Icing Up

Last night it was about 5 degrees here in upstate NY. Even though we got some rain on Wednesday, the cold temps iced everything back up and everything was solid today. Chris and I headed over to Brant lake around 8am to see if there was fishable ice. We found a nice solid layer of ice that was smooth as can be. However, it just wasn't thick enough to fish on(about 2 and a half inches).

I headed back home to fish my lake for the day with the bait that I had left from the past couple of days. I was disappointed that I got a late start and it was a slow first hour. I missed a couple fish and also had 2 fish break me off. I think I'll be changing all my leaders tonight to prevent that from happening again. I did manage to land a couple fish in the next hour or so.The first was a 19 inch pike and the second was about 23 inches.

Once noon hit, I decided to switch things up and put a couple tip ups deep for some perch. I used smaller minnows and I was surprised when I got a flag in some deeper water. I set the hook on the fish and it felt like a decent one. I knew it wasn't a pike but I didn't know exactly what it was. It ended up being a nice largemouth bass, the first one I've landed ice fishing.

The last couple hours of fishing was pretty slow with only a couple missed fish. Tomorrow I'll be changing up my strategy and positioning my lines on another area of the pond. I want a big pike tomorrow and I have a perfect place to try for one. We'll see how it goes. Other ponds will be fishable soon, for the cold temps are causing lots of ponds to ice solid.