago. After a handshake we loaded the truck and headed to the Howard Lake area to try our hand at some ice fishing as he hasn’t been out in quite a while as well. We were able to use a friend of his fish house and we were on fish as soon as we started but the sunfish and crappies were really on the small side and only a few were kept. Was more fun just reminiscing about the old days and things that we had done over the years and time sure does fly by.

January 5, 2007

The same friend and I decided to meet up early Saturday morning and try a lake that we haven’t fished in 15 years or so. After unloading the 4 wheeler and gear we traveled across the lake and decided to try an area and see if we could find some sunfish. Drilled a number of holes and nothing was in that area and as we looked across the lake there were two distinct pods of houses and we ventured towards the smaller one. We drilled a few holes and turned the Vexilars on and they were lit up like Christmas trees and wasn’t more than a few minutes and the crappies were hitting the ice. What we learned was that in this area there was a deep bar running through there and we were catching these fish in 36 feet of water with them suspending a few feet off of the bottom. The thing that I was amazed at was as the morning went on the fishing got better and before 11:00 am we both had our limits and had thrown a number of fish back as well. We packed up by noon and said good wishes to each other with a slap on the back and the memories were really starting to form already as neither of us has had a fishing outing like that in quite some time. Spent the rest of the day visiting with my brother that I am only able to see every other year and always look forward seeing him as well.

January 6, 2007

This was another early rise morning as this day was going to bring me to Big Sandy Lake in the McGregor area and a day of fishing with internet acquaintances and meeting many new people as well. The meeting place was at CrappieKeith’s house and man was there a number of people there to shake hands with. Shaking hands for the first time with Dave ”Hoggie” Hoggard and “CrappieKeith” Keith Nelson was something that I have wanted to do in quite some time and finally was able to get that chance. Also, the gang from WhereIFish.com had been there with Keith for the last few days and was truly a joy meeting all of you as well. We loaded and headed for Big Sandy and met up with another member of Catch-N Shannon “SandBurr” there with his kids and crew and a number of handshakes once again were put out and was great meeting all of you as well. Were moved out onto a narrows area on Big Sandy and everyone started drilling holes on a break in that area. With cloudy conditions and a light breeze this proved very productive until midday when the sun decided to poke out and slow the bite dramatically. Everyone was catching fish with whatever techniques they were using and many varieties of fish species were hitting the ice, walleye, northern pike, perch, crappies and whitefish were being caught. This day was one of my most memorable as I had met and fished with so many people in one day that goes to show me that ice fishing is so much more fun and we are able to share that time with more folks as opposed to open water fishing. At the end of this day Keith and I had done a Catch-N Radio show with Hoggie and hopefully other anglers are going to be able to get information from that. Again, this day was really the highest highlight that I had from the whole trip and look forward to doing this again next year.

January 7, 2007

Since I had been traveling around the state the last three days I decided to stay and fish my parent’s lake and was nice to be able to walk out the door and start drilling holes. Across the bay there is a point that comes out and after finding that and drilled a number of holes to locate the break line and had holes in depths from 5 feet out to 26 feet. We found out that the best depth’s that were holding fish were from 8 feet to 16 feet with 12 feet the best. Today the bite was the best again when the clouds were around as later in the afternoon the bite dropped off dramatically once again. We were able to catch numerous sunfish and later in the day the crappies starting showing themselves and a few of them were caught as well. It was amazing at the number of northern pike that I had caught as I had a back to back battle with two pike on two consecutive drops of the line. These were all great battles and on the ultralite gear and 2 pound test line that I was using, this was a little nerve racking getting them in. we were able to get fish in the freezer and I know that mom was especially happy at seeing that. Was nice being able to fish with my dad for a change as this was something that we haven’t done in a number of years as well, this was some great times that I am going to remember for a long while.

January 8, 2007

Dad and I decided that we were going to go and fish the lake that I fished earlier in the week for crappies again but with the conditions that we had we were never able to get there and fish it. Since we had to walk and had no other means of transportation out to the fishing spot, I was trying to find a location on the lake that we could park and walk but with the very dense fog that we were having, made it impossible to find that location. We ended up at a connecting lake and tried there for an hour and the fish were not biting there. The fog was lifting so we loaded the gear and headed back to find that other location and still were unable to find it and unfortunately never got back to the crappie honey hole. Went back to the homestead and I fished there the rest of the afternoon but the sun was out once again and the bite was tough but was able to put together another meal for the freezer and that was a goal that I wanted to do for my parents.

