Massachusetts > Ice Fishing Massachusetts

Where Eagles Dare

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bogtrotter:
Today, Mogli, his girlfriend and I met up at Dukes Pond in Windsor around 10:30 AM.

It was an absolutely gorgeous day - - sunny, blue skies, nearly windless and surprisingly warm - - it hit 45 degrees at one point, although (oddly) our holes still iced over.

Ice conditions were surprisingly good, too - - 3" of snow on top of 2" of ice over 3" or 4" of slush above another foot of ice.

There even was a bald eagle flying around.

But there weren't nearly as many fishermen out there as I would ahve expected on such a nice day.

Proving the adage that the weather can be "too nice," though, the fishing was awfully slow.

We had three flags, but no fish.  And several hours of persistent jigging was not much more productive.

We each landed two or three sunfish, and Mogli reeled in a 12" or 13" rainbow, but that was about it.

From what we could see, our experience was representative of most of the others we saw out there.

To pass the time, I cooked a multi-course meal: German cucumber salad, pork chops fried in homemade wine and sri racha sauce, a side of kim chi, a sauce pan of Aloo Mattar (an Indian curry dish with peas and potatoes), a selection of Irish beers (Smithwick's Red Ale, Guiness stout and Harp lager), some fresh fruit, a pot of coffee and Entenmenn's chocolate donuts for dessert.

Meanwhile, Mogli's girlfriend built a deluxe snow man, complete with a fishing rod and a couple sun fish that we found on the ice, which afforded a good prop for photos.

I left around 6 PM.

On the way out, I talked to two fishermen who seemed to have had as good a day as anyone out there.  One of them (from Cape Cod) showed me the photo of the large mouth bass that he caught earlier in the afternoon, while his buddy displayed one of a brown that he landed a little before that.

Phishing.Hacker:
Oh man I saw the same bird today myself down the road. Fishing was much better this week and the snow/ice firmed up too. We used up over 2 dozen shiners, caught a bunch of pickerel and a couple perch. Jig bite was the same there again lackluster.

scooper47:
I googled Dukes Pond in Windsor, but all I got was Windsor Pond. Is that the one you are talking about?

bogtrotter:

--- Quote from: scooper47 on Mar 13, 2023, 08:39 AM ---I googled Dukes Pond in Windsor, but all I got was Windsor Pond. Is that the one you are talking about?

--- End quote ---

Yes.  There is a Windsor Pond (a/k/a Dukes Pond) in Windsor and a Windsor Lake (a/k/a Fish Pond) in North Adams.

The similarity of names is frequently a source of confusion, so the locals generally refer to the two by their "unofficial" names.

The official names are particularly idiotic because (a) Windsor "Pond" is bigger than Windsor "Lake" and (b) Windsor Lake is not even in the Town of Windsor.

Sam Gee:
Throwing a fish to an eagle and him coming down to get is a beautiful sight.

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