[PECo]

I decided to fish Simsbury Reservoir, again, today. jonnyfly00 (aka Jon) did a lot of research, yesterday, and found that the Simsbury Land Trust's Walkbook says that you can park in the lot at The Master's School to access a trail that leads down to the reservoir. I stopped in at the school's main office to confirm this and was told that, yes, I could park in the school parking lot. Cool! A couple of staff members even told me where I could find the trailhead. I parked my car, loaded up with my gear, stepped onto the trail and immediately wiped out, emptying my bait bucket on the ground. I had forgotton to put on my crampons. After I put the minnows back in my now empty bucket and put on my crampons, I headed down the trail:



I found a runoff stream and put a few inches of water in the bucket, but by the time I got down to the reservoir, the minnows weren't moving very much. The hike down from the school parking lot was a lot shorter and easier that the hike up from the trailhead on the main road that Jon and I took yesterday. When I got on the ice, the air temperature was in the low 50s, and it was overcast and drizzling. It was also a little misty:


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At 11:30 am, I got a flag, but missed the hookset. Unfortunately, that became the theme of the day as far as flags were concerned. At 12:30 pm, after I missed the hookset on the second flag , I got a bite on my jig and landed a 12 inch largemouth bass:



An hour later, I got a third flag and, whoo hoo!, I actually set the hook on the fish:


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Yes, it's a different fish! I actually think that it was a little bigger than the one I jigged up, maybe 13 inches long. I jigged the entire reservoir, from the open water on the north end where the stream enters it to the open water on the south end where it spills over the dam. I didn't get so much as a nibble. I ended up getting six more flags. I got four of them from 3:00 pm to 3:20 pm. I got the last one, the ninth, at 5:00 pm, after I had packed up the other four tip-ups. I missed the hookset on every single one. I think I need help with my tip-ups. Nine flags! I had a good day, but it could have been great if I knew what I was doing. The hike back up to the school parking lot should have taken less than 15 minutes, but I spotted a couple of large birds flying through the trees. At first, I thought that they were hawks, but then I heard them (turn up the volume at the end of the first video):


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I can't wait to get back out there. But only after I learn a better way to set my tip-ups!
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Don't forget to wear sunscreen and don't litter!

[Flipper]

Use circle hooks. No hookset required. Just hold the line until in gets tight and the fish will be hooked. Make sure you don't try to set it because any quick yanks will pull the hook out of the fishes mouth. Just hold the line and let the fish run - it will hook itself.
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Go big or go home!

[PECo]

Thanks, Damian. I'll give it a try. Next year, I think, because the ice looks like it's done.
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Don't forget to wear sunscreen and don't litter!

[DirtyDawg10]

Another good trip out on the ice.