9:45 on a Tuesday..

[IFF]

Z ouch hope it was an old drill.  Awake to 4 inches of looks like fluffy snow, will have to break out the shovel in a few places, glad I don't have sidewalks 

Eddie that's what I need, coffee.  WW yeah that's what I found with the old camera, but this one will take on the role of entertainment, otherwise just an expensive toy.

time to get at it, burning daylight.  Good day to all, stay safe.

[zcm_82]

It was 3 years old or so. It was just a cheapo Skil 20v. I bought a replacement cheapo 20v Hart after I got done fishing. Everyone talks about how you need a Bugati engineered drill with more torque than a tractor to drill holes, but I never had any problems with the Skil. 🤷‍♂️ Tbh, the Hart may be the same drill, aside from the color, they look practically identical. I'll have to check and see if the Skil batteries fit.

The Hart punched my holes just fine this morning. Setup in this wind was a bear, but the fish are biting.

[mr.clean]

Good day 33 headed to forecast high of 35 sky is overcast and winds at 5-10 mph. Possible flurries or snow showers today.
IFF glad you could meet up with Old Goat and try out the new camera your experience sounds like what i have read over the years here on I.S. or heard from other fishermen. Why I would tell someone to buy a flasher/fish finder before getting a camera. Nice of Old Goat to supply skies for your Smitty sled build and a flasher for your son-in-law.
Old Goat nice of you to help IFF out with the skies and flasher. 
ice wanderer that had to be some adjustment for you after leaving California especially if you lived in the Southern section of state. I'm sure my Nephew was glad to get back to San Diego after his recent visit  during a cold spell. I had a feeling all of us would get infected with Covid at some point in time. Hopefully when I do it will be a mild case. Best to you tomorrow out on Lake George.
Whopper Stopper may the storm have put the fish in a feeding mood. best to you today out at Shamu.
Hunts2long good to read Lindsay's symptoms are mild. I think Wallyworld is correct on which date to start isolation from yet another example of the lack of information with the Covid virus.  I owned a 1998 jeep Cherokee sport model agree good vehicle purchased used in 2002 traded-in in 2012.
Zcm-82 may you be able to get your father out at least once this ice fishing season. Sorry to hear about the drill any way to attach some type of safety cord on them to prevent such an incident or at least be able to retreive the drill dry it out and hope it works. have a good fishing trip today.
Wallyworld nice that you wre invite guests to another Fd.'s Officer Installation banquet. I assume fire coverage would be arranged with another local company. Good to read their was only one service call during the event. back in Feb.of 2015 I was at a fire dept. contest in Sullivan county some members of the department holding the contest had to stop fishing to go fight a fire.
Drifter may you not be having any symptoms of Covid after being exposed to your friend.

Everyone have a nice Sunday. Keep warm ,stay safe and healthy.
 Steve

[ICE WANDERER]

                 Good morning ER's,
                         It's 1* and  I'm running a little short on time.
                         I'll check in when I get back from my first trip to LG.
                         I hope everyone has a good Minday either at work or out. Stay Safe and Healthy.

                  IW

[Whopper Stopper]

Good morning IW! Good morning Everyone


+6 may see +10 later today

Just a quick "Hello" before heading out the door.

Yesterday morning the walleyes were moving at first light. I caught 3 all short, saw 2 others.

Best of luck to everyone on the ice today

Stay safe and keep healthy.

            WS

[wallyworld]

Morning all,

X3 on the quick hello before heading to the lake     

Good luck everyone 

Hope all those dealing with covid are doing ok 

Have a good day. Stay safe, stay healthy.

[zcm_82]

Morning all, 20° and snowing with 20mph wind here this morning. The roads haven't been plowed or salted, so driving is pretty awesome 

Fishing was quite a bit slower yesterday, was out from 7:30-11:30am and only got 11 gills and one little bass. It started off well, but the bite went pretty flat around 9:30.

