Ice Fishing Massachusetts 2/8/14

This weekend definitely is not going to be warm like it has been for the last few weekends and I picked a lake that the wind always blows and is cold in the winter. Today's conditions were upper teens for temperatures, clear sunny skies and stiff winds. The last snow storm has left around 12 inches of snow on area lakes and ponds and this is making it difficult for getting to your fishing locations. The lake that I was on today has great bass, smallmouth and largemouth, in it and when you locate them, they are always of a very nice size. But for some reason they are difficult to locate in the winter months so typically don't fish for them as the crappies in this lake are of a large size and that was the target for today. These fish are another variety that you really have to search for as well but once you locate them, the fish that you catch are of large size and well worth the efforts in locating and catching them. Typically here I generally fish the middle of the lake but with all of the snow cover, it was too much work getting out there so stayed in an area that has good 30 feet of water and started my search. After the first few holes I could see that I was going to have to work at it once again as the crappies were not going to come easy. One good thing there was fish in almost every hole but they were perch and when you would catch one, they definitely put up a good fight. The perch that I was catching were very nice and big and I was catching them on the Salmo Chubby Darter and would work the lure a couple of feet off of the ground. After a while I started tipping the hooks with some grubs and one fish that I caught was one of the biggest sunfish that I have caught here in New England at nearly 12 inches long. I thought for sure that it was a crappie when I was fighting it but was pleasantly surprised to see such a big sunfish. At one point I did have some crappie come through the hole as they were at around 17 feet of water and when they are that high of the bottom that is the only fish that swims so far up. I was able to get the fish to look at the lure but as hard I as tried to entice them into biting, it just wasn't happening. All in all it was a good day of fishing but when is there a bad day when you are fishing. May try and get out there once again when the snow gets knocked down a bit because after you catch one of those crappies, you really want to do it again.

So until the next report from the ice, may your lines be tight...