Ghosts of Winters Past

2025 was a pretty good ice fishing season in Connecticut. 2026, so far, is even better.... the best in recent memory, in fact. Noah, who doesn't work in the winter anymore, has gotten fully ice obsessed, and that has carried along to me. Going from very casually stepping onto local lakes with a spud bar and one jigging rod to fully shanty-d up with heaters, vexilars, specialized rods and even more specialized jigs, and making spring bobbers at home is a bit of a leap. It was any easy leap for me to take. I'm a fly guy in open water virtually everywhere and every time I can be. With almost no exceptions, if I'm making casts with an artificial offering, I'm going to do so with a fly rod and don't care at all to use anything else. That doesn't operate well when the water is frozen. Walking on water is pretty darn fun. Trotting out on the ice nearly daily and even sleeping out on it has got me thinking about the winters that have passed, though. 

I caught my first fish through the ice not that long ago, in early January of 2018. It was a striped bass. Noah and I both got our first that day, actually. They were on handlines. They fought... poorly. 

That winter of 2017-18 was the first time I ever put even a measurable effort into ice fishing, and it wasn't a huge effort. I did give it a go with jigging panfish and bass and started to at least catch fish. That wasn't an exceptional ice winter, but it was good enough. My most significant memories on the ice that involved attempting to get carp through the ice and even losing a set rod to one, and dropping my phone down a hole and managing to grab it as it sank. The open water opportunities were probably markedly better that winter than the ice opportunities, at least given our lack of skill. That skill lack extended beyond just ice fishing though, Noah and I were both very much still in a developing age in our angling careers- not unskilled, per-se, probably better than average, but growing rapidly. We'd just gotten back from our first Florida trip, which opened our eyes in significant ways. 

I'd ice fished prior to 2018, of course, but in an even more disorganized fashion. In 2017 we had a very mild winter that gave no ice. January and February both presented more opportunities at open water bass, sunfish, and carp than they did at ice fishing. 2016 was much the same. In fact, winters like these have been more abundant in the last two decades than winters like the one we're having now. I can recall falling into a pond in early February of 2010 and it being a complete non-issue. 

My friend Rik and I poked around this snowy but open pond one January day in 2017

2014 was a late winter but cold enough and snowy enough to keep me off a lot of water. I don't know that I ice fished at all, my friend Dalton and I may have half-assedly attempted it. I did more snow-shoeing than fishing that winter, especially from February into early March. What I keenly remember was that shelf ice built up significantly. In combination with deep snowpack and the fact that we still had a short closed trout season back then and it made for a very good spring trout season. Fish were hungry, had been unpressured, and flows were fantastic. The hatches were better back then too. 

I believe it was 2013 that I recall struggling to cut through the thick ice on a local lake with a hatchet, and when I finally did it shot through and I lost it.  

In 2020 and 2021, I did a little bit of ice fishing, but not much. In 22 and 23, hardly any at all. I devoted some days in 24 but the window was short. Ice was largely absent each of those years but so was snow, with little in the way of prolonged snow coverage. So far 2025-26 has provided the longest duration of snow coverage locally that I can remember in a long time. What does that all mean, though? I hope this produces a spring trout fishing boom equivalent to 2013 and 14, but the reality is the streams are open to fish the moment they thaw now, and that closed March really was advantageous back when we still had that. Combined with the boom in popularity of two high impact trout methods- Euro nymphing and especially center pinning, now -the fish won't see the benefit of a deep freeze that they used to in conjunction with a chance to settle into early spring without heavy molestation. At the very least, snowpack melting into the ground a steady pace has significant groundwater benefits. We have a lot on the ground all over the northeast at this point, and all of February to accrue even more. That leaves another question: with snow on the ground all over the Mid Atlantic region, will there be a significantly better striped bass spawn this spring? My suspicion is, no, there will not, at least not enough to make up for the collapse we've seen thus far, but I could be mistaken. Colder winters with more precipitation are indeed tied to improved recruitment. We'll just need to wait and see.

