I fished Bog Pond in Savoy today, from around 9:30 AM to 5 PM.
Although it was snowing lightly earlier in the morning, by the time I drove up the mountain it had begun misting instead, and continued to do so for most of the day, finally turning to fog around 4 PM, which then blew off as the wind picked up and the sky finally cleared a bit by 5 PM.
When I arrived at the Pond, it was 27 degrees, but the thermometer rose to 30 degrees by noon, and was up to 37 degrees when I left.
No one was at the Pond when I got there, and there was no sign (e.g,, footprints or previously cut holes) that anyone other than snowmobilers had been on it in quite some time.
On the Pond itself, there was a couple inches of loose snow on top of a couple more of compacted snow, which in turn covered 5" or 6" of ice over a 3" layer of water on top of an additional 6" or 7" of ice.
So it took till close to 11 AM for me to chop my five holes and set up my gear. (The main problem wasn't so much chopping through the ice as scooping out the slush afterward).
Fishing was unusually slow, so I took a ride to check out North and Burnett's Pond, where conditions seemed about the same - - i.e., no one out on either pond and no sigh anyone had been for quite some time - - before returning aroun 11:30 AM.
I caught a small (9") pickerel on a tip up around 12 noon, and then skiied a couple loops around the pond.
Around 1:30 PM, I caught another small (10") pickerel, this time on a dead stick.
Around 2 PM, I was joined by a gent (Lowell) from Hadley and his family, who set up "downstream" (i.e., closer to the dam) from me.
I headed back to my car and had lunch - - some home-made wine, home-made trail mix, an apple and home-made (by a friend) jerky - - and read a chapter of my book, before checking on my gear again.
I repeated the process (read a chapter in my car, then go check on my gear on the ice) a few more times, without any results.
The family from Hadley left around 4 PM, and I started jigging some of their holes.
After about 15 minutes or so, I caught my one and only perch (about 8") on a jig.
I stuck around till about 5 PM, and then picked up my equipment and headed home.
