I wrote this earlier this season so that is why it might sound a little funny. What are your impressions on my thoughts about fishing this pond? Disregard all of the bait use rules, this was the first time out so i wasn't used to it.
I went to go ice fishing this weekend up in colchester, vermont which is about 45 miles from me because it is one of the few open ponds now. I was all excited because I got one of those new portable shanties for christmas. Got to the bait shop and they were charging 1.00$ per minnow which wasn't a suprise. Had to tell them where we were fishing which they recorded on a reciept which I needed to sign before leaving the bait shop. I was instructed to keep the reciept and slip on me because there would be a steep fine if I didn't have it when a game warden checked me. The bait was to be used up within 48 hours but I could not leave the pond with it (like i am going to sleep over...). I used to keep the bait alive and use it on sunday in another pond). When we go to colchester pond "recreation area" parking lot at the end of a dirt road (which was DEAD END), it was full (12 cars) so we parked the truck on the side of the dirt road which left plenty of room for any vehicle to pass. After fishing for the day we return and have a slip on the windshield "You are parked in a tow-away zone! Your license plate has been recorded and if you park here again your car will be towed". UHH what...a recreation area with room for 12 cars? and you can't park on the side of the road why??? this is a dead end dirt road, not US route 2 (which people do park on the side of). My dad was so pissed and made the comment that he is never going back to that pond ever again...and it all made sense...that is what the crunchy granola hippies of that community want!! They don't want any more than 12 cars there at a time using the trails or the lake because they want it for themselves. So let me ask you this, we drive up there, if we buy 40$ worth of minnows next time and told them we were using them on colchester pond and get there and the parking lot is full and change our mind and decide to go to shelburne pond can we do it?? NOPE, thats illegal! Which gets me back to the thought...what is this world coming to.
The state talks about how the young population isn't hunting or fishing...well do ya wonder why?? it is a pain in the ass to fish now and does cost A LOT of money. That doesn't count the gear...14 bucks a tip-up?
oh yea, VT raised the combo again to 32 bucks, 17 each for turkey,ML, and archery. Its a small price to pay for the enjoyment we get out of it but I guess its gonna just keep going up 2-3$ every year.