What I'm most excited about, personally, is this: 

https://www.nohrsc.noaa.gov/nsa/index.html?year=2026&month=1&day=31&units=e&region=Northeast

I anticipate a pretty good spring floodplain season for me... if you've done that fishery with me, you know why that brings a smile to my face. It's the coolest. And with snowpack like we have throughout the watershed, it should be very reliable this spring. Book soon, because late March, April, and May do fill right in! 

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Franky, Geof, Luke, Noah, Justin, Sean, Tom, Mark, Jake, Chris, Oliver, oddity on Display, Sammy, and Cris & Jennifer, Hunter, Gordon, Thomas, Trevor, Eric, Evan, Javier, Ryan, Dar, Eric, Truman, and Collin for making Connecticut Fly Angler possible. If you want to support this blog, look for the Patreon link at the top of the right side-bar in web version.

March/April Updates & Guiding

 Winter still maintains it's grip across Connecticut as I write this, though daily high temperatures this week are creeping up this week. This was a real winter, there's been ice for weeks and weeks. Many of the places I fish are holding onto well over a foot still. That's been extremely refreshing. I've taken a substantial break from open-water fishing. The trout fishing has been poor, both as an apparent result of severe drought mortality last fall and generally poor conditions for fishing through the winter, so it hasn't been hard to forego. Taking advantage of the hardwater has been worthwhile though, and I've been using it to intricately analyze one body of water fairly close to home. The analysis revolves around panfish and bass there, though it holds more than that. Jigging has just been my focus. I'll be on six consecutive days at that location after today, and it has been very engaging and interesting, as well as exceptionally productive in terms of quality panfish. Panfish is something I'd like to guide for more. Though I've got a handful of very dedicated perch clients and have guided for crappie as well, it doesn't make up a lot of my guiding time and I'd like it to for a variety of reasons... highest up being that it's just a lot of fun. And of course there's something to be said for the consistent quality to be had. Panfish over a foot aren't available everywhere, but I've got um. Going into March I plan on making at least two dedicated trophy panfish trips a week, whether I'm guiding for them or not. Last year, I put John Kelly on a fly tackle length record yellow perch, and we're very keen on getting a larger one this spring. But for now, it's still an ice game for at least a bit. 

Garth with a very nice crappie.

Though I do love ice fishing, I'm of course greatly looking forward to this spring. April is already very heavily booked, mostly for carp with a smattering of smallmouth and pike trips in the mix as well. Currently, I've only got the 8th and 29th fully available in April, so if you were looking to book, well, better get on that. March has much more availability, and though a lot of smallmouth and carp fishing will be on the docket the day to day standbys will be trout and salmon throughout the month, both floating and walk & wade, and pike. You can contact me at brwntroutangler@gmail.com to book. On the 22nd I'll be a panelist at the Saltwater Edge "On The Fly" forum. The event starts at 9:00am, at 1376 W. Main Rd. in Middletown, Rhode Island. I'll be talking backwaters and marshes, and highlighting some under targeted species for the fly rod. 

On Patreon, I've built up a very nice backlog of posts and videos so that I'm less likely to get caught a few days behind the way I have sometimes in the past. It also means I can give you all a better idea of what's coming up there in the coming weeks! You've got some guides to weather forecasting for fishing purposes coming up, including a video on fronts and some deep dives on specific frontal setups and the fishing that resulted from them. For the coming weeks the Quick Tip videos will be focused on some easy organization tricks and fly tying material reuse and recycling. There's also a post about dry fly fishing Maryland's Savage River and some ice fishing posts coming up. So stay tuned, and join on Patreon if you want more how-to related content, videos, and stories. I post four times a week there. 

