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Author:
PECo
Date:
Feb 03, 2011
Subject:
Black Pond 02/03
Message:
This morning, I told asianfisher (aka Billy) that I needed to drag my butt out of the house, today. Quite frankly, I was a little bit afraid of the cold. He suggested Black Pond, so I drove over to his place and off we went. The air temperature was in the 20s, but it was mostly sunny. Although the forecast was for wind in the low teens, it never blew more than seven or eight miles per hour. All in all, it was a beautiful day. The driveway down to the boat launch from the top of the hill wasn't plowed. There were a couple of deep ruts in the snow from vehicles, but they were covered by the recent snow and freezing rain. Luckily, there was a man on a tractor at the top of the driveway who cleared enough of the snow and ice for several cars to park up there. Billy and I loaded up with our gear and headed down the driveway. We could see one fisherman already jigging on the ice off of the launch: [img:dfa2742e63]http://img818.imageshack.us/img818/4469/blackpond001cropped.jpg[/img:dfa2742e63] As we approached the parking area at the bottom of the driveway, we passed a snowed in SUV. :shock: We got onto the ice just before 12:00 pm and stopped to talk with the other fisherman. Hey, Doug! Doug was so enthusiastic about jigging for trout in the area near the launch that we scrapped our plan to slog across the pond and set up parallel to the shore next to him. There was 10 inches of ice under crusty, frozen slush of varying depths, from three to eight inches. We could walk on the crust, but fell through it every once in a while. The snow under the ice was saturated with water in the vicinity of any holes, but we stayed pretty dry. Drilling holes with an eight inch hand auger is hard work: [img:dfa2742e63]http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/4990/blackpond009cropped.jpg[/img:dfa2742e63] [img:dfa2742e63]http://img577.imageshack.us/img577/408/blackpond008cropped.jpg[/img:dfa2742e63] But when your tip-ups are finally all set and baited, it's a beautiful thing: [img:dfa2742e63]http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/771/blackpond017cropped.jpg[/img:dfa2742e63] At 12:30 pm, Doug yelled that he had a fish on and pulled up a pretty rainbow trout: [img:dfa2742e63]http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/8675/blackpond020cropped.jpg[/img:dfa2742e63] He was jigging a fluorescent micro jig baited with a waxworm, with a weight on the line about six inches above the jig. He jigged it within 12 inches of the bottom in about eight feet of water. Doug had to take off soon after he landed the trout, but definitely had a spring in his step after avoiding the skunk. At about 1:00 pm, Billy spotted a flag on my farthest tip-up and I ran over to it. I set the hook with a firm tug and reeled in a 15 inch chain pickerel, which was my first ever tip-up fish. Hopefully, Billy got a decent cellphone photo of it. We kept jigging, but with no action. Just before 1:30 pm, I decided to try the hole from which Doug had pulled the rainbow and got one of my own: [img:dfa2742e63]http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/5575/blackpond027cropped.jpg[/img:dfa2742e63] Like Doug, I was jigging a fluorescent micro jig baited with a waxworm within 12 inches of the bottom, but I didn't have any weight on the line. The fish was only 10 inches long, so I released it. But when I realized that trout season is almost over, I had a bad case of releaser's remorse. Luckily, I landed an 11 incher just a little while later. Pan fried in brown butter, with just a little bit of sea salt, it was dee-licious! :D [img:dfa2742e63]http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/7352/20110203200401981croppe.jpg[/img:dfa2742e63] Billy's Uncle Johnny showed up at about 4:15 pm. Right after he got onto the ice, I jigged up a couple of sunnies. And shortly after that, Billy got off the skunk and landed a nice little rainbow trout of his own. I had to leave the ice before 5:00 pm, so I packed up my tip-ups and climbed up to my car. I'm not going to be able to fish for the next few days, so today's action really hit the spot. Like Billy says, you gotta drag your butt out onto the ice and just fish it.
Author:
SeaDog1
Date:
Feb 04, 2011
Message:
Hi Phil! Looks like you guys had a good day out. Ha-Ha! -> Releasers Remores :!: That's a good one since all trout in Ct. is pretty much "Put and Take" :!: :P If it wasn't for the fact that my smoker is buried under snow -> I'd have smoked them for the Super Bowl :!: -> YUMMY :!: thumbup :D :lol: :lol: SeaDog1 :mrgreen:
Author:
DirtyDawg10
Date:
Feb 04, 2011
Message:
Nice job guys! Looks delicious, Phil!
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