CTFishTalk.com: Vermont Trip 1/21 - Connecticut Ice Fishing Reports ( CT Ice Fishing Reports ) - A Community Built for Connecticut Fisherman.

jonnyfly00 · Joined: 08 Nov 2010 Posts: 104 Location: Simsbury, CT

My girlfriend and I made a weekend trip up to Wilmington VT to fish lake Raponda. We got there Saturday but the wind was horrible so we stayed in. Saturday was much nicer and the sun was out the entire day. We fished for several hours using 6 tip ups but caught nothing aside from a small perch. We met up with another couple who was fishing an area nearby us. They landed some perch jigging, and two SMB, one 1.5 and another well over 2 pounds. They claimed that they got an approx. 4 lb SMB to the hole but lost it before they could land it.
The next day (Monday) we repositioned ourselves to the same area that the other couple was fishing. There was a father and son fishing there when we got there and they were more than happy to have us fishing next to them. By the time everything was set up we had about 15 tip ups in the water. It was continuous action all day long- dozens of flags, none of which were from my tip ups (aside from two small rock bass). The other guys caught around 6 or 7 SMB, 2 LMB and 3 pickerel. The biggest fish of the day was a 3.5 lb LMB that I failed to get a picture of because my camera was still in the car. After I got the camera, I got a bunch of pictures of a ton of smallmouth bass.
Kaitlin and I had more luck jigging while the other two were running to flags all day. I landed a 2 pound 3 ounce SMB on a jig. I also missed a pretty big pickerel because I failed to loosen my drag enough. Kaitlin got a 20+inch pickerel to the whole, but snapped the line right before I was able to come over and help her land it. About an hour later, Teddy (the young boy) landed a pickerel on a tip up about 30 yards from Kaitlins missed pickerel- and it turned out to be the same one! We knew this because it had my green perch eye jig still in its mouth from when it snapped off Kaitlins rod. That was quite a shock.

All in all, a great day, and I was happy to land my first ever smallie, let alone a smallie through the ice.

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jonnyfly00 · Joined: 08 Nov 2010 Posts: 104 Location: Simsbury, CT

asianfisher · Joined: 12 Jan 2009 Posts: 920

Sweet SMB cant wait till they start spawning in upstate NY not season but you can catch them 4+ pound all day in the rivers... Funny thing is up there they go in the rivers to spawn... picture that.... learned that one spring fishing for steelies and was like hey pops what the fu&k is this? think i was 11... from than learned how to look for them in the rivers and its like cars and trucks driving in the rivers shouting up to spawn... SMB are chunky up north NH is my favorite place to fish for them in lakes and ponds outta anywhere ive been.... Will be going up there end of spring. And having big yak trip from NH CT river all the way to the sound CT river in old lyme... might ask on here if anyone is down to try it with me and bro-in-law... thing is ya'll we are gonna eat what we catch so faithful catch and release people till we hit mass we will be eating the fish we catch..... anyways nice fish.... how thick was the ice out there...

DirtyDawg10 · Joined: 27 May 2009 Posts: 2238 Location: Granby, CT

Nice job! Congrats on the nice smallie!!