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Franky, Geof, Luke, Noah, Justin, Sean, Tom, Mark, Jake, Chris, Oliver, oddity on Display, Sammy, and Cris & Jennifer, Courtney, Hunter, Gordon, Thomas, Trevor and Eric for making Connecticut Fly Angler possible. If you want to support this blog, look for the Patreon link at the top of the right side-bar in web version.

Just One Slab: Ice Fishing Big Crappie

One notably unpleasant day in February, Rick invited me for a run up to Massachusetts to fish a well known crappie and perch hot spot. A gusting Northwest wind would prevent comfort out in the open, so it was a really good thing Rick had both shelter and a portable heater. We set out, brimming with confidence and some idea of what to expect since Rick had just fished the spot a few days prior. 

Trophy panfish seems like an oxymoron to some fishermen. I’ve met a few folks that turn up their noses to bluegill, crappie and perch entirely. This runs contrary to my own opinions of those species. Panfish, large ones in particular, are something I borderline obsess over. That’s why it’s fun to fish with Rick, he will never shy away from a good panfish bite. Having ice fished for them all over the northeast for many years, he also has far more experience than I and I value the knowledge I’ve been able to pick up from him. Still, neither of us is good enough to catch every time we go out though, still. And that’s part of what keeps panfishing exciting. It isn’t as simple as just going out and jigging on a body of water that holds the species. 

On this day we never fully got a grasp on the bite. There were fish under us sporadically throughout the afternoon and evening and we were able to get bites sometimes. However, they were not, for the most part, the sort of bites we were looking for. Most of the fish caught were small sunfish, perch, and spottail shiners. After spending a while at the first set of holes we moved over just a short distance. Immediately we had marks under us and promptly each caught a crappie. Mine was a slab. It wasn’t as big as we were really hoping for at 12 inches and change, but it had shoulders and was certainly a good fish. 

We thought it was on, but we didn’t get another crappie all evening. From right around sunset on we even had loads of big marks beneath us, a huge school of fish. We could sporadically get them to follow but they seemed to have no interest at all in eating anything we tried to feed them. We can’t be sure what species these were since we didn’t catch one, but it certainly was befuddling. This is exactly what keeps fishing engaging for anglers like Rick and I: we want to either figure out how to catch these fish or figure out how to know when it isn’t possible. One fish, a pretty good one, made the trip, but it was those that we could see on the flasher but failed to fool that made me want to figure this spot out. 

Until next time, 

Fish for the love of fish.

Fish for the love of places fish live.

Fish for you.

And stay safe and healthy.

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Leo, C, Franky, Geof, and Luke for making Connecticut Fly Angler possible. If you want to support this blog, look for the Patreon link at the top of the right side-bar in web version. 

Trophy Pickerel Ice Fishing

 I love big chain pickerel. That’s never been a secret. I get a great deal of joy out of catching the native Esox species. I especially love really big pickerel. Regrettably, I’ve not been catching many truly giant pickerel in recent years. That changed one day in February while out on the ice.

Rick and I were actually looking for panfish, mainly big bluegills and crappie. We set out on a shallow, weedy lake that we knew had a large abundance of both species in good sizes. We also knew it had a lot of chain pickerel, and we certainly wouldn’t mind catching those. The first few spots we tried weren’t especially active, we may have gotten a bluegill or two. But eventually we set up in a deeper spot and could see fish moving around in the weeds on the flasher. They were a little finicky, but we were soon slowly picking up bluegills. Eventually I got a crappie as well. There were a few “up bites” that I was missing, and these are usually indicative of crappie bites. 

I got a pickerel too, maybe half a dozen fish in. It was a small one- beautiful but not impressive in stature. I always find it fascinating that pickerel will eat a tiny tungsten jig with only one or two spikes on it; it seems so small. It’s not really in their character. They’re smaller than pike but if anything, have even more attitude. Eating such a tiny bait just seems unlike them. They will, though, and nothing could prepare me more for the next pickerel that ate my little jig. It came out of the weeds and I saw the eat clear as day on the flasher. It felt heavy and immediately began running hard. I was using the equivalent of 5x tippet, so I felt I couldn’t possibly land this fish. The fight was a jaw clenching give and take, and when I got the fish to the hole I could see that not only was it a really nice pickerel but my line was crosswise through her teeth. With my heart in my throat, I shoved my hand into the frigid water and miraculously managed to get her through the hole. 

