My son, Ben, holds up the catch of the day as he jigged up this beautiful largemouth bass through the ice today. It was a banner day as we jigged up 8 largemouths along with numerous perch, sunfish and crappie. They were all caught on small gold Kastmasters tipped with either a plastic mealworm or a Gulp maggot.
By the way- over 12 inches of ice, the most we've seen in decades!
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My next stop on my winter seminar trail is the Springfield Sportsmens show at the Big E in Springfield, MA. I will be there on Saturday, Feb. 21. This show is billed as the biggest pure outdoor show in the northeast. There are a lot of fishing related booths and exhibits for freshwater and saltwater fishing enthusiasts. But, there are also a lot of other outdoor features like hunting, camping, taxidermists, kayaks, boats and more. It's a very well attended and popular outdoor show that has been running for a long time.
I will be doing my "Situational Striper Fishing" seminar which is all new for 2026. It will feature various situations striper fishermen encounter and how you fish those situations for best results. The seminar is mostly about shore fishing but I do also have segments on kayak fishing for stripers. I did this seminar a couple of weeks ago and it was very well received. As of this writing, I do not have the seminar times yet. Check the website for the seminar schedule.
For more information, check out the website HERE
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| I jigged up this nice crappie today in some bluebird weather. This fish hit a small gold Kastmaster tipped with a Berkley Gulp Maggot. |
Today I got out on the ice with my son Ben. I was amazed that there was almost 10 inches of ice in the pond we fished. For the most part, we were jigging small Kastmasters tipped with Berkley Gulp maggots. That seemed to do the trick but the biggest fish caught today actually hit a Kastmaster with a plastic maggot.
My son, Jon, hit a first yesterday as he jigged up a pike, the first we ever caught while jigging. It was a small one, about 3 to 4 lbs. A day earlier he got a bigger one on a tilt. He's been scouting around in a number of places and doing quite well jigging after his work day is done.
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| Yellow perch have been on a tear this winter. This one was caught today. |
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| The weather was cold, but it was hot fishing today while jigging. I had a chance to try out some Varivas nylon line today, and it worked out well as you can see from the photo! |
I received several samples of Varivas lines to try ice jigging. I spooled up one of my outfits with 6 lb. test Super Trout Advance line, a thin monofilament line. On the end of the line I tied on about a three foot shock leader. I used Varivas 10 lb. test Extreme Shock leader. Like their braided lines, these lines were super thin for their pound test, but provided a great feel for those "soft" hits you get while jigging. I was jigging a small gold Kastmaster with a Berkley Gulp maggot on the hook. I was trying out the maggots for the first time.
I got a chance to put the lines to the test as the action was very good. I landed about fifteen fish with a lot of variety- largemouth bass, crappie and yellow perch. Some of the bass were decent size. So, the two things I was trying out today- the Varivas line and the Gulp maggots worked great.
By the way there was about 8 inches of ice where I was fishing in nearby MA although about two to three inches of it was that crappy, snowy ice. Still, there was at least 5 inches of hard, solid ice. There was also a good amount of snow on the ice as you would expect.
If you are interested in Varivas lines, visit the website at https://www.varivas.fishing
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| The main line on the reel was Varivas Super Trout Advance in 6 lb. test. My shock leader was 10 lb. test Extreme Shock Leader. |
As many of you know, I did a review on my St. Croix Avid surf rod a while back on this blog. That rod was great and served me well. One day last fall I was using it along some rocky dropoffs when I hooked a decent size striper. I was on a high perch and when I got the fish rear the rocks, I did something really stupid. I attempted to lift the fish up, and when I did, I heard a "snap". My favorite surf rod was now in two pieces. I knew the rod had the best warranty in the rod business-no questions asked if it breaks, one of the great advantages of St. Croix rods. I filled out all the paperwork and sent the required $60 payment for replacement under warranty.
Unfortunately, the replacement rod was not in stock, and I would have to wait till December for the rod to come in. In the meantime, I planned use an old Mojo surf rod I had. It was just way subpar compared to the newer Avid rod. With two months left to the season, I decided to check out the St. Croix website and see what else was available. That's when I noticed they had the 10 foot Surf Legend in stock. So, I went ahead and purchased it.
I bought a 10 foot medium power, moderate fast action rod, #GSS100MMF2. The website describes this rod as "an elite surfcasting performer" and I have to agree 100% with that evaluation. This rod has a legendary feel to it. It's a bit stiffer than the Avid, and it has a real solid feel to it. But, it's still lightweight. It has a lot of power on the cast and is super solid when fighting a good size fish. The website says it can handle 1 to 4 oz. plugs and I agree with that assessment.
Everything about this rod is elite- a beautiful blue color, titanium guides and a unique a handle of neoprene overlay that looks and feels cool. In addition, the Legend carries an incredible 15 year warranty. Yes, it's pricy, but not any more expensive than some of the top brands of surf rods these days.
So, I finished off my season with my St. Croix Legend, fished in some rugged terrain with big water and came away with a good number of large fish. I have to say the rod performed flawlessly.
I think I have found my ultimate surf rod.
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| This is my new St. Croix Legend surf rod that I used at the end of the fall. It was a elite performer and was flawless on the cast and on the fight. |
I will be doing my all new 2026 striper fishing seminar titled Situational Striper Fishing. From the high surf of the oceanfront to the backwaters of bays and ponds, we’ll explore a number of situations (how-to approaches) that striper fishermen encounter as they cast for these gamesters. Such topics as how to fish skinny water (from shore and kayak), how to tackle rocky shorelines, how to take a finesse approach, big bait tactics, storm tactics, and many more situations will be covered to help anglers to catch more fish and bigger fish. The seminar mostly focuses on shore fishing, but has segments for boaters and kayakers.
The New England Fishing Expo runs for three days from Jan. 30 to Feb.1. It is held at the Best Western Royal Plaza Trade Center in Marlboro, MA (181 Boston Post Rd.) right off Rt. 495.
Hope to see many of my followers at the show!
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| I landed this nice size largemouth bass today while jigging. |
Today I got out with my two youngest sons, Ben and Jon. Jon is an avid ice fisherman and fishes extensively in the three state area of RI, MA and NH. He's already been steadily hitting the ice for the last couple of weeks, mostly in NH. Ben is on "maturnity" leave and has some time on his hands. He also lives on lakeside property along a very productive shoreline so that makes things easy.
We mostly jig when we ice fish and that usually leads to a lot of fish and a lot of variety. Today we landed perch, pickerel, largemouth bass and yellow perch in good numbers. Ben and I were jigging small, 1/12 oz. Kastmasters tipped with fake, plastic meal worms. Jon, who landed the most fish, was using a 1/12 oz. grub jig. We cut a lot of holes looking for fish using my power auger, a real valuable tool when ice jigging. It's a trial and error game and we hit the jackpot after about a half hour of fishing.
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| Jon landed this good size pickerel on a grub jig. |
