Although my younger son and I have made a few ice fishing forays on four different local ponds over the past month or so, the ice has been poor, the places where we could go on the ponds have been limited, the time that we felt comfortable spending under precarious conditions has been short and our overall catch (a few pickerel and perch) has been lackluster.
So, for all practical intents and purposes, today was the "Inaugural" trip of the season.
We met up on Burnett's Pond in Savoy with Mowgli, his girlfriend and my son's buddy.
(I was the first to arrive - - around 9:30 AM - - and the last to leave - - about 2:30 PM).
There was about 4" toward the "front" of the pond and about 3" toward the back (where the fishing is generally better) - - which might not sound great, but it was good solid black ice - - with a light dusting of snow on most spots, but some large clear patches in others.
The weather was overcast, with temps in the mid to upper 20's, and the wind was generally light but gradually picked up as the day went on.
The fishing was decent, albeit not great (hence the title of this post).
Overall, I'd say we caught about 30 (mostly good-sized 9" to 10") perch and 12 assorted pickerel (the smallest just 6" long and the biggest 18") on a mix of tip ups, jigging and dead sticks.
Somewhat surprisingly, there were only two other guys who came out onto the pond to join us.
I spoke to one of them (up from Westfield) who had just been on the local trout pond and done quite well for trout. However, he cautioned, the ice was quite sketchy (1" to 2" in most spots) and the pond was crowded (with about a dozen fishermen).
Despite having had a big breakfast at the Daily Grind in Adams earlier in the morning, I brought my "chuck wagon" along and cooked a light lunch - - with hot coffee, aloo mutter (an Indian dish with peas and potatoes), home-made trail mix, an apple, and a small bottle of home made red wine.
All in all, a good day.
