By Guide Rick Buss:
I recently called my friend and fishing partner, Bill (Billy Bass on NEKF.com), and planned a short road trip to fish with another of our brethren, Mark (Mark Non NEKF.com) to drill some holes in the ice and to see what bites. We set up for trout at first light on a big lake about an hour west of Boston. The bite was dead, and as Mark said, “The lake is huge and waiting for a trout to swim by can take days.”
Just after he said that, we got a flag on one of the tip-ups in deep water. I got there first and set the hook but handed off to Mark as it was his hole. He slid a big slime dart up onto the ice – about a 30 inch pickerel that hit a shiner set up right under the ice in about 15 feet of water. That one fish was all she wrote, so we pulled our gear and drove to the southern end of the lake, which is shallower and holds more warm water species.
We got all set up again and nothing, nothing and more nothing. Then….it started snowing and the wind picked up. Zing! Up popped a flag and Mark had a white perch. From then on, flags were a poppin’. We all got fish – bass, crappies, white and yellow perch. No monsters, but plenty enough to keep us warm running around.
Mark, who is the best bow hunter I know, treated us to homemade deer jerky and the best venison burgers I’ve ever tasted cooked on the ice and shared with these friends which made for a day to remember.
There’s still a lot of organizing, cleaning and prepping for spring fishing that I’ve yet to do. If Bill or Mark calls me again, that stuff can wait ‘cause I’m going to be out the hard water again.
See you at the shows or on the ice!