January 9, 2007

Today was going to be a rest and travel day and being on the ice for 5 straight days was starting to take its toll on my back and I could definitely feel all of that fishing. Later in the afternoon I started my travels back towards the cities and met with a couple of friends before getting to my aunt and uncles as I spent the night with them. Very early morning flight on the next day had me back in New England by noon and the last numbers of days are all of a memory now that I am going to be carrying along with me for quite some time.

After looking back on my trip I had met a number of old friends met a load of new friends and will definitely be trying to get out with all of them upon my next outing to MN once again. I am already starting to plan my next years ice trip and I know that I will be in the same areas seeing the same folks that I had the pleasure of fishing with this year, but will be adding a stop in Wisconsin the next time around and fish with the Loby Baits gang over there on Redstone Lake. I tried to figure out how I could possibly get there this time around but the drive was going to be to long and I know that next time I will fly into Milwaukee and catch up with Loby and his crew for those outstanding days of fishing that they have over there. This was a very good trip and the days always go by way to fast but again I want to thank everyone that I met along the way for their hospitality and was a joy fishing with all of you. I am looking forward to doing it again next year.
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December 30, 2007

It has been a while since we were able to get out onto the ice with the schools being out and things on the too do list to get done. Now that those things have been finished it was time to hit the ice and we decided to head to our favorite ice fishing lake and see what we could find. The ice was about what we had expected as we have been having warm weather conditions with temps in the 40’s a good portion of the week. There was also rain mixed in with those temps and figured that the ice maybe taking a toll because of this. With spud bar in hand it was time to hit the ice and was surprised that for a Sunday there wasn’t a person out there and nobody came out at all the time that we were there. With an approaching storm, we figured that the bite should be better and it definitely was from previous outings as of late. We drilled 12 holes in a circle that ranged from 14 feet of water out to 18 feet and only about half of them we were marking fish throughout the day. The crappies that we were catching were very small and really faded out and not sure if that is from all of the snow cover or what as they are usually not that faded. The sunfish were definitely bigger on this trip compared to what we generally catch there and were more dominant than the crappies that were caught. The bass were biting as well and watching the video you will see what we had caught as this is one of the nicer fish that we have caught through the ice in a while. We weren’t able to find able perch as they generally make a strong presence while we are out there. The baits that worked on this outing were the Loby Bait’s Polli starting with the red color but had to switch to white to get a better bite. Also a number of fish were caught on T.H.E. Jig in the blue/chartreuse color scheme and both of these jigs were matched with the Austin Custom UL and Elite Series rods and work perfectly. The ice is around 8-9 inches thick but was cracking a lot when we first got out there. The ice would crack under your feet here and there and when drilling a hole that would create cracks as well. Was a little nerve racking for a while but when the temps raised some the ice softened up some and was much better. We are going to be going out again here in a couple of days and may have to give this lake another look or pending ice conditions may take a look at another new lake...
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December 25, 2007

Christmas morning and getting out for an ice fishing run and it doesn’t get any better than that unless the fish are not going to cooperate. Since the weather here is looking like the temps are going to hover around the mid 30’s for a number of days we decided to make a run to a local pond that we have never been to and see if the fish want to play. This pond is one of those that not many people know about as you need to hike through the woods to get to it and is a town reservoir that many people forget that you can fish at. Since the rains and warm winds have been blowing, the next few days we are not going to be able to hit the ice, figured that we better give it a try and see what is happening. The ice on this pond was sporadic as the thickness was fairly uniform but the make up was different from one part to the next. Where the shade hit the ice most of the day it was a solid 8-12 inches but where the sun was hitting it there was a layer of 2-3 inches of frozen slush with an open layer of 3 inches of water with a 4 inch layer of black solid ice. This area as well you needed to watch your step as there was a few times you would break through the top layer to step on the black ice, not fun. A spud bar is needed still as every pond you visit is going to be different and without one you are taking chances while you are out on the ice. We worked a number of holes and had plenty of lookers that we could see on the flasher, but they would just sit and look at the bait and the bite was definitely off. We did manage to catch one nice sunfish and a small bass, but were a little disappointed that the fish were not going to cooperate this day. There were only a few holes that had activity but no matter what we put down the hole they would just sit there and look at it. Was a tough day out there but any day on the ice is a good day and this was another pond that we wanted to try and time to look at the next one to sample. With the conditions changing daily with the warmer weather and every pond is in a different state as far as ice conditions, everyone out there needs to be safe and be sure of that next step...
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December 23, 2007

