Had a good season

[Jack978]

and hope everyone else had a good one also.  The ice wasn't perfect, and it took a while to get started but now it's pretty much in the can for another year.  I was able to introduce two friends to the sport and see them progress from afraid to step on the ice to becoming enthusiastic participants.   Although we pretty much stuck to a few places due to ice conditions every trip was a bit of an adventure and we never failed to get a flag. and always had fun.     

Now we are looking forward to open water fishing.  In fact, yesterday we went shopping and got my friend fixed up with a lite action rod and a few items for brook and stream fishing.  His wife wanted her on multi tool so she wouldn't have to use ours, so we got her one.  The only stipulation is he insisted her tool couldn't be fancier than his. The road to ruin is probably paved with fishing equipment and they are headed down it hand in hand.

Till next year tight lines and happy trails.

[hardwatergrampa]

enjoy your summer and open water

[Bottle_O_Moxie]

I just had my last outing on April 9th - had 18 inches of ice near Onawa.  But the gear is put away now, raking the lawn and putting away the snowblower. 
More ice coming next year - have a good summer. 

[Brian VT]

Not a good season for me. I never caught a fish.
I stay in one spot near my house where I have a shack on the ice. I assume people would tell me to move. But I don't want to. And the 1st weekend of ice out I caught 2 big rainbows with only 5 casts. And the next weekend I caught a 2 lb. largemouth on my 2nd cast.
I guess "my" fish go to FL for the winter.

[hardwatergrampa]

what water body you fishing

[Brian VT]

Upper Range

[DowneastPescador]

Similar results for me. Most of the coastal Maine ponds I fish for togue and salmon never really locked up, maybe by late march, and by that time I was over it.  The variable conditions had me sketched out, I checked a pond, very small less than 30 ft deep that had 20 yards of slush along the shore that I could spud through in one hit. 12+ inches thick. Then a few days later I see people on the bigger lakes risking their lives without knowing it. I packed it in and started open water prep. A few  good salmon over 2.5lbs and letting a buddy bring in the big one of the season (maybe 3.5 lbs) were the highlights of my season. Didn’t camp overnight once, didn’t do any derbies, fished one new place. Overall fun but lacking a lot of what I usually accomplish. Hope you all have a good spring/summer/fall.