bawanajim

Hey Ed your ice is probably still good for a few more weeks huh?

How about some ice out northerns? They should be feeding like mad!

Champlain Islander

I am getting them every day now and I am not targeting them. I go mainly for gills but old paper mouth seems to be there lurking. I post my catch at the bottom of my sig line every day. Today is a family bday party so tomorrow I'll be right back at it. Our ice is getting bad though and between the warm day and bright sun today with rain forcast next week we will probably be putting the hard water stuff away next weekend or with luck the following week.

R.S.B.

Your ice is off enough to be fishing and here I just wish the ice were all off our back roads. As of Friday there were still roads snowed shut in the northern part of my district. Some of the roads I was on yesterday still had enough ice in places you had to be careful driving on them.

R.S. Bodenhorn

bawanajim

Frank you guys kill me. Thats a weeks catch around here. I was fishing my ponds because of time restraints, I'm working now, but I will get out this afternoon.
Yesterday I had to fish around a large piece of ice that was moving around in the trees.
But on a high note the wood ducks are back,hitting my boxes already, over all just a great day in PA.
No snow left here just some ice in the cold spots,maybe I'll get some pics later.

Champlain Islander

The pan fishing here on Champlain is really amazing. Early in the year I targeted gills then switched to perch. The end of the season is always back to flat fish due to the sheltered weedy bays that keeps the ice longer than the broad lake where we get perch. Most flat fish spots we fish are from 3' to 8' deep so safety is a factor too. The end of the season always brings huge catches of very large fish. I usually bring 3 seven gallon buckets(they each hold about 50 pounds)with me and a 100 pound grain bag on the sled. When I use my wheeler I can carry 2 sevens a square 5 and keep a grain bag in box. I gage my successful days on pounds since we commercial fish here. A great day of flat fish brings from 150 to 200 pounds of them. Average days are from 50 to 75 pounds. 3 days ago I had a 130 pound perch day with 120 pounds large and 4 days ago was a 155 pound flats day with several crappie to boot. Before I started this in 1991 I talked with state biologists about taking too many of them. They said harvesting them actually would improve the fishery since they are such prolific breeders and the lake is so large. There are hundreds of us fishing for them right here in the islands and the fishing is better than ever. Selling them is just a hobby for me and is fun since I can fish almost every day and not have to clean fish. I just drop by the neighborhood fish buyer, dump the buckets on his sorting table and he weighs them and pays cash. I never had a day where I couldn't get all the fish off the ice in one trip but am looking forward to that problem.

Edcyclopedia

Here's one from this year...
My wife bought me a new ATV so I've been doing a little more riding than ice fishing.
Also just got back after 8-days in Hilton Head, SC

bawanajim

Here are aa couple of the "jets" we put in one of my ponds about ten years ago.
He was catching a few rays through the ice yesterday.Lucky for him the heronsare not around yet.[:@]