It's not my favorite local body of water, but I had not fished Cheshire Lake yet this season, and figured this would be a good day to give it a try because it's right off Route 8 (and so well plowed) while the snowy roads would make my usual mountaintop haunts difficult to access.
I arrived a little before 11 AM, and headed out onto 2nd Lake, along the western shore a ways south of the old Gypsum plant.
The weather was cloudy most of the day (although the sun did poke through a few times), nearly constantly snowing (not terribly hard most of the time, but quite steady), 10 mph wind (that "wandered" during the day) and temps in the mid 20's.
There was about 10 inches of snow (average over the course of the day) on top of about 9 inches of ice.
I didn't see anyone fishing 1st Lake when I drove by, but there were 5 parties (including me) on 2nd Lake during the day.
I set up thre tip ups, a dead stick and a jig.
The morning was slow, so I cooked and ate lunch around noon.
On the menu: beef stew, a lamb chop sauteed with home made raspberry wine, a side of home made kim chi, a bottle of Harpoon Dunkin coffee porter, an apple, some peanuts, a hot pot of coffee and a canoli from La Fiorentina bakery.
I had my first flag during lunch, which yielded a small (9") bass.
I caught a 14" pickerel on a tip up when I was checking it (even though there was no flag). I caught another tiny (9") pickerel on my dead stick.
I also had one light tap on my jig toward the end of the day, and succeeded in hooking something small, but lost it below the hole.
(As far as I could tell, no one else did particularly well either. The two guys not far from me had a few flags, but I didn't see them - - or anyone else - - ice anything terribly big).
To help pass the time, I strapped on my cross country skiis, and did a quick loop around the Lake.
I was the last one off the ice, picking up my gear a little after 4 PM and getting back to my car and driving home around 4:30 PM.
