Lake Ninevah?

[Chris_JC]

Greetings from New Jersey!

I have been coming to Vermont to our extended family's house (Mount Holly) off and on fishing since I was about 8 (am 32 now).  As kids my twin brother and I would ride our bikes a mile down the road to fish Lake Ninevah from shore.  We also were fortunate enough to have an old 15" fiberglass boat from the 50's that our father/uncle would take us out to Ninevah, Echo Lake, and I think Starr Lake in Belmont.  Lots of good memories drowning worms for anything that would bite (smallies, largemouth, dink yellow perch, pickerel, some trout, panfish etc).

As adults my bro and I have come back several times with our canoe and explored around the region and caught some fish along the way.  My brother just got back into the states today after 9 months in Africa (Democratic Republic of Congo doing a state dept. job) and is itching to do some ice fishing as he will be in US until just after New Years.

With the cold weather down here it looks like we will be able to get on the ice soon in our favorite north Jersey spots.  However, there is a chance we may go up to Mount Holly for New Years.  My question is where is closest spot to get bait in this area?  We used to go Ralph and Joan's Bait and Tackle and I am pretty sure that is no more.  Also, we have never fished Ninevah through the ice but will this be a decent option?  I am assuming we could jig perch/pumpkinseed and set out some tip ups for pickerel/bass/etc.

Thanks in advance for any feedback.
Chris

[DyingBreed]

Tyson store used to sell bait. But w/all the new regs. I'm not sure. Grab some spikes and go to jiggin !!!! Good luck safe travles.

[tipuppppppppp]

there is a place in wallingford to get bait it is on the right if you are heading up rte 140 off from rte7 heading towards east wallingford.  we usually hit ninevah 1st rip as it freezes over first before everything else.  its a whole different world up there in the winter.  we have had good luck too caught nice smallies, big perch and usually lots of pickerel,  largies are in there to and have caught a few nice ones.  i use smaller bait and try to get the perch and smallies though, we have caught um over 20 inches before.

[finlessbrown]

i haven't been there in probably 15 years but i'm thinking of trying it again. is there access for an atv?

[Chris_JC]

Thanks for the feedback guys.  Looks like we will have good ice down here in NJ in the next few days so I have not decided yet if I'll come up to Mount Holly for New Year's.  Another option could be a long weekend in early March when the ice peters out down here and it's not so frigid.

There are definitely no pike in Ninevah, right?  Some people have sworn to me that there are both pickerel and pike but I had my doubts and thought just pickerel.

I have never gotten a smallie through the ice anywhere - although I remember catching a healthy smallie and a nice rainbow in consecutive casts with a rapala husky jerkright at sun up from the shore at Ninevah - are any numbers of trout taken through the ice there?  Not sure when the lake is stocked.

[ckashner]

its stocked with rainbows in the spring...

[icejumper]

Cory's RV  RT 140 Wallingford   has bait also Country Boys Bait whipplehollow off Old     RT4  West Rutland.    Last time I   Jigged Ninevah   caught  3  Bass,  2 Bullhead,  & 20 keeper Perch. Good  Luck .     

[finlessbrown]

made the trip to check it out today. 6 inches at the shore,5 from about 75 yards out and 3-4 past the island.

[gould]

I am going to try jigging there on Friday I hope I haven't ever fished it any pointers for perch?

[Chris_JC]

Well, with all the ice we had down in NJ last year I didn't make it up to VT until Memorial Day (when we got eaten alive by bugs - though did good on the bullhead).  Anyway, this winter is a different story and my friend and I made it out last weekend before the warmer weather/rain potentially ended our ice season.

 So, I am 95% coming up to Mt. Holly next Thursday for long weekend.  After fishing Ninevah throughout the years in open water it will be my first time fishing it through the ice and I am looking forward to it.  I will bring some moussies/spikes and swedish pimples for jigging but the closest place for shiners is still wallingford and West Rutland?