What a fish she was! Long, but more impressively, very girthy. There were clearly a few panfish in her stomach. This was the sort of pickerel I’m hoping I’ll get on the fly sometime this month or the next. The fact that this big predator -with 3 inch panfish in her belly- felt the need to eat that miniscule jig, and that I then got her to hand? Incredible. The highlight of the ice season for me. 

We ended up picking at panfish and pickerel the rest of the outing. The bites came in bits and spurts. A couple of the pickerel were nice ones, though not nearly as impressive as the second one. It was an excellent day out on the hard water- one of my favorite days ice fishing ever.

Until next time, 

Fish for the love of fish.

Fish for the love of places fish live.

Fish for you.

And stay safe and healthy.

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Leo, C, Franky, Geof, and Luke for making Connecticut Fly Angler possible. If you want to support this blog, look for the Patreon link at the top of the right side-bar in web version. 

Edited by Cheyenne Terrien

Spottail Shiners and White Perch Through The Ice

I like variety... if that wasn't already clear to those of you that have been reading my musings for a while. Size doesn't matter all that much. Though I love big fish, I love small fish too. I want need to catch both. Winter is generally lacking in species and size diversity in Connecticut, especially compared to spring and late summer into early fall. Mostly I'm catching brook trout, brown trout, bluegills, and yellow perch all winter. Sure, some of those might be trophy sized individuals, but after a time I want something different, even if it's tiny. It was for that reason that I wasn't at all disappointed when my friend Rick and I set up over likely crappie territory but instead started pulling spottail shiners up through the ice.

It was a cloudy day, we had a rising tide, and it seemed like really good conditions to get some large crappies. I don't think we ended up getting even one, but we had steady action from other species. The shiners came in waves. There'd be long lulls interrupted by flurries of constant nibbles. I'd started out with plastics but just wasn't sealing the deal with them so switched to spikes instead. That worked well. 

We tried moving around to see if we could get on top of a school of crappies. Our third pair of holes was the most interesting. Though they were only about two feet apart, I was reaching bottom about a foot before Rick. We were definitely on some sort of structure- what, exactly I wasn't sure. This was, unsurprisingly, the best hole of the day. Though it did produce lots of shiners and a couple bluegills, white perch were the headliners. I'd caught only a couple through the ice prior and I didn't get that many to add to that total. One of them, though, was pretty darn nice. Long, fat, and full of fight, it outclassed every other fish I'd caught that week by a wide margin. Big white perch fight really hard. I have quite the soft spot for them.

So, although this day didn't give up what Rick and I had hoped for it was a respite from what I'd been experiencing. Over the coming week or so I'd get a little bit more variety, and some bigger fish as well. For those of you who aren't that interested in the ice fishing posts, I'll mix in some more recent trout outing for, well, variety.

Until next time, 

Fish for the love of fish.

Fish for the love of places fish live.

Fish for you.

And stay safe and healthy.

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Leo, C, Franky, and Geof for making Connecticut Fly Angler possible. If you want to support this blog, look for the Patreon link at the top of the right side-bar in web version. 

Edited by Cheyenne Terrien

Bluegills in a Blizzard

 Sometimes I just have to say screw it and go fishing regardless of the weather. I’ve basically been doing this professionally, anyway. Neither snow nor sleet nor heavy rain nor tornado warning has kept me off the water. Frankly I enjoy fishing in bad weather. It excites and rejuvenates me. And if I’m honest, it also makes me feel at least a little bit badass. So when Connecticut was being pummeled by a gnarly snowstorm on the first of February, I was going fishing. I wasn’t going to drive anywhere, it was too nasty. I wasn’t going to fish open water either, I just didn’t feel like it. I was going ice fishing. The closest options are all pretty mediocre hardwater fisheries. There are plenty of fish in them, they just seem trickier to ice fish than other bodies of water I’ve been on. But there was one place that was as near a guarantee as I could get and it was within walking distance. 

