Massachusetts > Ice Fishing Massachusetts

Swan Song for the Season

(1/3) > >>

bogtrotter:
Mogli and his girlfriend Felicia and I had plans to fish North Pond today.

We met up at 10 AM as planned.

As expected, there was a "gap" of about 4 feet or so between the beach and the ice - - which had been smaller yesterday when I scouted it, but had clearly expanded due to last night's thunderstorm.

The gap was still easy to cross with hip boots (me) or a 10 foot plank (Mogli), but the water near the beach was flowing and slowly eating away the edges, so we worried about our "line of retreat" getting cut off later in the day.

Discretion being the better part of valor, we back tracked to Burnett's Pond and hiked down the hill, where the Pond was still mostly locked up with 8" to 11" of generally decent quality ice in most spots.

There, we settled down to a pleasant, if not terribly exciting, day of ice fishing.

Rather oddly, although there were plenty of pre-drilled holes in an assortment of sizes (6", 10" and even 12"), no one else joined us the entire day.

The day was mostly overcast (with spells where the sun would poke through), with temps starting in the mid and dropping to the low 40's, and the wind picked up over the course of the day.

We each caught a half dozen or so pickerel (biggest 22"), and I landed a token perch while jigging.

And, while some might say there is more to ice fishing than eating on the ice, clearly a good meal enhances the experience - - and we certainly had one.

It was a potluck affair.  Beer, wine, tomato and lentil soup, pork chops grilled in red wine and sri racha sauce, kim chi, King Hawaiian rolls, pao bhaji (an Indian curry dish), nectarines (to cleanse the palate), hot tea (with lime juice and sugar), and Entemman's donuts.

Rain clouds started drifting in toward late afternoon, so we packed up around 4 PM, and trudged back up the hill to our cars for the ridge to our respective homes.

Short of a miraculous deep freeze in the near future, I am afraid today's trip is going to be my last time out ice fishing this season, and will now have to turn my sights toward open water fishing. 

While I'm disappointed that I could not "push it" into April (which is my goal every year), I am gratified that I was at least able to make it to the first day of spring, and could not have asked for better company.

BASSQUATCH:
Unfortunately we spent an hour or so looking for a decent edge at north pond but it turned out to not be in our favor.

Saw just how open the ramp was so we walked to the far end and found a better spot. Only a foot of open water.  I had my 8' plank . Unfortunately the crack let go about 12-15 feet off shore on my buddy. He was able to balance on the approximate 12'x15' slab to get onto the plank and off without going for a swim. 
I never even made it out there. There was 10-12 inches of ice at that end of the pond too. Ice season is over for this guy.  Allot of driving and effort for one last hoorah.  There's always next year though👍
We must have just missed you. We left the parking area around 9:30 . It rained the entire time we were there. Just added to the suck lol.

Mogli21:
Was an awesome day and couldn’t be happier to end the season any other way.  Glad we got together, I definitely have to up my food on the ice game and look forward to many more outings next ice season.  Call me crazy but with a cold snap predicted for later this week I may try to venture one more time ::)

Mogli21:





The first is Bogtrotters the second is mine, thought I took a few more pictures.  I will see if Felicia has any to post later

bogtrotter:

--- Quote from: Mogli21 on Mar 21, 2022, 04:31 AM --- Call me crazy but with a cold snap predicted for later this week I may try to venture one more time ::)

--- End quote ---

If you do go, "be careful out there."

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page