What a difference makes in just two days here in New England as we went from a cold 20 degrees on Friday to mid 40’s today and raining now. The ice is holding up very well yet in the areas that we were fishing and the 8 inches of snow that was there Friday is now 2 inches deep. Mush easier walking today and dragging a sled but with the warm temps I was able to down size my equipment and brought the minimum things along. I wanted to fish a new area on the same lake but as I was walking towards that area the slush was taking over and one of my steps was very spongy and made me back up and not go forward any more. So I went back to the flat and worked the drop off again and was very well rewarded with good fish once again. Actually today the bass were very active and caught a number of them along with some sunfish, crappies and big perch again. The fish were mostly caught from 4-7 feet of water with the deeper waters void today as well. Three baits were the choices today with them all catching about the same number of fish, the white LOBY BAITS MOUSI, purple LOBY BAITS BUGGI and of course T.H.E. JIG in the white/chartreuse pattern did very well and the bass really liked T.H.E. JIG today. Basically fished 17 different holes that I would work each hole a couple of minutes and then move onto the next one until one of the holes had some activity in it. Most of the time I could catch a fish out of a hole and then there wasn’t any fish left and the hole would go dead. With the mild temps made for a very relaxing afternoon and was very surprised as there wasn’t anyone else out there until about the time I left a couple came out with their tip-ups. Think it is time to move onto another lake and see what we can find and I am looking forward to exploring a bunch of different bodies of waters this year. The next couple of days are going to be busy with the holiday but towards the end of the week we will be back out there and catching them again as long as the mild temps this week doesn’t do any bad things to our ice...
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December 21, 2007

The ice season is definitely here and with all of the snow it is making a tough time to get out to your fishing spots. Without having some sort of a machine to get around on the ice, the latest snow is tough to pull the sleds through and depending on what kind of shape you are in, will depend on how far you are able to travel. We went out to a lake that we haven’t iced fish on before and have done well for panfish in the warmer months. Leaving the access we went around a shallow flat over to a deep shoreline looking for areas that schooling fish are going to hang out in. We proceeded to drill a number of holes but weren’t marking too many fish after moving from hole to hole. The ice conditions that we were finding was that there is a 3-4 inch layer of frozen slush under the 8 inches of snow with a 1-2 inch layer of open water slush with a layer of 3 inches of clear ice underneath that. Being it was Friday there wasn’t anyone else on the ice and with the latest snow made for some very nice scenery while we were fishing. Since the fish were not cooperating in this area and we weren’t to willing to continue on down this shoreline getting further from away from the landing, we decided to turn back and work a flat between us and the landing. This was a good move as when we started working the shallow waters of this flat, this is where we started to find the fish we were looking for. This flat we were working had an inside corner in that area and we had punched 17 holes to get a lay of the land. What we were finding was that the right side of our holes were running on the top edge of this flat and were in 4-5 feet of water. The outside line of holes we had drilled in water depths of 8-11 feet of water and between these two lines the distance was only 20 feet. We drilled a third line of holes in between the other two and these were in 7 feet of water. This was a sharp drop from the upper holes to the deeper holes and after finding out what depth the fish were relating to, it was quickly seen that the deeper holes were void of fish and the other shallow holes, most of these had activity. The sunfish started the bite off and by using a flasher we were able to determine the depth that they were using and made it easier for working them. Once the sunfish bite had started, the crappies started showing up and a majority of them came from 4-5 feet of water. We haven’t been fishing this shallow this season and it was quite fun as you didn’t have to reel them in but just lift the rod and pull the fish out of the hole. For the time we were out there we caught sunfish, crappies and perch and all of the perch were bigger fish up to 11 inches. For the day we caught around 30-40 fish and they didn’t come fast and furious as we had to work at catching all of them. There was only one instance that the activity was fish after fish and we had caught 6 fish in a very short time. There were only two baits that were needed for our fish today, the first one was a WHITE LOBY BAITS MOUSI and was rigged on a 1/32 ounce jighead and the other was the 1/80 ounce T.H.E. JIG in a white/chartreuse color pattern. The LOBY BAITS MOUSI, we only needed that one plastic bait and it is still rigged up and ready to go and that shows you the durability of the LOBY BAITS plastics. We have to give mention to the AUSTIN CUSTOM RODS that we are using and with the sensitivity that is built into these rods, we are able to feel the bites a number of times before they are detected or seen. Since we have started using the AUSTIN CUSTOM RODS we are finding that they are exactly what we were looking for and are going to be the only rods that we use from now on. All in all for all of the work that it took to get us out there on the ice, we had a very enjoyable day and looking forward to our next outing...
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December 16, 2007

