Afternoon catch

This was the fish kept from yesterday afternoons trip....an additional Bass and 3 other Northern Pike were released....Plenty of safe ice and fish to catch! Click on the picture to enlarge.

Vermont Ice Report

Lake St. Catherine: north of state park has 7 to 9" of ice and is fishing for Bass and Pike, the perch grounds also has people fishing it as does the
Little Lake and Lilly Pond.

Bomoseen: North end down (float bridge) to Crystal Beach has 6 to 8 inches of ice, bass and pike coming to big bait on tipups and the perch bite jigging spoons and jigs has been very good.

Lake Champlain: singing cedars, larrabees, lapham, and 10 acres are all safe areas

Ponds like Burr, Pickeral, Black, Roach, and Reese all have 10 to 13 inches and are fishing better since everyone now is spread out.
Thanks for the view and give me a call if you want to try some icefishing!

Plenty of safe ice on the North side of Bomoseen

Malletts Bay Produces Huge Pike
Posted January 11, 2012 - 5:03pm by Eric_LaMontagne
ShareThis

The day started with low expectations. Thin ice, shallow water, and broken tip-ups and augers all led to the conclusion that it would be a slow day on the ice for Craig Smith and his fishing buddies.

And indeed it was to start. So much so that, after a couple hours, Craig left the ice for his son’s basketball game, leaving the line in the hands of some buddies. Around half time he got a status report from them: one fish, an 11.5lb northern. Nothing to be excited about. The slow prediction was proving itself.

After the game, Craig returned to the ice to check in on everyone. Still, there was nothing. They waited for a flag, but after a couple more actionless hours they made one last check of the traps, starting with the one nearest to the shanty.

Anyone who fishes with Craig knows that he gets his joy from watching others pull up fish. “The thrill for me is bringing others out on the ice. I usually set the traps and bait the hooks, but I rarely ever actually reel the fish in.”

This, he says, is what made this fish so special. “The most incredible part for me is that catching it was a total accident.”

As Craig emerged from the shanty to check the trap, the flag hadn’t been tripped. He sent the other guys out to the far traps, and went to check on the one he knew to be broken. As he approached, that’s when he noticed that half of the line was gone and more was still spinning out! “My heart jumped,” said Craig. “I knew it took a big fish to peel away that much heavy line.”

His assumption was correct. Craig had been fishing 6 inch shiners with 45 lb line, but only had a 20lb leader on the end. When he felt the pull of the fish, he knew he had to play it very carefully. “When it saw the hole, he was not happy. That thing was more pissed off than any other fish I’ve caught, and I’ve caught a lot of fish!” Over the next fifteen minutes, the beast passed under the hole four times, only to again disappear with the line screaming out of the reel. “It was crazy. When we finally did get him to the hole, he barely fit! Our 10 inch auger had broken earlier, so we were only fishing 7 inch holes.”

After heading across the road to Biben’s Lake Shore Ace to weigh and measure the fish, the final stats were staggering. 41.5 inches long. 22.53 pounds. 21 inch girth. A true monster. A few years back Craig had caught a northern that was around 3” longer, but this one weighed over 5lbs more. “A true freak of nature” he called it. Craig claims the fish is the third largest Northern Pike officially registered from Lake Champlain. While still awaiting official confirmation, one thing is for sure, this enormous fish is certainly one for the books. “My phone has been ringing off the hook with people congratulating me,” Craig says. “I’m very surprised and touched by the amount of support and encouragement people have been giving me.”

Story by Eric LaMontagne

Northern Pike are the King on the Ice

A good friend of mine, Mark Stewart of Newport Vermont caught this Northern Pike this last weekend. Mark was icefishing (in the Northeast Kingdom) with tipups and caught this 38" Pike. The fish was released to play another day and was estimated to have weighed about 14lb....

Vermont Ice Fishing

My girl friend, Tina "Beaner" Durgin and I did a quick scouting ride, photo shoot and jigging trip today. We didn't set any tipups, but I did set up some anchors for the portable shanty and we played with new and old toys....this was Tina's first icefishing trip and she told me that she would go again:)

Loading sleds...the wood is for semi-permanent anchor points for the portable shanty

There is between 6 to 9 inches of good hard (SAFE) black ice. So, I normally use my hand auger instead of the gas auger. When I set out a big spread of tipups you can bet the gas auger gets fired up.


The Aqua-Vu and Showdown depth finder are both excellent scouting tools for finding panfish.



Learning to jig through the ice is a process like all sports. This was Tina's first outing and I think she has figured it out.

We normally jig for panfish with 24 to 30 inch rods and reels with 2 to 6 lb test line. Species include: Perch, Bluegills, Crappie and Sunfish

This week's weather forecast

We have a awesome ICE FISHERMAN'S FORECAST for the next 5 days:
Jan. 11 wed high 35 low 27 Sunny
Jan. 12 thur high 36 low 31 Snow
Jan. 13 fri high 34 low 18 Snow
Jan. 14 SAT high 24 low 1 Sunny
Jan. 15 SUN high 20 low 11 Sunny

And after that the weather guess is alittle below freezing straight through....AWESOME! We will have many more targets in short order.
Bass and Trout Icefishing season starts Jan. 21st.

Burr Pond

I guided a trip on Burr Pond this weekend and there was a bunch of people fishing. We had close to 6" on ice and fun was had by all. Burr Pond has Yellow Perch, Bluegills, Crappies, Largemouth Bass and Northern Pike. It is tucked away on the hill across from Lake Hortonia off of Rte 30 in Sudbury Vt. This pond is a great place to teach people how to jig through the ice with very cooperative numbers of Yellow Perch.

There are places to ice fish now!

The following places are (to the best of my knowledge) currently safe to fish....barring a huge warmup and further meltdown. The weather forecast is for warmer than usual, but cold enough at night to still keep and build ice. The following places are being fished as you read this: Burr Pond, Chittenden Reservoir, Roach Pond, Breese Pond, North End of Bomo (north of bridge), Red Rocks, Lapham Bay.
I will be fishing this coming Saturday and cruising/scouting. I do not fish on less than 4 inches of ice...The above mentioned places currently have 4-5inches or more of ice. Let's go icefishing!

We have safe Ice

We have fishable ice on some ponds including one of my favorite icefishing places Burr Pond. The bigger lakes like St. Catherine or Bomoseen are not ready but we are good to go now on Burr pond...thanks for the visit and please stay tuned....Lets go ICE FISHING!