WS - hopefully next time goes better. Most of my fish were dinks yesterday, too. Only managed 1 really nice gill from the bunch.

mr.clean - I'll just remember not to sit it on the side of me toward the holes when I run in my anchors from now on. Bad habit, and it finally got me.

[masoneddie]

Good Morning Everyone,
  Fairly calm with some snow flurries falling, 12* here this am with high of 21.

  Z…be careful on the roads this morning!    Congrats on the fishing again, sucks on losing the drill…Doh!
  Jeff, Marv, Wally…best of luck to you all today, hope the bite is on fire! Will be looking forward to your reports!    
  Steve…thanks for all the additional information and links for the snowshoes…will do some research on them.   
  H2…glad to read Lindsay is only experiencing mild symptoms , excellent!  Hope the team did well on the lanes last evening and picked up their game if you took the night off.     Fished up your way yesterday.

  We decided to do a recon trip up to Sacandaga Reservoir yesterday and get a little familiar with the area and some spots for the upcoming Walleye Challenge in February. One of my sons buddies knows the area pretty good and gave us some info to tryout that wouldn’t be too far from one of the weigh stations.
  Plans were to start at one location and fish until 10:30 or so then hit another spot for the afternoon. We set up on the first spot about an hour before light in 15’ of water. At 7am the bite started happening..had the first flag, iced a 16 1/2” walleye. Youngest son jigged up a couple shorts, and I ended up jigging one more just legal, 15”. The sun peaked through for a period of time and the bite shut right down for us from about 8am until we were going to start packing up.
  Sons buddy got a message he needed to be somewhere urgently by early afternoon, so we just stayed put and fished for another hour where we were before calling it quits. All in all, not a bad day, but I can see that not having transportation is going to limit us big time to where we’ll be fishing in the tournament.
  On a bright note, we had our own little pool for the day. $5 for first legal size walleye caught, and $5 for biggest fish caught…that 16 1/2” walleye was worth a $20 payout…to be collected on next trip, these young bucks don’t carry cash only cards.   
  Cawfee’s on…
Have a great day all, be safe, best of luck to those fishing!

 

[hunts2long]

-1 and clear.
Good luck to all you that are on the ice this morning.
Eddie, not a bad day on Sacandaga. How much ice were you cutting? Every report is saying early and late bite has been good. With the contest being mid Feb. that could change.
We split 2 and 2 last night. I didn't help much. Five teams all within 2 points of first. We are one of them.
Have a good day and be safe...h2l

[Old Goat]

  Good Morning ER's congratulations to those catching fish. Good luck to everyone going today. Last trip out the clam plate drill set-up is back in business. I think between Bud and I 40 holes got popped. It took every one of them to tie buds total. 6 inches of new snow here with more on the way. I did pick up a new map and can see now why people are fishing there on the home lake. Results are off but effort has increased. I hope everyone stays well and those with 19 have mild affects. Mason sorry I forgot to say happy birthday for your Mother.

[IFF]

now up for the second time.  21* and snowing, got another looks like 2.5 of more fluffy and judging by radar should be moving out soon. Haven't got the coffee on yet, sounds like several are hitting ice today, cleared snow off the sonic, but never got the charger on it.  Will have to put that on my getter done today. Had thought of heading to the river (Mississippi) for a couple days, then noticed that I have a Doctors appointment the 27th so will have to put that back on the rear burner. See OG and Tom out in the hallway, come to think haven't seen Tom by the coffee pot for a while 

Hope everyone's day turns out with being a good one.  Now my coffee.

