so, with all the great new england weather we've had the past 2 weeks, the ice is getting thicker - fast! i know areas in northern n.e. already had enough snow and ice, but in areas south, it's been tough w/ the rains.

a few of us went out to check some ice yesterday and it's ready. this week will bring more ice. might be able to hit some of the lakes soon. just a good excuse to get out of the house once in a while, get together w/ some friends, bring the beer, bring the grille and venicen, and play a little game of tackling to the tilts when a flag goes up. little jigging here and there. not much better than a fresh perch sandwich.

so, who's been recently and how you making out?

hey habs, you finish my 1/16 oz needle yet?

going the weekend 25th - 26th someplace in eastern mass. my friend says he has about 3" in the coves on the charles. waiting for more.

Christian:

Ponkapaug right near home has safe ice.

I was invited to go tomorrow, but I'm hitting the ski slopes on Wednesday or Thursday, so 1 day off a week is all I can do right now.

I will probably fish there this coming weekend.
You might want to check it out.

V

i need to egt a new license too, i forgot about those. Ponkapaug , ill have to try that one out, what do you guys prefer, ice chissel or auger, i like an ice chissel better,

christian,

Where do you fish on the charles? I row and I always see guys fishing, but never catching anything. Are you fishing upstream of the Science Museum or past it? Good luck, have a good one.

"Lou"

I have gone the last three weekends around Concord Ma. I have gotton a couple bass, perch and five pike the largest going 8.3 lbs. Ponky and Canton Res are both safe and good places. I'll be hitting the Cape this weekend. The Charles has 6 or so coves in Waltham that get very crowded and not worth fishing IMHO but I have gotton a pike that went close to 10 lbs. out of there.

charles in dedham, up river from the bridge near tropicland and continueing up river for two more bridges, then it just gets too narrow and fast. lots of crappie and bass, ive caught a few ells around this area too. is this common? the eels were HUGE, like 3 pounders and about 3 feet long. same i use for stripers except giants.

Yes I have caught eels through the ice. Last Saturday a guy caught an 8 lb. CARP! on a shiner. Christian a couple good ponds not far from you are Buckmaster in Westwood and New Pond in Walpole, both are good icefishing.

Last weekend-Sat&Sun on Meadow pond in Northbridge,Ma.
About 8 in. of ice and extremely breezy.Catch consisted of pickerel,bass,yellow perch,sunfish , and lots of fun.
Thinking of hitting Dug pond in Natick this weekend.

canalratt, talking about carp, one night last summer i went over my friends house on the charles and we were getting into his 17' aluminum boat w/ a 25 hp yamaha, WICKED FAST. anyways we were getting into his boat and i was pointing my 1million candle power spotlight in the water and saw something moving slowly along, it was obiously a huge carp. it was probally in the area of 30 pounds. it would be pretty hard to pull one of those through a 9 inch hole. one of the biggest fish ive ever seen.

ok, tommorow i am going to buckmasters unless someone else knows someplace better and closer to west roxbury,
and by the way, is it safe yet? where is Ponkapaug ? heard of it before but not sure.
i have shiners in my basement right now sitting by the door to keep em cold w/ 02 tab,and some worms i dug up myself this afternoon. yes, dug them up myself through the 8 inches of rock hard solid ground in my yard.

Ponkapaug is in Canton near rt 128.

Hit Wequaket on the Cape with a buddy. Slow day fished from 6:30 am till 4. (yah it was a little cold!) Ended up with about a dozen perch, two pics. a bass and a 4 lb. pike. We'll be back next weekend. Ice was 3" to 4"

ok, went today t buckmasters got 1 average 1-1/2 pound bass, then had a huge hit and got cut off, retied put on the biggest shiner i had dropped it down the hole and got a HUGE pickeral, about 5 pounds, got pics of that one. wicked fat. a couple of sunnies also.
the bass and the pickeral all hit while i was setting the tip up. didnt even have the flag ready. good thing i was suing 12 pound test leader or i wounldnt have ever caught the pickeral. there was 8-10" at buckmasters. cut out old holes with my chiz. i might be back tommorow if my friend is home.

here,

and another, got my digi-cam today. its sweet.

