St. Albans Bay - Ice - White Perch

[mudchuck]

So I have a friend that lives down in NH and he wants to come up and fish for whites at St. Albans this Saturday.
I'm curious to know if anyone was out today in this mess and did the rain do a number on the ice and were the whites biting.
Any insight would be helpful so I don't steer him wrong on a long drive for nothing.
Thanks in advance for real intel!

[Profish169]

I am also interested in the same inf as I am thinking of heading there on saturday

[mudchuck]

Anyone care to report?
I'm thinking the shoreline has to be gone with the downpour and high temps we have now, and what 8-9" there was is probably in bad shape and might not be safe. Would really be nice to know before anyone travels to find out it's not going to be worth the trip.

[VTMatt]

Call Bayside and ask. Ice at my place looks horrible and I had 8-12"  Won't know for sure until tomorrow and tomorrow night.

[Perchorbust]

I'm planning a Saturday trip as well.  I'll be interested to hear what it's like after all this.    We tried last Saturday and were blown into next week. 

Will have to scoot a Jon boat across what's left of the ice!

[gofish33]

Drove by the bay after work. There's open water in front of Black Bridge, about 50 yds out. Looks like the brook went nuts last night and washed out the ice in front of the bridge.  Lots of chunks of ice washed out from the brook and ended up on top of the ice.  Shorelines out to the F&W launch didn't look good, ice was buckled in places and water on top.  At the launch, the left-hand launch had buckled ice and 6 inches of water on top. THe right-hand launch wasn't broken up.  I didn't go out to Kilcare, don't know how that fared.


gofish33

[mudchuck]

Looks ok out at the point, but out near Burton looks punky now.
Big flowage out from under black bridge, that will refreeze but probably won't be safe in the current.
Might need a plank by the time all this flowage hits the main lake and the level starts to rise, but me thinks the ice shelf might survive long enough to get another weekend in.

This is what it looks like at highbridge on Arrowhead this evening, big time flowage and throwing ice all over.

[Troutmagnet]

This doesn't sound good for doing much fishing in March. 

[spot]

Lot o' slop. 

[Perchorbust]

Anybody coming off the ice today from St.Albans have any reports on the ice?

[VTMatt]

I checked Kilkare after work, I wouldn't risk going out there. shoreline is open water with a skim of ice and then there's 6" of water over questions able ice and another layer of skim ice over there. Water is too deep to risk. I saw guys at the launch in the bay and that looked OK.

[Perchorbust]

The bay where the guys were at the launch,  are whites catchable in there this early in the year?  I assume that is near the Christmas tree stuck in the ice.

[mudchuck]

I was hoping to try tomorrow. fingers crossed with the temps tonight that this locks the shore back up.

[thefishingweatherman]

I fished off hathaway point this afternoon. 10" of solid ice though a little wet near shore. should be froze up solid tomorrow. No one else o
out there and the weather was windy but nice. got 1.5 buckets of slabber whites on the hali jigs. wouldn't touch much else. two masterclass fish in the mix! Caspian tomorrow for lakers. good luck if u go for whites!

[mudchuck]

Thanks Chris, very good news!, heading out now

[VTMatt]

Almost blew through both Ion batteries but I found them....10 buckets later and we walked off the ice. Good times.

[mudchuck]

Almost blew through both Ion batteries but I found them....10 buckets later and we walked off the ice. Good times.

 

Glad I called you and we decided to move out to where you were. The seed bite died right off and we did manage several pails of whites and left right after you did.
My friends had never experienced such a bite like that and they left the ice with great memories and loads of fish to clean (and some to sell too).

[FishHawkVT]

How was the ice? Any problems getting on or off?

[thefishingweatherman]

Almost blew through both Ion batteries but I found them....10 buckets later and we walked off the ice. Good times.

Vtmatt strikes again! Haha nice haul! Just goes to show you, if they aren't around, go looking for em!

[Lord_of_the_Perch]

How many pounds?

[VTMatt]

How was the ice? Any problems getting on or off?

Wet shoreline but nothing you can't jump over.

[VTMatt]

How many pounds?

Almost 3.

[Lord_of_the_Perch]

good haul!

[fishstalker]

How was the white bite out there today?

[varmonter]

Anyone been out recently here or dillenbeck hows the ice...can you still access without a canoe??

[VTMatt]

I'm sure the ice is fine right now with the cold weather. Next weekend will be troublesome and the snow we have coming will make mobility hard.

Sunday the bite was slow, and the fish were constantly on the move. Auger drilling was literally sending the fish running for their lives. We had 6 occasions where we checked a single pre drilled hole that was loaded with fish and by the time we cut another the fish were completely gone. Almost used both Ion batteries again, but instead of 10 buckets we got 2. What made things harder were the people that thought it was OK to hop in our line of holes from 30 min prior and setup a shanties on our holes. Yeah I get you want to catch fish but don't be so lazy and cut your own holes and try being a little more courteous of others.   

[thefishingweatherman]

What made things harder were the people that thought it was OK to hop in our line of holes from 30 min prior and setup a shanties on our holes. Yeah I get you want to catch fish but don't be so lazy and cut your own holes and try being a little more courteous of others.   

Yeah, that is definitely aggravating... Some people seem to think, "why should I get a finder or an auger, when I can just space-invade someone else with both out there?" It's lazy and rude. Try sitting in someone else's tree stand in November and see what happens... Definitely seen more of this on the ice this year than those past - at least on the bay. Must be because the ice moved in late, and so far the bite has been off. Oh and the price for whites has been low.

[keithm87]

When weather is warm like it has been old holes and holes that were cut 2 hours ago don't look much different. I have used holes that were already in place before if they were where I wanted to fish. But I wouldn't do it if other people were nearby hole hoping. but I have been out on places and been the only person and there are holes already drilled from someone the day before or early in the day. I will reuse them if they are where I want to fish, i see no harm in it, and there is no point in drilling a hole 5 feet from one already there. But again I would not use it if others were in the area and may still be using it.

[JMailbox8]

Here's an idea. Bring something to cover your unused holes while you're out there. Then when the space invader come by, they have to drill their own. That or you can go postal on them if they touch your property (the hole covers).

On the other hand, it might be better that they use your holes rather than drill right next to them if you want to keep the perch from spooking. I wonder if there is any benefit to having people move in, as it might keep the school in tighter. I don't know much about the white perch bite, but hopefully this cold weather will make some safe ice for me to try them out on Sunday.

[VTMatt]

When weather is warm like it has been old holes and holes that were cut 2 hours ago don't look much different. I have used holes that were already in place before if they were where I wanted to fish. But I wouldn't do it if other people were nearby hole hoping. but I have been out on places and been the only person and there are holes already drilled from someone the day before or early in the day. I will reuse them if they are where I want to fish, i see no harm in it, and there is no point in drilling a hole 5 feet from one already there. But again I would not use it if others were in the area and may still be using it.

These goons came out, watched me drill 40 holes in straight lines, waited until I flipped my Clam over and then started hopping in my holes before setting up over one. At one point they all spread out, two of them being 25 ft away from us - fishing my holes. On top of that we had 3 guys follow us out , wait until we stopped, made a perfect triangle around us, cut hole and sat there. I said "Wow, no shame in your game! "  followed by a "We live here!"  Yeah, and?  All it takes is a simple "Do you mind if --" and things are all fine by me. A fellow member met us on the ice on Sat and before they fished he introduced himself and asked if it was alright if they fish near us. That type of greeting goes a long, long way.  I always ask if it's alright if I ever fish near someone I don't know and they're there first.