[mr.clean]

Good morning, snow flurries and light wind temperature is 24 head to day's high of 28. We received a light dusting of snow overnight.
IW,WS and WW best to all of you today with your respective fishing trips hope to see some fish photos later today or tomorrow.
Zcm-82 one disadvantage to having early start to your work day depending on when a snow storm starts the road crews may not be out working when you have to travel. Congratulations on the blue gills and small bass. I saw your post in another topic/thread about the drill good to read it was not an expensive model Good idea to place your body between the drill and hole to prevent it from happening again.
Eddie ,your welcome happy i could be of some assistance to you. Your one of the few people who refer to Great Sacandaga as a reservoir (which it is) most call it a lake or by it's nick name of the "Dead Sea' as it can be a challenge to find the fish. Glad your son's friends info. on the lake help all of you catch some walleyes. to bad you had to cut the outing short.. Given GSL's surface area not having transportation does limit the amount of the lake you can fish in a day. You may have to get one of those credit/debit card swipers the attach to your phone so you can collect future pool winnings on the ice. 
Hunts2long sounds like your league is very competitive this year. best to you and your teammates with the remainder of this season. I hope Lindsay still only has mild Covid symptoms and the wife and you if tested came back as negative.
Old goat good to hear you Clam plate/auger combo is back in business and was put through it's paces on your last outing with IFF. may you not receive to much snow which will make fishing harder on your local lakes.

Have a good Monday. Keep warm,stay safe and healthy. Good fishing to all going out this week.
 Steve

[fish/hunt4ever]

Well the boy got pushed to 5th place in Ling and just missed the money as they paid to 4th. Daughter got smallest fish in the crappie and got a plaque for that. Temp up to 38 right now. Was a good weekend out and about. Will have to see if I missed any pictures this weekend.

[ICE WANDERER]

                Good afternoon everyone,
                          Well I wish I had something good to report, but I don't. It was a slow day. Jon caught a small Lake trout jigging and a
                legal salmon on a Jaw Jacker. I had 1 chaser but could get it to hit. My son didn't do any better. We will hit it again tomorrow.
                It was a beautiful day out there.
         
                 IW

[IFF]

Went to Sam's club in Janesville, (12miles) only to find auto department not open on Monday and Wednesdays not only that my size was not in stock, next door to Walmart, and my size $30 more, should fire it up and have the dealership do a load test on the battery, funny thing is the voltage reads 13.4  but will not start without the battery charger on it, reading 14.7 volts, again kind of baffling

Back to Beloit, stopped in Manard's for wood to complete the Smitty sleds, only thing there was they had never heard of a hinge pin.  then on to Ace hardware, sure enough, hinge pins. but opted for 3 feet .25" rod instead, way cheaper.

Just muscled  off the boot binder on the longer set.  Now its measure twice and cut once. assemble and will be ready to give them a run. Will have to get the snow blower out of the storage garage. got 8" of white stuff lining my driveway

FH4 well bummer, on 5th place for the youngster 

Jeff, maybe next time.

back to the smitties.

[Whopper Stopper]

Good evening everyone

+2 heading for a low of -16, tomorrow windy with around -30 wind chill. I believe Wednesday night may be colder yet.

Today the fish were half comatose I actually saw a good number, but they had very little interest in anything I was doing. I ended up with 4 np that took me by surprise. There was a very nice sized bass that inhaled a Northland jig, when I set the hook the jig popped out and the bass just slowly swam off For 45 minutes I watched to northerns laying outside the hole just watching my Rattle Spoon before the sauntered off

Tomorrow morning I have an early morning hair pruning. Depending on how much snow is blowing around I may go to the lake or may skip it.

Hopwe you all have a good evening Stay safe and keep heathy

            WS

 

[mr.clean]

Good evening, I see Long term leader of the NY. Assembly Sheldon Silver has died at the age of 77.
Fish/hunt4ever to bad bad your son just missed out on winning some prize money. Congratulations to your daughter on her plaque for catching the smallest crappie. Glad all of you had a nice time at the derby.
IFF have fun building the Smitty sled/sleds . quite the ordeal to get battery may you get the electrical issue resolved.
Ice Wanderer sorry to hear the fishing was slow today for all in your party. may tomorrow's trip yield better results.
Whopper Stopper hopefully the temperature drop overnight will have the fish feeding if you get out tomorrow.