I went ice fishing at Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg in Webster, Ma Saturday from 6:30am - 1:00pm. I got a few small pickerel but that was it.

The ice was a SOLID 10 inches and you could hear the ice thickening occasionally with the -1 temp.

Christian:

Nice sweatshirt, I see you proudly show your loyalty to the club.

Nice fish too...Your brave to be out in that bitter cold.

I could not get my son to go with me, cause of the low temps, so
I stayed home and worked on the bathroom....:smash: :smash:

well, my friends and i hit the ice again on thursday and friday. thursday was some cold! slow pickings in the am. in the pm we did well on perch. friday, we hammered everything! bass to 5 pounds, perch, pickerel, etc. i had about a 3.5-4 pound pickerel on a ultralite jig rod. talk about a fight! does anyone know if van staal is gonna make that ice fishing model?

with the temps this week, we'll be getting cloe to 10-12" of ice. we had between 4-8 in different areas.

Good going Christian! How long was that pic, nice fish. I told you Buckmasters was good. I usually have good luck in the shallow end near the pumphouse.

um, i dont know what the measure was but somewhere around 24". i was just right out in front of the parking lot. you line up these two light poles and thats where the fish are.
im gonig to be ice fishing in the berkshires over the weekend in some big pond. normally catch perch trout and pcikeral. see what i can do with my new ice fishing skills. got to get more tip-ups. i only have 2. a regular cheap wood one and a cheap plastic one. the plastic one is really good, birght orange and is super sensitive if you set it right. it ocly cost me $5 and i think its better than those $15-20 tip-ups ive seen around. hey, since i have a digi cam why not take a picture of them. see what i can do later.

my ice fishing "stuff." well most of it. notice handle on grey spinner, mess-up plug body.:cool:

I have been out several times in westboro ma A1 site

thick ice and ton's of fish ! the big one was a 18 1/2 inch bass.

A friend just got a salmon 10lb 4 oz at comet pound

getting more tip-ups tonight for the weekend of ice fishing. camp marion white in the berkshires, heard of it?

My brothers haveing a blast.......can you say natives!! his best this year through the ice...7.4#

aaaaaand......a pair of 6.6#

WOW,,,thats awsome, is he in Bassachusetts ???

Sure is, southeastern Mass got'um....... hey does anyone wanna ice fish Cod in the CCbay :D

HUGE!!!!!!hope i do that well this weekend. going to get tip-ups after supper and borrow a power auger.

Its supposed to warm up a bit this weekend, so Sunday I'm gonna hit the hard water berfore the superbowl..

Probabaly Ponkapaug.

i still cant believe how big that bass is.
is there anyplaces around boston where you can get tiger musky?
theres that pond over by the chestnut hill mall that ive heard they dumped musky in to kill all the chubs it had but i think theyre gone now. theres another big lake out somewhere in western mass but thats a little far.
a few days ago my friend checked the ice on the charles in front of his house in dedham and he had 6-8" 75ft from shore, thats amazing . its right near a bridge too.

got 1 bigger trout about 15", a catfish about the same size, and the usual multiple pickeral and perch, no bass. trout and cat were both on worms.

just skimmed through on the water and noticed that in the article of ice fishing for bass, the guy uses a treble hook rig. i normally use singles and get alot of gut hooks. its a pain retieing and it stinks that the fish die. anybody use trebles? the guy says it reduces the # of gut hooked fish.

jeeze everybody except me go ice fishing?
i went angain today in the charles in dedham. one false flag, something stripped all the scales off a big shiner and carries it about 50 ft away. other than that nothing. ice was 6-8" thick almost across the river and was the crystal clear black ice. super smooth.