Pachaug Weekend... sometimes you have to admit defeat and move on.

 Spent all day saturday and sunday on pachaug targeting pike.. fishing 4 different spots on the lake during these 2 days.. I fished points, cove openings, channels and all of them had one thing that was consistent. NO FLAGSSS! I fished sun up too sun down both days by myself with my 6 tip ups out with big pondies 3 dead / 3 alive. Saturday morning i meet Rickerster and Teig from the site and they couldn't have been nicer. They even offered to drill me some other holes if i wanted to make a move which was cool. They got 1 bass and 1 pickerel but no one around us caught a pike. I ended up having to move my car around 2 pm so i picked up and moved to the other side of the lake for the remaining 3 hours of daylight.. Finished the day with not a single flag and i didn't mark a single fish jigging all day. I was frustrated but hearing about some of the great fish caught in other areas of the lake i decided to go sleep at my brothers house in Norwich and go out again today... 

Did some research on a depth chart last night and found the spot i wanted to fish... bad news was people were fishing it after i walked over a mile to get to it. I set up not far from there and after a few hours of no action those guys left and i went over and used there holes. I ended up meeting a Masshole who was out there pike fishing who was a really good pike fisherman. We talked about pike stories shared pictures and shot the shoot for a while. He was fishing far away from me and at about 3 pm he walked over again with a herring for me to try. Really nice dude. I put it out there immediately. The lack of action on big pike shiners i was willing to try anything else. With about 45 minutes left of daylight im sitting on my bucket wondering what was happening.. knowing i was in the worst two days of fishing ive ever had in my life. Again today no jigging to be had and as i'm second guessing every move i made this weekend and then ... the herring flag goes up. I ran over and the spool was flying.. Set the hook and fish on. 22 hours waiting for that one dam pike and of course it wasn't very big. Fish went 30 inches and had a solid gut on it. Got dark and i packed up. I walked off the ice with my head down completely bummed that i wasted an entire weekend with 1 fish to show for it. I guess that's pike fishing. Im glad other people had good luck this weekend. All i can say is im tired im disappointed and im honestly pretty pissed off at this whole weekend. This one is going to sting until i have a good day of fishing. 

This sums up my weekend too...

As i was getting the hook out of the pike a seagull flew in and grabbed the herring from the ice... The one bait that worked gone just like that. &^%$ this weekend. lol

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

First ice report ever! 1/05

 Got out on the ice today for the first time in a few years! Been looking forward to getting out but i'm not one of those guys who walks on 3 inches of ice. Give me 5 or 6 and i wont be nervous the whole time.. Met up with Josh Rayner around 8 am this morning to find the ice was about 6 or 7 inches plus..  Armed with jigging rods only!  I caught my first fish of 2014 in roughly 1 minute. First drop, first hole.  Little perch but i was pumped. Josh caught the next 4 perch then our friend Paul came up and schooled us!

We had flurries of action over the next few hours with Paul having the hot hand as soon as he arrived.  Showing us newbs how to jig! Appreciate the tips Paul.  We had a lot of fun just shooting the shit and jigging away. We ended up catching over 50 perch 1 pike and 1 pumpkinseed. All my perch and my pike came on the dynamic lures hd ice which I was pumped on being my first time trying there ice lure.  Josh got his on a small blade bait and some straight tail power minnows and Paul got all his on small jigs tipped with maggots. We fished through some pretty good freezing rain but all and all it was a comfortable day to be on the water. 

small but great fight on a jigging rod!

Josh and I hit two more bodies of water on our way home.. Found safe ice but zero action and called it a day. Tough fishing some spots without electronics. Great start to the 2014 season and looking forward to getting up there again. Please dont ask where we were fishing because i will not answer. Some these places are private and i cant risk telling others. I know that stinks but i gave lures we used and some other details which i hope can be helpful for you!   

- Joe Jacobowitz

Lilly with Larry.. Turnover is starting

Went out with Larry Saturday mornin up to Lilly. At the launch for 8am heavy fog, 28 degrees.. Freezing! But action started quick. I got 2 largies on the jig on the second lay down we hit. Good start!  Then it was a fish here or there. No pattern really formed. Then Larry got a small bass followed by his best bass of the year at 4 lbs 2 oz on a big jig in heavy weeds. Wind picked up nasty and the fishing got real slow. When we called it a day we had 9 largemouth no smallies no pike! 6 bass on jigs and I got 3 on drop shot.  Always fun fishing with ya Larry! Thanks for taking me out and was cool to lip your 4 lber for ya! Our fish came between 8 and 25 feet. The lakes are starting to flip! Soon we will be fishing 25-40 feet. Looking forward to next time.

Lake Lillinonah 10/19 not terrible..

On saturday Josh and I wanted to find a place to fish that had a wide variety of fish.. we wanted bass and pike so our options were... pachaug (30 boat T) mansfield (20 boat T) Bantam (hasnt been good this year) then remembered lilly. Only fished there twice before and both times it was late novemeber so we gave it a shot. In the water by 7:30 and water temps were 61.5. The launch was really tough with the water down about 4 feet but we made it happen. Started off throwing big jigs in lay downs and i got the first fish of the day about 20 minutes in. 1.5 lb largemouth. We went on to hit some nice weed beds on points and found very little action. Tried slow rolled spinner baits, crankbaits, swim baits and drop shot.

 Got a few more largemouth on the jigs and then went to the one big hump on the lake and i got followed twice to the boat by a massive pike. It was probably close to 40 inches and was fat as could be. While using the trolling motor to get to the other end of the hump josh cast out his swim bait and gets his first ever smallie while trolling. Then nothing... went to another point and i caught a smallie and a largemouth on back to back cast on the drop shot on a ribster. Both keepers but just barely. Thought maybe we found a pod of fish but then all went quiet. Hit a small cove and josh gets blasted by a northern boat side and it jumps no joke 3 feet high almost into the back of the boat. When it lands back in the water it was gone.. ughh! Oh well on our way back to the launch around 2:30 we caught 3 more bass off of wood on the jigs. The wind got nasty and we called it a day. Ended up with 7 Largemouth 3 Smallies 1 lost pike and a monster follower. Shocked to see the amount of boats out there fishing. we will be back. All of our bass were between 1 to 2 pounds.

Got my Fiance on the boat! 6 fish caught and none were on the end of my line..

 Talking with heather today i threw out the....hey wanna go fishing tonight? Expecting the usual no. I got a yes and left work at 3:30 hooked up the boat picked up the mrs and went over to Hanover Pond in Meriden. Only a few miles from the house. I put a small grub on for her and i threw a big jig a chatter bait a spinner bait a jerk bait and i had not a single hit. Heather went on to catch 5 perch and a largemouth. Was her first time ever fishing lures and she did great. Couldn't get her to hold the fish but i cant complain.. just happy she came out with me and caught some fish and had a smile on her face the whole time.