So I set out into the winter wonderland. The howling wind blew both the snow that was falling and that which was already on the ground. I could hear plow trucks in the distance and the wind in powerlines and trees, but not much other than that. In about 15 minutes I was at my destination. Spudbar in hand, I cleared a bit of snow from the inside of a vertical concrete tube about four feet in diameter. Then I spudded a hole in the 5 inches of ice underneath that. I then lowered my little tungsten jig down there. A few minutes later it came back up with a bluegill attached. A few minutes after that I got another. They were all tiny, but I’d caught some fish and that’s all I really needed.

 I looked out over the rest of the pond this little weird culvert-like pipe was in. Streaks of snow whipped across the ice. I’d never caught much any time I tried to fish any other spot in this place. I briefly considered trying along the dam somewhere, but decided to head back home. 

I walked back in my own footsteps. Though they weren’t even 45 minutes old, they were already just shapeless potholes in the ever deepening snow. 

Until next time, 

Fish for the love of fish.

Fish for the love of places fish live.

Fish for you.

And stay safe and healthy.

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Leo, C, Franky, and Geof for making Connecticut Fly Angler possible. If you want to support this blog, look for the Patreon link at the top of the right side-bar in web version. 

Edited by Cheyenne Terrien

First Ice 2021

 It had just started to get properly cold in mid January when Garth and I went looking for our first stripers of the year. It was too cold, as it turned out- the spot was frozen over. In a desperate bid to catch something, I suggested we visit a productive winter panfish spot I’d been told about but had never fished. That turned out to be frozen too, so much so a lot of it seemed walkable. We didn’t bother testing it though, this little cove was criss-crossed by docks that allowed us to fish it without actually getting on the ice. We only had fly rods but both of us managed to get yellow perch. 

Two days later, I returned, this time with Noah. We had the right gear and were hopeful that the fish would be on. They were, both of us were promptly catching panfish. I was using a tungsten jig and switching back and forth between the Eurotacke Eurogrub Jr. in white and Gammascud in chartreuse. Bias aside (I worked for Eurotackle and remain friends with the owner), these plastics hammer fish. They’ll go toe-to-toe with spikes a lot of the time and often enough even out-fish them. I fished some small tungsten bead nymphs as well.

Yellow perch dominated, followed in abundance by bluegills, pumpkinseeds, and crappie. I also got a small golden shiner. The native pumpkinseeds were gorgeous specimens. They weren't big but they also weren't tiny. Pumpkinseeds are a stunning and underappreciated fish locally. Their colors often rival those of wild trout. Their patterns and depth of color vary drastically from fish to fish. Unfortunately, overcrowding and hybridization with bluegills keeps pumpkinseed numbers relatively low in waters they would have historically been the dominant sunfish. 

Ice fishing has been very good for me. Not only has it allowed me to stay out on the water on days I wouldn't want to fly fish but it has opened up new learning opportunities. It has allowed me another window into fish behavior. In any case where it is possible to fly fish (or at least closely approximate it), that's what I'll do. If not, I'm still going to fish. I want to learn as much as I can. That's what this is all about for me. 

Until next time, 

Fish for the love of fish.

Fish for the love of places fish live.

Fish for you.

And stay safe and healthy.

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Leo, C, Franky, and Geof for making Connecticut Fly Angler possible. If you want to support this blog, look for the Patreon link at the top of the right side-bar in web version. 

