CTFishTalk.com: Stillwater trip 1/6/12 - Connecticut Ice Fishing Reports ( CT Ice Fishing Reports ) - A Community Built for Connecticut Fisherman.

NorthEastFisherman · Joined: 27 May 2012 Posts: 582

Forgot to mention about my stillwater pond trip on sunday. Started off not too well. Got there and found it very hard to get our sled onto the ice. Then thinking it was safe my dad and i thought itd be quicker to go inbetween these two islands instead of walking around. My dad slowly inched his way through and we kept hearing a cracking type noise, thinking the ice was just settling since if was 5-6inches everywhere else we continued on. About a few more steps the ice started to cave in. Luckily it was only about two feet of water and my dads left foot only got wet so we decided to stay since it was an hour drive there. Set up our tip ups around 9 and got our first flag at about 9:35. Small little perch. Kept jigging and my dad caught a few small perch until i got a flag on my tip up at about 10:30, small pickerel (12-15inches). Kept fishing til about 12 without much more and moved farther up north on the pond. Used my map to find a nice flat of about 9 feet of water with a drop to 12 about 10 feet away. As i was sounding one of the tip ups a fish bit my sounder!! Not lieing here, the fish held onto my sounder for a good few seconds til it spit the hook and swam off. Im guessing it was a pickerel. Got a flag at 12:30, perch, kept getting a few more flags or perch and about 3 more pickerel (12-15inches). At about 1:30-2pm things went crazy, flags left and right, perch, pickerel, more perch, more pickerel. About 6 pickerel and 10 perch later i saw my blue heritage laker tip up go off. I remember putting the largest shiner on this one and i knew it mustve been a good fish to take that minnow. The line was running when i got there, i set the hook, and BAM the fight was on. I would slowly pull the fish towards the hole but once i turned its heard around itd take off on about a 10-20 foot run. Get it back to the hole and itd run again. About 5-6 runs later i see the fish pass under the hole. It was a hugee pickerel! I saw the hook in the corner of its mouth so i knew it was game on. I finally got the fishes head through the hole and grabbed him behind the gills. This pickerel was from the tips of my finger to my elbow with a hand length after that, when i went home i measured it and it was about 26inches. This fish might be my personal best pickerel (Last was 24''). Got more flags after that fish and called it a day once the fish stopped biting at 4:45. Pretty good day if you ask me! Glad i could get out and hopefully i can go after this weekends weather out on winchester for some real pike . The picture makes it look tiny to me, hmm now i can see why you can never guess the weight and size from a picture! Tight lines everyone!

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YouTube Channel: NorthEastFisherman

PECo · Joined: 06 Oct 2009 Posts: 5203 Location: Avon, CT

Sweet pickerel, but no largemouth bass, huh?
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Elixir · Joined: 30 May 2011 Posts: 288 Location: Danbury, CT

Slow scary start to a great day on the ice! Go going with the possible PB.
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"Au... Ger...! You know me. Chillin on the ice with my jigga's!"

NorthEastFisherman · Joined: 27 May 2012 Posts: 582

Michael · Joined: 28 Jan 2012 Posts: 3823 Location: Bridgeport

Nice pickerel! How big were the perch?

Buddy and I were down by the ramp in a shallow cove with a drop off but hardly got anything. We saw 2 other groups near us towards the center of the lake. 1 was a person with a bright red jacket jigging and the other was a few people with 2 or 3 dogs. Where abouts were you?

NorthEastFisherman · Joined: 27 May 2012 Posts: 582

The perch were about 9-10 inches. Not the biggest ive caught but its something. I was wearing the gray coat and black pants, my dad had a red sweatshirt i think with jeans. We were basically exactly in the middle of the lake. I saw two or three groups at the southern part of the lake and one seemed to have a fire or something buring on the ice. Whoever that was was pretty loud too cause i could hear you. One person near me had bright orange pants and stayed in that spot all day i didnt see them catch one fish.
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YouTube Channel: NorthEastFisherman

Michael · Joined: 28 Jan 2012 Posts: 3823 Location: Bridgeport

I guess you were just north of the man that stayed in the same spot all day. I saw him. And yeah, that group with the fire burning and the dogs running were noisy.