2-17 Bait BLITZ!

[Blaine]

Andrew and I put a hurting on them today   I had a 2 day window between the Hartford show and the Sprinfield show and with the warm temps there was no way to keep me from fishing today. We tried a new spot today, we had a pretty good feeling about it. Got to make a mental note to follow hunches more often...

We peppered the area with close to 100 holes and set out with the jigging rods. We both had sabiki rigs tipped with spikes. It took a while to find the pondies. We had countless doubles and tripples of small sunnies, perch and crappie then... Finally! We found them along a weed edge in about 8 feet of water. They must have been pretty thick because we stopped seeing any of the gills and perch. Chumming kept them close and we never moved more than 20 feet after that. We jigged for about 6 hours and caught 200 pondies. For the most part, they were huge, some were close to 12" 

I also had a chance to try out my Frabill bait pen. We cut a hole just big enough with the saw through 13" of ice. We would collect a dozen or so baits at a time in a bucket and then transfer them into the pen. They were loving life in the pen. From there we hauled them back to the truck in a 100 Qt cooler. Pretty slick system, it won't be the last time I use it!

[Trooper Bri]

Daaaaaaaaaamn, that's a hell of a day guys! 

[Velcro]

What a happy looking bunch of baitfish you got in there, hehe.

[95yj16]

wow thats one hell of a day! congrats on the catch

[eyesfishing]

Now that's a friggin' shiner!

So what's a pondie anyway, a rudd?

[northwestslayer]

Thats a good time. You going to use some of em tomorrow? If so, can't wait to see the pics..

[eyesfishing]

Man do I love catching rudd. They can be tricky to catch. Just like carp. They're from the carp family anyway. I use 4 pound mono in the summer with a really tiny hook and very sensitive float. I put either a corn kernel on the hook or a tiny hot dog bun ball.

[spanky1]

AWESOME

I could have used a couple of them for tomorrow!

[Blaine]

Now that's a friggin' shiner!

So what's a pondie anyway, a rudd?

I haven't heard them referred to as a rudd but the state of CT lists them as Golden Shiners AKA Pike Candy . They are fairly common but harder to find over 6 inches

[Blaine]

AWESOME

I could have used a couple of them for tomorrow!

If you need any just say the word... Andrew has plenty as well.

[miket.]

that is totally awesome blaine ! i love the trap. nice outing you guys had.

[jackctf]

Man oh Man could I use some of that bait. No pike?  With all that bait around there most have been some gators around. 

[KAJ]

So Blaine,
You guys are selling them at the shop, correct?

[EdKras]

I might have to try a pike trip before the season ends

[deebsey]

Thats a mess of pike bait the hogs better watch out....

[Blaine]

So Blaine,
You guys are selling them at the shop, correct?

CT Outfitters gas pondies for sale 

[Blaine]

Man oh Man could I use some of that bait. No pike?  With all that bait around there most have been some gators around. 

Unfortunately, no... 10 tip ups out, not a flag. The thing is, I couldn't have cared less 

[andrew]

What a blast, definitly a good day for the "Pondie", looking forward to doing it again....crazy to think that after the warm weather we had the last week or so we still had 13 inches of ice    Hopefully we can take a few for a swim before ice out 

[Trooper Bri]

Not sure what a gas pondie is  , but they wouldn't have been much use today anyway. Medium shiners triggered almost all the flags today. Freakin' rotten lake. I'm learning.