i always thought ice fishing was an appropriate activity (punishment) for mis-behaving children and prisoners... go sit out on a bucket for hours on end jiggling a stick. I tried it last winter and got “hooked.” Have been strictly a fly fisherman for about 50 years, and having access to some nice year long trout streams (prior to the regulation changes), spent the winters chasing trout in the flow. Now live in Camden - Lower Fly Zone on the Salmon River is exactly 18 miles from the driveway, now being retired, I was a regular to say the least.
Also spent way too much time being trout centric only to find out in the past few years that other critters, bass and panfish, are a riot on the fly. Well to make a short story far longer than need be... have been a catch and release dude - but perch and walleye find their way to the dinner table.
Oneida Lake has been iffy to say the least this year. I have been spending time dog sitting in the Inlet area and took the ice fishing stuff along just in case - ice has held up well. Have been fishing for Lakers and found them to be temperamental like any other fish. Weds. spent 6 hours drilling multiple holes only to mark a few fish who showed little interest. Thurs. only action was a 6” LT over areas I did well just a week back. Decided to try a different body of water, Limekiln, hearing it held some nice Splake.
Did discover that the campground access road isn’t plowed in the winter. Unloaded the gear and decided to take a walk not realizing it was close to a mile to an area easily accessible to the lake. Walk in was ok since numerous snow machines had packed the trail and it was mostly down hill. Found the walk back out a bit taxing since it was... mostly up hill... this is why I don’t think it gets much pressure in the winter.
First hole drilled, the screen displayed spaghetti ah fish! Unfortunately, they were all 4” perch. Tried out deeper and marked even more fish - 3” perch. Did drill a last hole on a point close to shore and was surprised that the tiny perch ended up being smelt - a first time catch. Did keep a couple for bait.
Yesterday, cut up the smelt with a rather dull knife. Went back to the LT area and caught one of legal size on the first drop (18” on this lake). For about an hour and a half - could do no wrong. Would drop the jig and have fish attack it moving up 15’ from the bottom and smack it on the drop. Caught four on four consecutive drops. Had fun actually trying to keep it away from them similar to playing with the family cat. When I finally stopped and let them catch it - hooked for sure. Unfortunately they turned off and I caught nothing for the last 3 hours prior to dark. I know there are many lakes in the area that hold much bigger fish - this lake is an easy walk - released all LT. Another fella was close by and set out the legal number of tip ups. He had one fish - another dink - while setting up and nil for the rest of the day
