I tried ice fishing Richmond Pond in Richmond for the first time today.
(My younger son baled on me at the last minute . . . Et tu, Brute?)
I arrived around 11:30 AM. It was mostly sunny, cold (temps in the low 20's) and windy (20 mph, although it subsided to 10 mph later in the afternoon).
There was about a foot of ice on the Pond itself . . . but the edges were surprisingly sketchy.
I entered from the Town Beach/boat launch side on the north end and walked out about 3/4 of the way to the Boys Club (S/SW) end.
Two guys (set up a few hundred yards to my SE) headed off the ice shortly after I got there.
Three more (Jim, Mark and Mike) just a little ways to my east - - who had been targeting perch but ended up catching three good sized rainbows instead - - left around 12 noon.
That left me pretty much alone on the Pond for the rest of the day - - except for two guys on an ATV who were fishing the deep water toward the SE end of the Pond.
I chopped a couple holes and recycled some that the threesome left and set up a couple tip ups (baited with shiners), two dead sticks (one baited with a shiner and one with a night crawler) and a jig stick (baited with a butter worm).
Fishing was slow. Over the course of the day, I caught an average sized (14") pickerel on a tip up and a half dozen mediocre (7" to 9") perch (one on a tip up, a couple on my dead stick baited with a night crawler, and three on my jig stick).
I also had something strike my other dead stick and strip the shiner several times - - all without even knocking it off the bucket I had it balanced on.
Around 12:30 PM, I walked back to my car and pulled out my chuck wagon.
Lunch was tortilla soup, a couple lamb chops with sriracha mayo, a salad with buttermilk ranch dressing, some aloo mutter (potatoes and peas in a tomato sauce with Indian spices), asparagus, a small bottle of homemade wine (a dandelion/peach/pear/pomegranate blend), some Japanese peanuts, an orange, a pot of hot coffee (with milk and sugar) and some chocolate chip cookies.
Around 4 PM, I hauled my chuck wagon back to the car and got out my skis and traveled out to the SE corner of the pond to check out my two neighbors with the ATV.
However, as I began skiing toward them around 4:30 PM, the pair picked up their gear and started heading out.
They nearly got stuck when the ice broke under their ATV on the edge of the Pond as they tried to exit on the edge of the eastern shore.
Fortunately for them, the ATV had a winch, which they secured to a tree and used it to haul their ATV off the Pond and onto the beach.
I skied back to tip ups and dead sticks, and then back to my car, where I changed back into my ordinary boots.
I fished for another hour, and left around 6 PM, just as it was getting truly dark.
