My calendar opened up due to the corona virus (because a game dinner I was supposed to work was postponed) so I decided to extend my icefishing for the day.
I went to Highland Lake at the DAR State Forest in Goshen first, arriving around 10 AM, with the whole pond to myself.
It was mostly sunny, breezy and about 37 degrees. There was about 8 inches of mushy ice. (The surface was hard and slick when I got there, but turned soft as the temps creeped up to the low 40's over the next couple hours).
I set up my tip ups and dead stick and did some jigging while listening to "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" on my radio, but didn't have any action, so I picked up and left around noon.
Next, I drove to K of C (Hallockville) Pond in the Dubuque State Forest on the Plainfield/Hawley line, and arrived a little after 12:30 PM.
The weather was generally the same but a litle cooler when I arrived (about 37 when I got there, then the temps crept up to the low 40's later in the afternoon, before dropping back down to 37 when I left), and the ice was a bit thicker (about 12").
I set up my gear again, and read a little of my latest library book (Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe) while eating a light lunch (an apple, trail mix and a small bottle of homemade red wine).
Over the course of the day, I caught 9 pickerel (the biggest was 21" long, although another was close to it in size) on my tip ups and dead stick,but couldn't seem to find a perch on the jig to save my life.
Around 5:30 PM, I started picking up my stuff.
As I did so, and began retrieving a dead stick (baited with a shiner), I felt a good tug, and had a large pickerel on, but it broke the line right near the hook as it approached the hole.
I resumed gathering my gear, and my last piece was another dead stick (this one baited with a night crawler segment), which turned out to have a small (8") perch on it.
Thinking there might be more perdch lurking at the bottom in the same spot, I dropped a hali jig baited with a butter worm down the hole and had another strike.
But instead of another perch, the fish I reeled in proved to be a dink pickerel, making my eleventh fish of the day - - while his larger counterpart that I lost a few minutes earlier would have made twelve.
After releasing the dink, I headed back to my car, and drove home.
Tomorrow, I'm planning to fish Pelham Lake in Rowe, and bring along my chuck wagon. Anyone care to join me?
