Yesterday, my younger son and I fished Bog Pond in Savoy for a little while in the late morning.
The weather was awful - - 42 degrees and rainy - - and there was 2 to 3 inches of watery slush on top of about 5 inches of poor quality ice.
As a result, most of the holes we drilled/chopped had the toilet bowl effect - - with water from on top of the ice swirling down into the hole.
Without any flags on the tip ups or strikes on the jig, and absolutely miserable conditions, we picked up and called it a day after an hour.
Early this afternoon, I t fished solo at the trout pond just a couple miles down the road from where we went yesterday.
It was considerably colder (26 degrees) and starting to snow just as I arrived. There was about 5 or 6 inches of ice, and, thankfully, no slush on top.
After about 15 or 20 minutes, I landed a 12" brookie on a dead stick.
Over the next hour or so, I had three flags on tip ups, but they all got away - - and didn't have any luck jigging.
Toward the end, I caught another, smaller (10") brookie on the same dead stick just as I was picking up.
By this time, the snow had picked up to white out conditions.
As I drove home, I skidded off the road and got stuck near the entrance to the Savoy State Forest Campgrounds.
Fortunately, there was a pay phone there (probably the last one in North America - - most likely due to the poor cell phone reception in the area) and I was able to call AAA for a tow.
Then, I had another stroke of even greater luck
A passing motorist was kind enough to stop and pull my car back onto the road (with something called "mule tape"), so I cancelled the tow truck.
