Think it is safe to assume the conditions have taken a turn for the worse.
All day sunday it rained here in Monticello and stayed around 34 degrees.
When I woke this morning it is still solid rain and 37.
Watched the weeks weather outlook and more sad news is comming all week long!
On friday there was a solid 6" of ice on Big Pond and the bottom 4" was great black ice. I feared this warm up and now it is here so I would suggest you be mighty careful out there in the near future.
One of the bright sides to all of this is that the ice tends to set up very quickly after a warm up and as soon as the temps get down again.
On a very different note, for early (First) ice, here in my neck of the woods the bite has been almost non existant! I spent a total of almost 40 hours out there so far and have not yet got into a good trout. Fished early, fished late, fished mid day and all night and not much action at all.
In years past, first ice has always been the best time to hammer the browns. In speaking with others who have gone, only one set of guys have hit a decent day so far and caught 3 nice browns, all 3 in a period of less then a half hour. Apparently the fish turned on and off for a brief moment and that was it for the rest of that day.
Strange conditions for sure. Big Pond is always slow fishing and almost always the same way with the fish turning on and off for brief moments. A flag is usually followed by a few others and then it is over again for a long dry spell. In all my years fishing this pond I have never had a steady bite throughout the day and have spent many hours on top of the ice wondering what it is that rings the dinner bell under and what causes it to shut off just as quickly.
Do any of you others who fish specifically for trout in trout waters have similar conditions.
This is not a big lake so you can see all the crews fishing at any given time. You can also see when the action is going on and it appears to be a lake wide event as if the dinner bell actually did ring. Whats your thoughts??? Anyone else run into these conditions?
All I know for sure is when I arrive and talk with others who had been there for a while, if one group has a fish or two, usually everyone does and they all came around the same time. If it has been dead, it is usually dead for all.
Gary