Everyone have a safe and good night.
  Steve

[icefisher-45]

Good Morning Everyone, 26* here this morning. Haven’t been on the internet much recently. Been busy with my wife and her forgetfulness. She has to have a MRI with contrast in March. I hope everyone with Covid feels better. Mason Happy Belated birthday to your Mom. I hope everyone has a great day and a safe one. Tight lines to those on the ice.

[masoneddie]

Good Morning Everyone,
  Looks like we picked up about an inch of snow overnight. Cloudy and fairly calm again this am, 21* snow showers possible with a high of 28 here today.

  I-45…thank you Sir, continued thoughts and prayers going out to your wife…best wishes with the MRI. 
  Steve…heard that on the news about Sheldon Silver.  Funny, I’ve always referred to Sacandaga as a reservoir and have had people tell me it’s a lake…either way works for me. I can’t call it the Dead Sea yet…haven’t put my time and work into it yet and it was kind to me on my first adventure! 
  Marv…no shortage of fish that’s for sure!    Have you been keeping an eye on the barometric pressure? Just wondering if that’s been a factor with the fish being so negative…not that it would ever stop me from going out, lol. Thanks for the update, just a matter of time before the bite gets hot…hope it’s today! Don’t forget the cookies!    
  Bud…good luck with the battery issue, hope the Smitty sleds are going together nicely!   
  Jeff…sorry to read you guys had a pretty slow day, congrats to Jon on the salmon and laker! Hopefully today you land on some aggressive fish, best of luck to you fellas with a double digit day!     A buddy of mine fished Vets on Sunday, said he did pretty good on perch, didn’t go out deep.
  FH4…so close for your son, dang! That was a nice prize for your daughter!    Hope you all had a good time, thanks for sharing your trip here with us! 
  OG…thank you Sir, glad to read the drill setup is working out nicely! Best of luck if you’re heading out today!     I picked up a new Eskimo 8” auger this season to pair up with my Clam Plate when fishing for lakers, pike, walleye in addition to the 6” Lazer. It works real well, but I’m only getting about half the holes as the 6” per 5ah battery…and sometimes the dang thing wants to rip me through the hole, lol, learning curve on the break through.
  H2…close race with the bowling’s teams! Glad your team split anyway.      I didn’t measure the ice, but we were sitting on at least 10-12” of good hard black ice.

  Meet up with 2 of my brothers yesterday to have breakfast with my Mom, will be heading back there again today. One nice thing about the Covid testing there is that the negative test result is good for 3 days, and they allow you to take your own test at home now and snap a dated picture. They also provide tests, so that has been good not having to spend extra $$ providing our own.
  Might try to take advantage of the mild weather today and try a local lake this afternoon before the cold front moves in. Cawfee’s on…
Have a great day all, be safe, best of luck to those fishing!
 
 

[zcm_82]

Morning all 2° calm, and clear here a the moment, it may still dip down a bit below zero before sunrise. Forecast is high of 12 with sunshine and a low of -9 tonight. We actually undershot our forecast low by a bit. All the weather guessers had said low of 5, but it was 4 when I got up, and it's still dropping.

Took another fishcation day tomorrow,  mostly because I just want to avoid the train wreck coming at work. It is an absolute mess anytime it gets down below zero, because none of the stuff outside was designed for cold weather. Pumps, valves, etc always freeze up. This morning will probably be bad enough, but tomorrow will be worse.

Stopped and fished a bit on my way home from work yesterday for about 45 minutes. I was wearing my steel toe work boots, so my feet decided it was time to give it up after 35-40 minutes on the ice. Had a couple of bites, but no fish. That pond is always pretty slow midday, though.


masoneddie - good luck if you get out. I actually switched out augers for my drill setup this year, too. Got tired of about getting my arms twisted off at breakthough with the Lazer I was using. The Mora will still pull me down a bit, but it isn't grabby. I'm still just using my 6" hand auger though since the ice isn't that thick yet.

