 |
| Jon Pickering holds a nice bass that he caught on a shiner today. |
We are still all iced over in RI, and holdover striper fishing is non-existent in this state (as far as I know). My carp fishing in open water has also taken a dive this winter. So, the only show in town is ice fishing in freshwater.
I'm reconnecting with ice fishing. Many years ago when we had ice from late December to early March, I would jig just about every afternoon after work and before supper. The kids and I used to catch a lot of fish back then in many of the local ponds. I'm back to fishing those ponds in between my skiing. And, the action lately has been real good. For instance, I went out this morning for about an hour and a half and went back to my holes for another hour this afternoon. Using a small gold Kastmaster with a meal worm on the hook, I jigged up a combination of bluegills, sunfish,
 |
| I jigged up this largemouth using a Kastmaster tipped with a meal worm. |
largemouths and crappie. In all, I must have gotten at least 50 fish as they were actively feeding today. While I was doing that, my son Jon was fishing with shiners and tilts in another pond. He caught a combination of yellow perch, pickerel and largemouth bass.
At this point, the ice is not thick. There was about 4 solid inches where I fished today, and Jon reported a similar amount where he was. With warm weather and a lot of rain in the next 24 hours, that ice will become very iffy in the coming days. I sense we might be seeing the beginning of the end of ice fishing in 2021. But, it was fun while it lasted!