 When is this snow ever going to end…seems like we are going to be in for a long winter if this keeps coming down like this…we are looking at around 18 inches of snow the last few days and the ice conditions that we did have, this may have an effect on that…we haven’t been to the lake yet since the snow’s have started but have a feeling that this snow is really not helping matters at all…we will be heading to the lake this week and check things out but one really needs to be sure that they bring all safety equipment with them and make sure that every step that is taken is a safe one…make sure that you have your spud bar with you and you are using that because with the 4-5 inches of ice that we did have, there is a lot of snow on top of that…if we get the rain this afternoon that they are predicting, this is going to add a lot of weight to the ice and possibly making unsafe ice conditions out there…also with all of this snow, this is going to make walking through this a tough one and make sure someone knows where you are going to be in case something happens while you are out there…the conditions are changing and all precautions need to be followed if you are going to be venturing out onto the lakes and ponds to do some fishing…be safe out there…
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December 10, 2007

With the winter blowing into New England with a fury we were able to get out on the ice this past weekend. We had been checking different bodies of waters all week long and making a judgment as to which one was going to be ready for our ice fishing trip. By Thursday of last week there wasn’t going to be too many options as many lakes still had open water areas or the ice was only an inch or two thick. The lake that we decided to go to had around 4 inches in the back bay as this area had froze over much sooner than the rest of the lake. The ice was clear and black and there wasn’t any sound of cracking at all. We had our spud bar to keep checking the ice as we walked as well as wearing a life jacket just in case. The temp was going to be around 40 for the day and was warm enough that we didn’t need to use the ice house. Other than being a very nice day out on the ice, the fishing wasn’t that great. Over the course of the day we drilled 50-60 holes from shallow water to the deepest water in the area and was only a few times that we were actually were marking fish on the Vexilar. If it wouldn’t have been such a nice day, it would have made for a long day but just being on first ice for the year makes up for not catching to many fish. We caught a couple of perch and one nice sunfish but were unable to find any crappies. The fish that we did mark on the Vexilar were all on the bottom and came up to our bait as there wasn’t any suspended schools that we could find. As we were packing up to leave in the afternoon the main part of the lake started getting water on top again and not sure what the ice conditions are like over there now. Now that we have our first day on the ice in, we are looking at trying a new body of water next weekend and hopefully the results will be much better. Fish or no fish it is great to be out on the ice once again and caution still needs to be taken as the temps are above freezing here for the next couple of days coming.
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December 8, 2007

The local waters in Northern MA have frozen over in many parts but from body of water to body of water the ice conditions are so varied that precautions need to be taken if going on the ice. We are hearing reports from open water to 4-4.5 inches of ice in certain locations which shows you that the ice is not particularly safe by any means and the thing that we keep preaching is that ice is NEVER SAFE. The ice was coming along fairly well in development but yesterday with the 40 plus degree day, this has set the conditions back. We are looking at rain/snow/sleet starting tonight and into Monday morning which is not helping the ice at all. If you are venturing out onto the ice to try some fishing or other outdoor activity, be very careful out there and the best would be to wait a while yet until the ice is much thicker. We were out ice fishing yesterday and will be following with a report soon and the results were mixed but we took all the precautions needed to make sure that we didn't put ourselves into a dangerous situation with breaking through. Enjoy these early winter days and just be very careful out there....
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December 7, 2007

This past week has been a very cold week and is firming up any soft water that we