WS - hope you get out today. Wind is always my determining go/no go factor, too. Much above 15mph sustained I skip it, because setting up and taking down the fish house is a real chore in heavy wind.

IFF - bummer. Been lucky around here, I haven't had to break out the blower yet. This is the least snowy winter I can remember around here. We got maybe 1-1.5" yesterday, but it was light powder, so most of it blew off from my place in the wind. I'd guess we've only picked up maybe 4" all winter so far, and none of it has stuck around long because of the warm bumps we've had.

mr.clean - a lot of times when we get an overnight snow the roads are pretty lousy until 6 or 7am. I definitely won't make that mistake with the drill again. It was a bad habit, and it finally bit me.

*added* temp did up dipping just below 0 around 6am, so that's the 2nd day of 2022 below zero here. We usually only see a handful per year.

[hunts2long]

17* and looks like an inch of snow.
Ice-45, Good Morning. Thanks for checking in.
WS, you have to wonder how a fish can take in a whole bait and spit it back out and not get hooked.
IW, glad you were able to find good ice, the fish will show-up.
Eddie, don't get into the it's a lake, it's a reservoir debate. It all depends on how old you are.
Hope everyone has a good day and be safe....h2l

Eddie, jigging up walleyes in the Winter is rare on Sacandaga. If you were fishing where I think you were, there are a couple very small areas that seem to always hold walleyes in the Summer. May have just cut a hole in the right spot.

[Old Goat]

     Good morning ER's hope all are well. The weather won't stay the same here up down like a yo yo. Good Luck to those fishing today.

[wallyworld]

Morning all,

Eddie.....nice job on the eyes 

IW.....fingers crossed today's bite is better 

WS....very frustrating when you see them right there but can't make them move 

IFF....seems Ace ALWAYS has the odds and ends no one else does 

H2L....sounds like the bowling trophy could end up being anyone's at the end of the season 

Had a pretty decent day yesterday, ended with 25 perch and 1 eye

everything came on  we were fishing with a friend we used to work with so a lot of catching up went on and just never got around to   

Have a good day. Stay safe, stay healthy.
 

[fish/hunt4ever]

woke up to a skiff of snow here today and temps around 30 when I came in at 4, the wind is starting to come up so the temp is dropping a bit as the cloud cover clears off, maybe cannot really see that much yet as the sun is going to start to make it appearance in about 15 minutes or so and cannot see any stars yet, still a roller coaster winter here, they are not calling for any below zero temps for us and highs upper 30's to low 40's. which is a pretty warm winter for us, but other parts of the state have had the cold and snow.

The derby was fun, was nice to spend time with family and get away for a bit.  Now to see where to fish next, might hit the small lake and see about some perch and walleye or might go and check out the big lake during the day as my camping permit is going to expire at the end of the month and just do not see spending the 80 dollars when we do not camp out there much besides the derby and maybe 2 other ice trips since they went to a reserve a spot from may to the end of September.  10 bucks a night plus 7 dollars a day on each side but going to buy my day permit for 42 before Feb 15th and then 7 for the second vehicle so well worth that for taking the boat out.  Oh and if I take the jeep out and park it by the camper and truck they want a camping permit for it as well but 40 for that one on the second vehicle sometimes they wonder why people get confused with all this and stop going to our state parks.  Sorry about the long post.

Have a good Tuesday hope the fish are either still biting or starting to bite for all out on the ice, have a good one.

[IFF]

Good Morning Crew  Burr -4 and chill at -15 good day to stay in.  Getting close to finishing the one smitty, with what limited tools I have out.  Sure miss my table saw, and having a vise to hold things  could be some house cleaning to catch up on as well. 

WW nice score on the gills, glad you got into some, and a walleye to boot

Good luck to those out fishing.

[IFF]

Got the sled done, went and got snow blower out, had to run the electric start, -6 and it finally fired up, then it was Oh Oh, impeller didn't want to turn, locked up, hope it's just some ice.

