Fishing March 2, 2008

This New England weather is a none stop roller coaster into this later part of the 2007-2008 winter ice season. We had another very weather changing week and this is definitely putting the fish into a funky mood. This time of year we should be experiencing the start of late ice season and aggressive fish should be following. But with the weather fronts that keep coming through every few days, the hit and miss of hitting a good bite is getting to be the resemblance of gambling.

The week consisted of spring like weather followed by decent amounts of rain as well as plow-able snow accumulation as well. Throw in a few fairly cold nights to firm the ice up once again and each day brings along with it a new conditions that the fish have to relate differently to and this is affecting them as much as us.

With high winds in the forecast we already knew that the bite today was going to be tough and one that we are going to have to work at if we are going to catch anything at all. The ice is getting thicker every time that we come to this lake and this reassures that a power auger is in our future for next ice season.

My son is enjoying his first ice season very much and joins me again today and with the tough bite I was curious as to how he was going to handle it. He started off by catching a nice sunfish on T.H.E. Jig in the pink/purple color in 15 feet of water that was 5 feet off of the bottom and unfortunately that was the only fish that he would catch for the day. Being the bite was so off he had more fun venturing and playing along the shoreline and on the ice that he was very content doing that.

There was one area that held fish consistently but they would come up to look at the bait and then would drop back down. We were changing bait colors, sizes and depth of water fished and seemed to be a consensus as to their mood that they were lookers and not takers. Towards the end, the fish started getting a little more active and the bigger fish were coming from not far below the ice. But after 2-3 hours of not much action he was ready to head out and the fish weren’t coming in fast and furious so we left on that note.

What I had learned as time progressed was that the color scheme wasn’t that much of an issue but it was the size of the bait. The fish that I finally did start catching were all caught on the 1/100 oz T.H.E. Jig and they were not inhaling it either as it was right on the edge of their top lip. These fish were much higher off of the bottom and at least 10 feet up which we haven’t seen like that on this lake before. Thankfully for my electronics we are able to work the fish at the depths they range and without that, on a tough day as this, there may not have been any fish caught at all.

BackWoods Sportsman Outdoors web site:
www.backwoodssportsman.com/

If you have an outdoor related question that you would like to "Ask BackWoods Sportsman Outdoors", send those inquiries to the following e-mail address and we will be glad to post a response for you:

outdoors@backwoodssportsman.com