Edited by Cheyenne Terrien

Northwest Ice

Under the influences of one of these tiny windows of ice fishing opportunity we keep getting this winter, Noah and I headed to Northwestern CT in search of new species. The main target was rainbow smelt, Osmerus mordax a small predatory fish that spawns in flowing water in winter and early spring and travels in large schools. CT's native anadromous smelt population has been decimated and are all but extinct. That's why we were heading Northwest rather than south, seeking introduced landlocked populations in deep reservoirs. Historically, four bodies of water had smelt. One no longer seems to, at least they haven't turned up in electrofishing in a long time, one was just drained for dam repairs, and one is illegal to fish. We, of course, were fishing the fourth lake that has historically had smelt, the one that still does, isn't drained, and is perfectly legal to fish. Since we were completely in the dark about smelt targeting Noah and I both did quite a bit of research beforehand and I contacted some people I knew had done a bit of this fishing. We then set out on the biggest and deepest body of water we'd ever ice fished having some confidence we'd find our query.

We set up off a subtle point and I spudded holes at 20ft intervals starting near shore and going out. This is always a good idea to get to know the lay of the land and find fish. There wasn't a distinct deep submerged drop off that fish would be relating to, but the depth of the river basin was fairly clear, and the slope up to a a currently underwater road grade. I caught a perch almost immediately. As it turned out, that was the only fish either of us would catch on this lake that day. We had a few bands of probably smelt pass through under our electronics but we could get them to buy what we were selling. We tried another area and found it completely devoid of fish and so decided to head to a different lake altogether, one that used to have smelt but probably no longer does. What it does have is stocked trout, and we figured this would be an easy way to get the skunk off.

We started in shallow water there, along a weed edge we'd found trout along kayak fishing when the water was open. It seemed at least on this day they didn't have the same sort of interest in this area, so we devolved into just goofing off for a while. After more than one group of guys who had been out over deep water (about 40ft) left and mentioned catching fish, we decided to take their place. I'm glad we did, I got my first trout through the ice.

Three days late and I'd be pretty seriously hesitant to try ice fishing today. It honestly is pretty frustrating to be trying really hard to get into ice fishing and getting Just tiny windows of opportunity each winter when there's safe ice. This isn't how it used to be, and this isn't how it should be. I want ice that lasts, dammit!
Until next time.

Fish for the love of fish.

Fish for the love of places fish live.

Fish for you.

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, and Leo for supporting this blog on Patreon.

On Glorious Ice, Which is Now Dead

The weather seems more erratic in late fall and winter every year. This December was just crazy. There have been two good ice windows here in CT. There maybe, maybe still is some now at high elevations, but I'm not going to bother after this rain and these warm temperatures. But before this warm spell settled in, there was good ice locally and I had myself a good ol' time jigging panfish. I also found carp under clear ice, and I regret not putting in some time to try to catch them with bolt rigs on tip-ups after I located them. I also wish I'd put in any effort at all to photograph them. It was really cool though, walking around four feet above feeding and resting carp, some of which were in excess of 30lbs.

My best day thus far I spent messing around with some Eurotackle soft plastics. It was probably my best volume day ever, The action was so hot and heavy in such a small area I was moving fish via bucket to a different hole to release so as not to spook the school. Releasing a bunch of fish right back into the school can put the uncaught ones on edge and make them remain uncaught.  I was filling up a bait bucket with about 10 fish, releasing them all at the same time 40 ft from where I was catching them, then repeating the process. It appeared to work... one hole, three hours, 70 bluegills and 4 black crappies seems pretty clear to me. The crappies were below average, most of the bluegills were average for this pond but a dozen were decent sized. I'd have kept some of the middle sized ones were it not a questionable, shallow, muddy, goose poop filled industrial mill pond I was fishing.

The clock is running down. The year is almost up. I'm glad I got some time on the ice in 2019 as it was not a great year in CT for it. I do hope the rest of this winter is consistently good conditions for either ice fishing or open water fishing but that rarely seems to be the case anymore. Inconsistent is the new normal. Climate change is real.

Until next time.

