3-2-12 to 3-4-12 – A Long Weekend

We have been slacking this weekend at posting but its not for lack of fishing. Bobby and I have fished together the last three days on Lake Champlain and it has been decent.

3-2-12

On Friday, I got out of work mid morning and headed north to pre-fish for the VT Sportsman Tournament on Dillenbeck the following day. On the way, I found out that the bite was pitiful and that everyone was headed south. So I changed my plans and met them around noon. We were able to find fish so we worked them while we could. We punched a lot of holes in every direction and found that the fish were cruising structure at a 4-6′ contour. As the waves of fish came through we caught them but it was almost a guessing game on where to go when they were absent. We were catching decent pumpkinseed, big bluegill, and average crappies. We didn’t stay till dark because the fishing wasn’t that great and the 100 miles drive is better with some light!

3-3-12

Saturday morning, I picked up Bobby at 4:30am and we hit the road. There was a good deal of snow and slush until we got past Middlesex so the drive took a bit longer with my speed handicap put in place by the co-pilot! We ended up arriving around 6:20 so we weren’t late. We caught part of the rules announcements before being released to the ice. Our plan was to head further out than normal in hopes that the fish had pushed out from where they are normally found. The new snow pack and constant pressure from all the guys pre-fishing has a big impact on fish patterns. In general, the fish were pretty skinny everywhere we fished. It started off slow and the theme continued throughout the day but when you got one there were more.

At the end of the day, I only had one one crappie and three decent pumpkinseed/bluegill mix. Bobby’s bag was a different story… He ended up weighing in the largest fish (1.58 pounds) and the heaviest bag (4.73 pounds) of the day! Good turn out for one of us! Maybe when Bobby gets back to having access to a computer he can post up what made him successful.

After hearing Bobby brag about his success the whole way home (JK) it was time for some payback… His wife schemed up a surprise birthday party and he had no idea! My only job was to stall him long enough to delay our arrival to 6pm. That was no problem thanks to Jamie and Scott asking for help picking up. After a few beers it was time to get prepared for the next day of fishing!

3-4-12

We got a late start around 8am today. The weather was nice as the temperature cooled down a bit from the day before and the wind wasn’t whipping too bad. The fishing was another story. Although it wasn’t dead it was tough to find good numbers of fish. We worked north, south, east, and west from the usual starting point and never really found good numbers. One of our buddies struck out on his own and found some nice fish mid day. With a quick phone call and a short ride on the four wheeler we were all on fish. We fished for another two hours before calling it a day around 2pm. We caught some nice bluegill and pumpkinseed and even managed to pull a few decent crappie. Well at least Bobby did. Mine was swimming solo in a bucket of bluegill/pumpkinseed!

Overall, it was a great weekend on the ice. As the season nears its end, it’s getting harder and harder not to spend every minute out there! From day to day and even morning to afternoon, the drive home provides us more and more views of open water. Sad sight! Lucking we have driven the roads up north enough to do it blindfolded…