WW think I would get away with bringing it in the kitchen  , ah 

[wallyworld]

IFF…..that might be pushing it a bit   

[mr.clean]

Good evening 27 degrees outside down from the day's high of 30 will drop to 13 overnight. Cooler day forecast for Wednesday with a high of 25 but dropping down to 6 overnight with 5-10 mph wind. I'm curious has anyone else noticed a limited supply of certain Nabisco baked goods when grocery shopping in the past two weeks. I see a Judge in Long Island has issued a statement the NY. Gov. Hochul does not have the authority to issue Covid mandates and over stepped her powers when she had the state health department issue certain mandates such as face masks in schools. Supposedly only the state legislature has the authority to due these things. The governor says she will challenge this judge's statement /ruling. Yet again this places school officials in a hard place if parents and students confront them on face mask wearing.
Icefisher-45 may the march MRI help your wife's doctors to better treat her for the memory loss. My continued prayers for both of you.
Eddie good to hear your mother's nursing home is providing Covid tests and that you have a 3 day time period for visits with each negative test. I heard some folks refer to GSL as Sacandaga and have to remind them there is a Sacandaga Lake near lake Pleasant/Spectulator,NY. area of the Adirondacks.
Zcm-*@ May the outside equipment at your work place be functioning tomorrow. Steel toed boots can lead to cold toes fast when outside in colder temperatures.
Hunts2long would I be correct in assuming there might have been a smaller lake on or as part of the Sacandaga river before the dam was built creating Great Sacandaga. So that is why you say people calling it a lake or reservoir can be an age related thing. May Lindsay be doing better and close to returning to work.
Old Goat roller Coaster temperatures are never good for ice formation.
Wallyworld congratulations to your friend and the two of you on a good day of fishing. 
Fish/hunt4ever sounds like the camping permits can be confusing in your state or county. Once again glad you and the family had a good time at the recent derby.
IFF good that the snow blower engine started now to figure out problem with the impeller hopefully a simple fix. Building things with limited tolls can be challenging nice work getting one Smitty sled completed.
Ice Wander guessing you were running late this morning or lost your post will look for your post and fishing report tomorrow.
OldSailor hope all is good. thank you for providing the daily posts in the joke thread.

be safe,stay healthy and keep warm. best to all fishing on Wednesday.
 Steve

[zcm_82]

Morning all, -8°, clear and dead calm here. Temp is still dropping, so I think we may clip -10 before sunrise.

Not much on the agenda for today, just heading to a pond to see how the fish are biting once the kiddo gets on the school bus this morning. I'll probably fish till noon or so, depending on how the bite is. Filled up the hobo stove last night, I only break it out when it's below zero to avoid messing around refilling the smaller alcohol burners. It'll roast you alive in the fish house if it's much above 5-10° outside.

mr.clean - I took a fishcation day. I didn't want to be anywhere around work today. It'll be a disaster. It always is when it gets this cold.

[ICE WANDERER]

                  Good morning Zcm, ER's,
                              It's -3* and slight wind here on my hill.
                              Zcm...........Good luck today.
                              Steve.........How come when Cuomo issued mandates no one challenged him. I think they can issue mandates under an executive
                 order. But it seems that they are thinking of personal rights over health. Not that I like wearing a mask but I only do it
                 for public safety.  But as the Dr.'s are saying, it's just a matter of time, everyone will get the virus at some point.
                              Eddie..........I'm glad that the nursing home is still letting visitors in with tests.
                              Wally..........That seems like you had a good day on the ice. 
                              Bud............That's a nice looking Smitty sled, Looks like the way I built mine.  It's your kitchen, do what you want.
                              Marv...........How was your day in Shamu?
                              Fish............I'm glad you all enjoyed the derby.
                              H2l.............How is Lindsay feeling?   
                              Yesterday was another slow day, I was able to bring a 26.5" Laker home, and got 2 nice fillets.
       


                              I hope everyone has a Good Wednesday either at work r out. Stay Safe and Healthy.

                  IW