[PECo]

I met up with jonnyfly00 (aka Jon aka Shelly) and Cots6 (aka Mason) at 8:00 am between the ponds at Nod Brook. I got there at 7:50 am, but the sun didn't appear over Talcott Mountain until 8:00 am or so:



It was cold, in the 20s, with scattered clouds. There was a brisk west wind that was strong enough at times to blow our gear across the ice. The water was crystal clear down to four feet, but you could still spot a silver lure down to about eight feet. We decided to fish the upper (i.e., south) pond. The ice at the unimproved boat launch area was a little patchy because of the flow out of the pond and into the culvert down to the lower (i.e., north) pond, and the flow into the upper pond from the creek in the northwest corner of the pond, so we walked a little bit to the east before getting onto the ice:



The thinnest ice that we bored all day was five inches. Most of it was seven or better and getting thicker all of the time. Our holes would start to ice over within five minutes. Shortly after we got onto the ice, Jon caught a decent yellow perch. A little while later, he caught a small yellow perch out of the same hole. Mason and I didn't get even a nibble. Jon had to drive Mason home at around 10:15 am, but I felt perfectly fine by myself on the ice. I did, however, stay only in the area that we had already checked out. TurtleKiss (aka Kira) showed up at 10:40 am and Jon got back right when she was getting onto the ice. While Kira fished the holes that we had already bored, Jon and I worked our way down the east shore to the south end of the pond. We didn't get any action at all in the south end of the pond as we worked our way to the west. Finally, at about 12:30 pm, I decided to bore a hole next to a mass of debris that had frozen in the middle of the pond, thinking that it might provide cover for some fish. And, yes, it did. I caught a 10 inch largemouth bass:



It was paler than the vibrantly green bass that I'm used to seeing at Nod Brook, but it was otherwise healthy looking. I ended up catching two 10 inch largemouth bass and two sunnies. In addition to the two yellow perch, Jon caught five or six largemouth bass, four of which were keepers and the biggest of which was 13 inches long, some sunnies, and a white perch:



I didn't even know that there are white perch at Nod Brook! Kira never made it out to the middle of the pond. She was too creeped out by the moaning and cracking of the ice. At times, it sounded like Shamu was trying to break through the ice from underneath. Kira ended up fishing what little open water there was from shore while Jon and I were fishing the debris pile.

All in all, it was a nice, if cold, day. I'm going to start keeping my eye on the wind reports again. But for the wind, it would have been terrific out there today. I'm also going to get some two pound line for one of my setups. Jon and I fished the same ice colored Swedish Pimple jig with waxworms today, but he kicked my butt. The only difference in our setups was his two pound line versus my probably six pound line (it was pre-spooled on the combo's reel, so I'm not totally sure what it is, but it's definitely heavier). Other than the Swedish Pimple, the only other lure that we used was a flourescent green perch Hali that was baited with a waxworm and got me my two sunnies.

I'll post some photos from my Nikon SLR later, but my back is sore and I need to lie down now.
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Don't forget to wear sunscreen and don't litter!

[SeaDog1]

Hi Phil!

OK! Admit it -> Your hooked on ice fishing

SeaDog1

[DirtyDawg10]

Nice job guys!

[TurtleKiss]

I was terrified by the inconsistent ice thickness and the Shamu rumbles. Way too much cracking for my liking. It was easy to convince myself to move to open water in the lower pond. I threw a T-rigged 2" grub. Two nibbles, no hook-ups. But I can now cast crazy far with 4lb test on a jigging rod.
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Kira

*~ "Not everything about fishing is noble, reasonable and sane..." -Henry Middleton ~*

[pikePERSUADER1]

that cracking is the sound of it making ice, completely normal on a cold day after a couple warm days!!!

[pikePERSUADER1]

hey guys, thats a pond shiner in your hand, wasnt sure if thats the one you thought was a perch, if you get any more of those use em as bait,big bass like em too! there easy to distinguish because of the yellowish reddish fins!

[PECo]

Thanks, pikePERSUADER1. Yeah, I guess that it didn't have enough of a hump on its back to be a white perch. Is it a golden shiner?

Hey, SeaDog1! Is that what your goldies look like?

Jon also pulled up a short largemouth bass that had fresh pickerel bite marks on both of its sides near the tail. Unfortunately, my cellphone's camera failed to capture any detail in the photo I took of it..
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Don't forget to wear sunscreen and don't litter!

[PECo]

Puttin' those college boys to work:

Cots6 (aka Mason):

jonnyfly00 (aka Jon aka Shelly):

Jon's first fish through the ice:

Jon invited it home for a fish fry dinner:

Avatar photo material:

The frozen debris:

Freakin' big spidersicle:

_________________
Don't forget to wear sunscreen and don't litter!

[Mike1]

So did you just jig the whole pond? and kept moving around? or did you have tip ups out?
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Personal Best freswater fish.
1. 40.5" PIke caught and released out of Bantam ice fishing with a shiner.
2. 30" Rainbow Trout caught and released out of Scoville on a mepps. (random lake)

[PECo]

We just jigged and didn't use any tip ups a la metalfish. We started between the two islands, went down the east shore to the south end and went west along the south end before we ended up on the frozen debris pile in the middle of the main body of the pond. After Jon landed the two yellow perch on the north end of the east shore, we went three hours before I caught the first short largemouth bass off the debris pile. Jon must have pulled six fish out of the first hole that I bored next to the pile. It was marked by a green garbage can lid in the ice.
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Don't forget to wear sunscreen and don't litter!

[Flipper]

Phil - That is a golden shiner in the last pic. You can tell by the lateral line following the lower half of the body as opposed to most other fish where it is on the upper portion of the body. Those are the best pike bait I have found.
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Go big or go home!

[PECo]

Damn, we should have kept it!

Hey, Damian, did you get onto Bantam from the north shore the other day?
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Don't forget to wear sunscreen and don't litter!

[Flipper]

No, It seems the guy I was going with (he had the auger) is pretty unreliable. I still have yet to hit the hard water.
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Go big or go home!

[SeaDog1]

Hey, SeaDog1! Is that what your goldies look like?

YUP That's a big Goldie

SeaDog1

[jonnyfly00]

One of the smaller bass i pulled out of one of the holes (8 or 9 inches) along the debris pile had some pretty ferocious bite marks about 3 or 4 inches up from its tail, as if it were attacked from behind. The wounds were still bloody so it had just happened earlier that day. We thought we were onto some pickerel but it didn't happen. Next time though.