Football at Halls Pond

[Velcro]

Went to Halls Pond this afternoon. Used my nifty old spoon auger to reopen some holes, jigged a small bluegill from the first hole I opened. Put in a tip up and the flag flew up before I took five steps. Really little pickerel. Before I got my second trap set the flag popped up again, another little pickerel. Slowed down for a while- later found out that someone stole the minnow from the hot hole. But after a while my polar went off.


Nice pickerel, around 20" released it to make more little pickerel.

I jigged another small bluegill, does Halls have decent sized gills? I was tempted to use the puny bluegill as pickerel bait but let him go. It was dead until about 7 when the polar went off again. Had a nice fighter on the line, thought I had a smallmouth bass until I got it iced.


My best perch yet. I'd baited that tip up with a large dead shiner- expected another pickerel or a bass.


Bit proud of it.

As I was packing up I got a small bullhead on one of my tip ups, it grunted at me ugly little thing. Let it go- what happens when you use nightcrawlers on tipups.

[metalfish]

Congrats. Nice perch.

[dmhawks93]

great job. that perch is huge  

[Velcro]

I was so shocked at the size of the perch I didn't get a lure in the water right away so any schoolmates it might've had wandered off. I think it's my best catch yet.

[codie003]

Nice perch, good luck at breakneck Saturday.  I can't get out tomorrow but hope the ice holds up for Sunday.


 

[Velcro]

If I can't get to Breakneck or Quaddick tomorrow I wouldn't mind hitting Halls again.

[mungo544]

That"s a fattie. Nice!

[Yoda]

really nice perch

[spanky1]

Nice perch velcro!!!! Congrats

[Velcro]

I looked up Halls Pond in the fisheries guide to Lakes & Ponds, according to it large perch are common at Halls. So I hit it again yesterday, centered my tip ups around where I got the perch and got... nothing for hours. I think a small pickerel chewed and spit out one of my big shiners a couple times and I felt something hit a jig (Think a bluegill) but caught nothing until it got dark and then it was bullheads. They were kinda fun, each fought me as hard as it could- very feisty bullheads, they couldn't help not being what I wanted. One little one managed to stab my hand with its spike. Another one got the small shiner on my tip down and pulled out a couple yards of line tangled in weeds before I got to him- marathon runner of catfish. Most I got on my jigging pole though.

I released all the bullheads. I used to love eating bullheads, the ones I'd catch in a nearby stream were delicious. But the past year or two all the ones I bring home wind up tasting muddy, I don't know if it's because they're maybe a different species of bullhead (black vs brown vs yellow) or because they're from ponds instead of a much cleaner stream. At Nahaco last week a bullhead swallowed the hook so I decided to bring it home. Soaked it in milk for nearly 24 hours but it was still muddy tasting- wish I let him go.

After all those bullheads I wonder if my cat had hexed me (See profile picture) he was feeling clingy and didn't want me to leave the house and his name is Pout.

Yesterday will probably be my last icefishing trip this year. I've been healthy all season but now I've been hit hard with a nasty cold. I'm gonna be resting and hitting a lot of drugs, vitamins and juice today but I don't think the ice will still be there by the time I'm up and about.

[calicohunter]

Velcro, congrats on your absolutely incredible catch!