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Author:
PECo
Date:
Feb 15, 2011
Subject:
Papermill Pond 02/14
Message:
I hope that everyone enjoyed Valentines Day! I sure did. asianfisher (aka Billy) and I decided to fish for trout at Papermill Pond, which is the small pond at Southford Falls State Park. We got on the ice at 9:30 am. We knew that it would be warm, but by noon it was in the 50s. We had a mostly sunny sky and light winds, although some clouds appeared early in the afternoon, along with some gusty winds. The pond is small narrow and runs east to west. It's the kind of pond to which you'd take small children to fish. The trees are even colorfully decorated: [img:f7d0d33187]http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/6913/photo005cropped.jpg[/img:f7d0d33187] Merry Christmas! Water flows into the pond at the east end, and under a footbridge and over falls on the west end: [img:f7d0d33187]http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/5427/photo001corrected.jpg[/img:f7d0d33187] [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjdvivmpiR0[/youtube] Billy drilled a couple of holes in the small pool between the footbridge and the falls, and we set a couple of tip-ups baited with minnows: [img:f7d0d33187]http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/7738/photo002corrected.jpg[/img:f7d0d33187] We decided to set the rest of our tip-ups in a line down the center of the pond from the footbridge toward the east end. Billy had brought one of his dad's six inch hand augers and warned me that it walked a bit when I started to drill my first hole. Man, he wasn't kidding! 70 or 80 cranks later, the auger had shaved its way through 12 inches of frozen slush and eight inches of clear ice, and left an eight inch diameter hole. When I was done gasping for air, I took a closer look at the auger and saw that Billy's dad had put had eight inch blades on it! :shock: [img:f7d0d33187]http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/5625/photo003ra.jpg[/img:f7d0d33187] No freakin' wonder that it worked like crap! :roll: Luckily, since we were at a small pond, it was just a short walk back to my car to get my eight inch auger. After that, 35 cranks per hole felt easy. Our line of tip-ups extended to the widest part of the pond, just in front of a big shelter on the south shore. [img:f7d0d33187]http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/3844/photo003cropped.jpg[/img:f7d0d33187] We found several six inch holes in the ice there, so we decided to jig in that area. I used a gold micro jig that's white on the hook side with a black eye dot. I baited it with fresh, but really limp and soft waxies. Five seconds after I dropped it into the water, I pulled up my first yellow perch of the year. Whoo hoo! It was just a little eight incher, but I hadn't caught one since last year (i.e., New Year's Eve on Breakneck Pond). Hopefully, Billy got a photo of it. After that, the fishing was [b:f7d0d33187]on[/b:f7d0d33187]! :D We didn't get a single flag, but we jigged up a ton of perch and sunnies until we packed up and got off the ice at 3:15 pm. Billy also got a half dozen golden shiners that he kept for pike bait. We did head down to the east end of the pond to check it out, but it was so shallow that Billy hit the muddy bottom on one of the three holes we drilled. We also jigged our line of tip-up holes, but all of the fish were, apparently, concentrated in the widest and deepest part of the pond. The only trout we saw was a 12 inch brown that Billy lost in the hole. But we ended up with a pretty nice stringer of perch: [img:f7d0d33187]http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/4078/photo006cropped.jpg[/img:f7d0d33187] All told, I jigged up a couple of redear sunnies and two dozen perch. Billy got several sunnies, a dozen and a half perch and the six golden shiners. Plus, he almost got the little brown trout. Not bad for this slooow season. Something I noticed is that waxies seem to be working better for me than spikes when jigging for panfish. Has anyone else noticed that? Now I'm looking forward to heading back out onto the ice, although my desire to catch yellow perch is pretty much gone. It's been a while since I've landed a decent largemouth bass. And I haven't even seen a northern pike, yet. Hmmm. . . .
Author:
icetilt
Date:
Feb 15, 2011
Message:
Must have been a great day. You caught fish and had nice warm temps. I'm jealous spent my whole day at work looking outside wishing I was on the Ice.
Author:
Flipper
Date:
Feb 15, 2011
Message:
I'm hittin Bantam this weekend if you want to go for some pike. Is your auger like the one in the pic (blades extend beyond body) or is your body the same dia. as the blades? My 8" auger has a 7" body with 8" blades and I think it makes for harder drilling. Just wondering if I bought the wrong one.
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