Fish for the love of fish.

Fish for the love of places fish live.

Fish for you.

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, and Shawn for supporting this blog on Patreon.

First Ice

It got just cold enough for just long enough. The window was tiny, heavy rain and mid 50's temperatures were inbound. But the braze will find ice if they look. I'm not very brave, but I am very light, so I'm comfortable on thinner ice than most should be, though only if it is clear and hard. I found that ice just in time. It was a thing of beauty. Just north of the thickness I'm comfortable with, and so good and pristine and dark. I didn't think that's what I'd find after seeing milky, soft, unsafe ice for days. But there it was. It was time to walk on water.

The fishing wasn't good. A few small bluegills came to hand, two of which were to be sacrificed in the quest for a giant pickerel. Flags did not fly on this day. Nor did the few takes I had on hair jigs result in large crappies for the frying pan. But it was nice to stand on the hardwater again and get into the rhythm of it, if only to have it all melt away in the coming days.

Please be careful out there this ice season.

Until next time.

Fish for the love of fish.

Fish for the love of places fish live.

Fish for you.

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, and Shawn for supporting this blog on Patreon.

Saved The Best for Last

I hadn't foreseen this week when I made the assumption that the ice on my immediate local bodies of water was done for the season (The only waters I bother to put ice time into unless I'm really desperate, there's almost always an open water bite somewhere. If I have to travel anyway I may as well go somewhere I can fly fish). Temperatures dropped into the mid 20's during the day and single digits at night, and, though the edges were's perfect and the ice wasn't nice and hard and clear all the way through, there was safe ice again in the places I wanted to fish. I made for the pond late in the evening on Thursday, hoping I would catch the late day crappie bite window. I've been pursuing crappies since December and it has not gone well. One three inch crappie doesn't constitute a success to me. I got bluegill, some small perch, one big perch. No bass. No golden shiners either, which was a secondary goal. I didn't even get out for carp. I  didn't really have any memorable days... until Thursday.

I wished I'd had a vexilar. Not because I needed it but because I'm pretty sure that between the bottom and 1ft below the ice was more fish than water. That would have been pretty cool to see. I got out and cut the hole, dropped down a plastic tipped jig, then set the rod down with the bail open to cut another hole just a few feet away. I hadn't even started when I looked over and saw the rod tip going bonkers. I picked it up and set the hook, but but missed. Then I got slammed on the drop. I brought up a pretty good sized bluegill, which I released fast. I set the rod down, this time without dropping the jig down. and went to cut a hole a little ways away that I could release fish into. I had gotten the idea that I may have cut the first hole of a big pile of fish and I don't like releasing fish back into the school I'm working, it could put them all down faster. So I went 10 feet away, cut another hole, determined that it wasn't over fish, and went back to the first. My suspicions were confirmed. I was over a ton of panfish. I started catching bluegill, mostly of a fair size for this place, though there were a couple dinkers mixed in.

Then, some yellow perch joined the fray. I only caught a dozen and they weren't big, but they broke up the monotony of bluegills.

Then as the sun started to set, I started to catch crappies that were sitting towards the bottom. I had to sort of tease them up, but they, along with the bluegills and perch, continued to assault my jig on every single drop, even after the plastic tore off and I was too lazy to replace it. The crappie were doing up-bites: instead of a visible knock on the rod tip, I'd see my line slacken slightly. The crappies were taking the jig in an upward lunge and continuing to move up just enough to create that visible slack.

I didn't get any real slabs. But I got numbers. And that was a lot better than the zeros and one dink I had put up all winter until now. So, hell, I'll take it! I also caught something strange. I have to assume it's a hybrid sunfish. It must have redbreast in it given the body shape. The only other sunfish with that body shape in the system is rock bass, and I've never heard of them hybridizing with any of the other sunfish species in the system. So, I'm left with a big old question mark and probably a hybrid that I would have added to my life-list had it been caught on the fly. Ughh.

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