Ice fishing Weekend 1/25 1/26

  I hit a CT River cove in search of pike at 6:30 am armed with 5 tip ups with big shiners and a jigging rod to hopefully catch some pondies(for bait)  perch and panfish to pass the time. Well the jigging was almost nonexistent.. Josh meet me there at 7 am and he only stayed a few hours. He did manage 2 perch, 2 blue gill and 2 calicos jigging before he called it quits.  Wasn't enough action to justify being cold.  I didn't blame him at all but i knew i was going to be there all day sun up till sun down going for that pike... A couple more people showed up and my friend Chad got a little pike almost asap then all went quiet for way too long. We had probably 6 flags in the next 4 hours that were all pick up and drops before we even got there. I ended up getting a flag around 3 pm and landed a largemouth which surprised everyone. Apparently not common at all in this shallow cove. Then it was just me and one kid out there from then till dark and right before i packed up i got a flag right next to my feet. Spool was spinning fast i grabbed it set the hook and fish on. Didn't feel big but i knew it was the pike i was waiting for. Wish it was a better one to justify staying all day but i was happy.. Ended the day with 1 perch 1 pickerel 1 bass and 1 pike.   Was a good day talking and laughing with other fisherman to pass the time between flags.

 This morning i woke up... looked at the forecast. Saw a high temp of 18 and high winds.. Decided not to fish and went out for a massive breakfast with the lady. Got home and thought.. i still have a dozen shiners i could drown and i ran out the door. I went to lake beseck to find that there is no parking and no one had drilled any holes and i didn't wanna be the first. So i drove farther north to private pond my friend lives on and the action started almost immediately. By the time i set up my second tip up my first flag was up. Nice little bass. I was laughing because i was set up with pike bait, pike hooks, 50 lb leaders.. Figured it wouldn't get touched at all but i was very wrong. I was honestly planning on pike fishing today and i didn't have any other leader material or smaller hooks with me. Guess they didn't mind! I put out just three tip ups and had one jigging rod set up dead sticking and the other jigging rod with a small blade bait on.  I honestly couldn't keep up with the action. At one time 2 flags went up and my dead stick rod had a fish on it. being solo this was pretty funny. I landed one bass, missed the other flag and got a blue gill on the rod. Wish it was on film. lol  The jigging action was great and by the time i left i had 9 bass ( 5 on tip ups and 4 jigging on the blade bait ) and 2 dozen hand sized bluegills.  I was thrilled with the fishing. The hot bait for the blue gills was a trout magnet with a spike and got a few on the blade as well.  Only fished for about 2.5 hours and i called it quits as my hands were just too cold.  Looking forward to getting out again.. i could get used to this whole ice fishing thing. 

By: Joe Jacobowitz