[DunmoreFAn]

I went by the place in  wallingford today itlooked pretty closed no signs no lights no nothing

[vtfisher49]

Bring spikes, hali spoons and some fiskas and you're in business

[DunmoreFAn]

made the trip to check it out today. 6 inches at the shore,5 from about 75 yards out and 3-4 past the island.

That's Whipple Hollow Bait and Tackle off old Rt 4 in West Rutland...

[icejumper]

Ya bait shop is closed in  Wallingford.

[Lavman]

I am fairly certain the Tyson store has spikes. You can get bait at the Reel Angler in Manchester on your way up through, they are right on main street, easy to find. They open at 0530 on the weekends and close around 1030 so get there early.

[Chris_JC]

I got to spend a nice long weekend in Mt. Holly.  After so many years of fishing Lake Ninevah from open water it was great to finally drill some holes on it.

On Friday AM I got up to Whipple Hollow to get bait.  By the time I got out to the lake it was past noon so I had limited expectations on the mid day bite.  I went to an area where I remembered the weeds to be in the spring and tried to set up tip ups just outside weedline.  In about 6- 10 feet of water I had flags right away but many were missed.  I did end up landing some smallish perch which often hit fast and either let go of bait or ripped off the hook and couple of decent pickerel.
Back in NJ I always jig with either gold or silver Swedish pimples but picked up some small painted jigs at the bait shop.  When I had a few minutes of quiet on the flags I jigged up quite a few small perch.  I then walked out to one of my tip up holes and tried jigging with a shiner and got the biggest pickerel of the day (close to 24") which put a heck of a fight on the jigging rod and some how didn't slash the 4lb test.  This was about 4PM when I expected fishing to pick up more for "magic hour" before sunset but it turned out to be last fish of the day.  Checking the solunar table there was a minor period of feeding around 2PM when the moon came up and this held true.

On Sunday, I got out around 7AM and set up in a similar area.  Flags were almost immediate but it was lots of medium sized perch aggressively hitting the shiners and about half not finding the hook.  Jigging was again fast and furious not much size to the perch.  I was starting to wonder where the pickerel were when three flags in a row at around 10:30 turned out to be average sized pickerel.  At that point the perch completely stopped biting as they must have been running scared and we called it an early day.  This was confirmed when cleaning one of the pickerel I found a 6” perch partially digested in its stomach (as Ralph from the old bait shop on 103 used to tell us – if you find the perch you can soon find the pickerel).

My friends and I then prepared a great meal of salad and pickerel/perch oven fried with panko bread crumbs.  As an appetizer we took the three pickerel heads/tales and made a soup with anything leftover in the house (sausage/beans/pasta/onions, etc).  I could not duplicate the recipe again but it was very good and I would never throw out a fish head again! Hopefully, I can make it up there again before ice out as the season down in NJ looks to be very short this year.

[whipplebuck]

Chris-jc
  thanks for stopping buy the shop glad you had a nice time hope to see you again this year..

[Chris_JC]

Hi everybody!  Ice in NJ was better than last year but not as good as 2 years ago.

I am coming up on Friday to Mt. Holly for a long weekend with my wife and some of her family and friends.  Since the house is a mile from Lake Ninevah this is most likely where I will do some fishing.  Has anyone been there recently?  I would imagine the edges may start to get sloppy with the warmer temps later this week but hopefully there is still plenty of ice to walk on.  It was my first time finally ice fishing it last Feb and had a good time with perch and pickerel near the weeds.  Maybe I will venture out to the rockier bottom and look for some smallmouth.

[Chris_JC]

I made it up to Mount Holly last weekend and got on Ninevah twice.  Got out Saturday afternoon until dusk.  There was a lot of snow on the ice which was at least 18"  Walking around was not super easy with the snow/slush/water on the ice.  Only 2 flags and 1 ok pickerel and a few tiny perch jigging.  Not the action I had last year and it was warm but a bit windy.

Monday morning (unfortunately not super early) I got out and conditions seemed great with cloudy skies and minimal wind but no flags in the few hours I was there. Anyway it sure beat working!  I'd love to get up again before ice out but not sure if it is in the cards though got an annual non res license so will definitely get up there a few times in summer/fall.