Today I took my buddy Bob (whose only gone ice fishing twice before) up to Burnett's Pond in Savoy.
My theory was that, although the pickings are limited (just pickerel and perch) you can generally count on a fair number of flags.
We arrived around 10:20 AM, were on the pond a few minutes after that and headed toward the back.
It was a beautiful day - - sunny, with generally blue skies and temps in the upper 40's to about 50 - - although there still was about 4 inches of snow on the ground as we walked down the hill to the pon.
The ice wasn't too bad (about 6" or 7" thick), with very little water on it early on (although there was a couple inches on top as the day wore on).
We had the place to ourselves all morning - - although a guy with two kids came out and set up near the "front" of the pond about 12:30 PM.
Around the same time, I cooked lunch - - steaks, kim chi, dal palak (Indian spinach with lentils), a couple beers (Smithwicks for Bob/Guiness for me), apples and a pot of hot coffee with milk and sugar.
Overall, the fishing was fairly slow (by Burnett Pond standards)
We only caught about a half dozen fish (a mix of perch and pickerel) apiece on a mix of tip ups, jigging and dead sticking.
But Bob at least made up in quality what we lacked in quanity. He landed a 20" pickerl on a jig and a 22" one on a tip up!
Our neighbor did pretty well too - - hauling in an 18" large mouth bass (only the third one that I've ever seen caught there).
Bob and I started picking up around 3 PM, were back up at my car a half hour later and back home a little before 4 PM.
