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Author Topic: Still plenty of ice  (Read 786 times)

Offline bogtrotter

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Still plenty of ice
« on: Mar 24, 2018, 07:09 PM »
I had a few spare hours and some night crawlers this afternoon, so I decided to spend them at Bog Pond in Savoy State Forest.

The weather was gorgeous - - mid to upper 30's (although it was in the low 40's in the valley), blue skies and not too windy.

Snow cover on the Pond varied. It was light to nearly bare on the boat launch end but got progressively deeper (up to about 1 foot max) the further out and closer to the more distant shores.

I chopped three holes on the Pond - - the first 2 not too far from the "bog" section closest to the boat launch (where snow cover was virtually nonexistent) and the last back further and to the left.

The first hole required chopping through 15 inches of solid (albeit soft white) ice and the second through 17 inches of the same. The third, by contrast, was much easier to chop through because (after clearing the snow on top) it consisted of 4 inches of slush over 3 inches of water over maybe 8 or 9 inches of fairly soft ice.

I set up a tip up and two dead sticks but didn't have any hits/flags on any of them.

To pass the time, I did some cross-country skiing, chatted with an off duty DCR worker and finished my library book (Sword of the Lady by SM Stirling).

Fortunately, today was just a warm up for tomorrow - - when I plan to mount an expedition just down the road at North Pond with a few other guys.

Wish me luck!

Offline sebago2jigtima

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Re: Still plenty of ice
« Reply #1 on: Mar 24, 2018, 08:20 PM »
good luck !stay safe  :o

Offline lowaccord66

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Re: Still plenty of ice
« Reply #2 on: Mar 25, 2018, 06:55 AM »
Good luck Jim.

Offline bogtrotter

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Re: Still plenty of ice
« Reply #3 on: Mar 25, 2018, 07:52 PM »
I made it out onto North Pond today (arriving a little before 11 AM) and joined a group of five other guys (three of whom were current or former DCR employees), who had arrived a couple hours earlier and set up straight out from the boat launch.

Another beautiful day - - sunny, not too windy, temps in the mid to upper 30's.

Relatively little snow cover on the Pond (generally only from 1" to 4", except on some of the edges where it drifted knee deep), and there was about 16" of hard black ice undeneath.

There were two other groups out one the Pond.

One group (a father with three or four kids who spent a good part of the time chatting with my group) was about midway off to the left from the boat launch toward the Big Rock, while the other group (two guys that I only spoke to briefly) had set up a bit further past them.

Fishing was slow. Of the roughly dozen fishermen out there, I only saw three fish caught the entire day - - all by my party.

All three of the fish caught were browns . . . one each about 12" long caught by two of my compadres (which they graciously donated and I gratefully accepted), and a smaller one about 10" long that I was fortunate enough to land on a dead stick and released unharmed,

There were a few other strikes where the fish stripped the bait from tip up (without setting off a flag) or dead stick (when the owner wasn't nearby), but no other real action to speak of.

I strapped on the cross-country skiis and worked in a couple loops of the pond.

We also ate well. I cooked a Polish Pu-Pu Platter (kielbasa with horseradish, pierogis with sour cream and lazy golembki) while some of the others served venison burgers with pepper jack cheese (topped with kimchi in my case) and (later in the afternoon) venison tenderloin.

I also had some sriracha covered peanuts and an green apple chased down with a coffee porter (since it was a BYOB affair).

After the rest of my group left (a little before 5 PM), I heated up a pot of coffee and fished without any results until a little after 6 PM.

 



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