Only Show in Town

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!

Photo of the Day....Frozen Stuff is Where it's Happening!

 

It ain't a striper, but it's one hell of a nice bass! Great catch!

On the Hard Stuff

 It's on to ice fishing.  For the first time in a couple of years, I fished the ice this morning with my son Jon.  We jigged one of our favorite ponds and came away with quite a mix of fish.  We landed largemouth bass, crappie and bluegills.  They were hitting small Kastmasters tipped with a meal worm on the small treble.  This is a deadly combo for jigging, something we used a lot of in past years.

The ice was thicker than I expected on the small pond that we fished.  It was about 5 inches of hard, clear ice.  My son also fished a larger lake yesterday and that also had about 5 inches of hard ice.

If you are into ice fishing, now is the time to get out and fish.  No telling how long this will last.