Tied up with other commitments until about 1 PM today, my game plan was to then do some cross-coungtry skiing.
Figuring my best bet was to head toward one of the hill towns, I chose to drive to Savoy and "kill two birds with one stone" - - ie, both ice fish (since I had some left over shiners from yesterday) and ski on Burnett's Pond.
Arriving around 2 PM, I walked down to the Pond, and set up my gear by around 2:30 PM.
The weather was overrcast and windy, with temps in the upper 20's.
There was about 3 or 4 inches of sticky snow on top of an inch of slush over 9 inches of poor quality ice.
The trees along the shore were all coated with snow - - and looked like giant feathery white ferns.
Around 2:45 PM, I was joined by Charlie N and his son Cal, who set up Over toward the back of the pond and jigged for perch.
Shortly after they arrived, I walked back to my car, brought down my skiis and did a few turns around the Pond - - although the skiing was just so-so due to the sticky snow.
Over all, the fishing was slow - - particularly8 for Burnett's Pond.one
I caught an 18" pickerel kon a deadstgick and a 16" one on a tip up and landed an 8" perch while jigging.
I also had a few flags where the fish would take the bait about a foot and the just drop it - - and that was about it.
At first, Charlie and Cal didn't do much better, but eventually they seemed to find a rhythm, and toward the end they were tying into the perch with some degree of regularity.
Leaving the last of my shiners with Charlie and Cal, I started picking up my gear around 4 PM, was off the Pond fifteen minutes later, and was back to my car and driving home by 4:30 PM.