I returned to Fish Pond (a/k/a Windsor Lake) in North Adams today, and fished it pretty hard from 10:45 AM to 6:15 PM.
The weather was overcast most of the day, with temps in the mid to upper 30's, but the sky cleared up and the wind picked up later in the afternoon.
There was 12 inches of "layered" ice - - about 3 inches of ice, then 2 of slush/water, and then another 7 of ice.
With a couple of exceptions, fishing was slow. Three or four of the guys I spoke to indicated they hadn't caught a fish (or even had a flag) all day.
There were a couple of exceptions.
One gent was jigging up big pond shiners (and also caught a decent bass on a tip up) straight out from the Pavilion.
Another group of anglers by the camp beach were hammering everything from bass to perch to crappie to rainbows.
I set up three tip ups along the shore half way between the Town Beach and the Camp Beach, a dead stick not far from the Pavilion and did some jigging in the Boat Ramp Cove (not far from Mogli21, who I had the pleasure of meeting for the first time).
Despite hustling back and forth to check my tip ups and my dead stick in between jigging, I didn't have any action at all for the first few hours.
Around 1 PM, I started cooking lunch - - diced chicken breast sauteed in olive oil and wine with vegetables and Steve & Ed's buffalo wing sauce, served over basmati rice with butter chicken sauce, and washed down with a Smithwick's Red Ale, followed by a clementine, and then a pot of coffee with cream and sugar and a granola bar (sadly, there were no apppropriate desserts on hand when I packed last night).
Finally, around 1:30 PM, I caught a 13" rainbow on my dead stick - - and an hour or so later caught a slightly larger one out of the same hole.
Around 3 PM, most of the group by the Camp Beach left - - and I started jigging some of their abandoned holes. While that was going on, i landed a 16" pickerel on one of my tip ups.
A little while later, the last of the group left and I moved my tip ups into some of their holes. I also managed to jig up the first of two good sized (8") sunfish out of one of them.
Around 3:30 PM, Charlie N (whom I know from Bog Pond) and his son Cal joined me by the Camp Beach for a couple hours.
Together, they did pretty well - - catching a total of about a dozen fish (mostly crappie), mainly jigging.
I was able to land one more sunfish, and lost a couple more, while jigging.
I also had one more flag, but whatever it was took the shiner before I reached my tip up.
Finally, around 6 PM, I started picking up my gear, and had a pleasant surprise when I gathered my dead stick and found another rainbow on it.
In retrospect, it wasn't too bad a haul - - one pickerel, two sunfish, and three rainbows.
But, compared to some days, it seemed I had to work extra hard for every fish I caught, and I just couldn't seem to replicate the success of some of the others fishing before me, and later next to me, by the Camp Beach.
