It’s not often that February offers an open-water option to go along with hardwater possibilities, but depending on where you set your GPS that is exactly what is available. Metrowest anglers haven’t had use for their augers for a while but the ones that are tight to tiger trout and rainbows from ice-free ponds aren’t complaining. But if February to you just isn’t February without a frozen fix, you’ll find ample ice fishing out west and up north.
Massachusetts Fishing Report
When Jerry of Jerry’s B&T in Milford told me of a terrific tiger trout that was caught, my knee-jerk response was something in the order of, “Great, there’s ice there!” And while Jerry said no, the answer was hardly negative. It seems that Hopkinton Reservoir is largely open and anglers are taking advantage of holdover rainbow and tiger trout that are hitting a battery of bait and lures. Odds are that if you hook a trout that was stocked last fall and quite possibly last spring, it is going to bigger, more colorful and a lot more challenging to land compared with anything that is likely to be stocked next month. Nuno from Lunkers in Ashland said that both Ashland Reservoir and Lake Cochituate have open water.
A drive out to the Wachusett area will put you on frozen water according to Eddie of B&A. Two heavyweights were weighed in the shop recently. Juan Cornejo iced a 15-pound, 4-ounce broodstock salmon that took a shiner at Comet Pond. And Jimmy D’Angelo bested his annual 15 ½-pound northern pike that all but guarantees that he’ll win the shop’s toothy category in the winter fishing tournament, as he does most every year. While not disclosing the location, Jimmy has been known to frequent the Charles and Sudbury rivers. Eddie told me there’s good ice, and with the predicted chill it should only get better out there. They’re taking trout from South Meadow Pond in Clinton and a mixed bag of warm-water species from Peter Carr Pond in Holden. While the Stillwater Basin is one big ‘berg, fast-flowing Quinapoxet is wide open and they’re getting some beautiful holdover bows from there.
The cold water conundrum in the Connecticut Valley Region might be deciding just where to ice fish! In addition to the usual North Spectacle Pond, Lake Mattawa and Clubhouse Pond, they’re ice fishing on Laurel Lake in Erving and there are even 3 or 4 Bob Houses set up on Barton Cove. This Connecticut River fishbowl has walleye and pike along with the more usual suspects.
New Hampshire Fishing Report
Business is brisk if you have a B&T shop north of the border; the lack of ice in Southern New England has many trekking to Dover Marine and Dag’s in Auburn in search of relief.Some Downeasterners have opined that they haven’t seen that many Connecticut license plates since they last visited Foxwoods! And there’s good reason.
Jamie from Dover Marine in New Hampshire told me that most of the bays of Winnipesauke are locked up in solid-as-a-rock black ice up to 12 inches deep. Black ice is almost unheard of for the second week in February. Trucks are trekking around among the bays and trap flags are popping but you have to be on the lookout for pressure ridges which can have walls of ice and adjacent open water. Jamie cracked a few cusk as well as some slab yellow and white perch from 19 Mile Bay. The Meredith Rotary Ice Fishing Derby takes place this weekend!
Elsewhere things are really “crappie” in New Hampshire. Apparently some “bucket biologists” have been illegally stocking black crappie in water bodies that erstwhile had none. Not only is this criminal, but this non-indigenous species is a rapacious eater of fish fry. Once crappie take hold, you can often expect a precipitous drop in everything else that breeds there including bass, other panfish and brook trout. There are currently solid numbers of crappie in Bellamy Reservoir in Madbury and Willand Pond in Dover.
Last weekend’s lake trout derby at Great East Lake revealed 6” to 7” of ice over the majority of this big body of water and very hungry lake trout. Lakers can be located in water as shallow as 15 feet; bucktail jigs, Aeroplane jigs and Swedish Pimples spiced with a strip of sucker will entice the fish to bite. It’s not looking good for those who long for smelt from Great Bay, ice even among the tributaries has been lacking and it’s not expected to change.
Maine Fishing Report
Another week, more good news for toothy hunters as last weekend’s pike derby on Taylor Pond resulted in the catching of numerous northerns including the 15-13 winner. Landlocked salmon are slamming smelt in Thompson Lake. According to Marcel from Dag’s the key is to drop the smelt between 4 and 6 feet below the ice where shallow areas edge up to shelves. If you find that transition in about 25 feet of water that is just about perfect. Hoot with the owls on Thompson come dark and you’re likely to catch cusk.
Marcel clued me in on a method I never would have imagined. It seems that cusk and trout for that matter have a real taste for “tommy cod,” more accurately known as mummichogs and sometimes called “chubs” in baitshops. The best rig is to pair a worm with the tommy cod. Run the hook through the worm first and slide it up toward the eye of the hook. Take your tommy cod and hook it under the dorsal fin, like you’d rig most baitfish. The tommy cod will sound straight to the bottom, dragging that tantalizing worm the whole way and predators have a hard time passing that cold water sandwich up! They catch some real nice brook trout in shallow water this way and it’s also effective for togue. Cusk should be a nighttime quarry and if you’re on Thompson Lake look for them in the Northern Oxford end by McGuire Island where the bottom slips from 25-40-60 feet.
The word on the smelt camps is that the fishing is fine. Good reports are coming in from Baker’s, Leighton’s and Worthing’s that the bite is on!
Best Bets
It’s all about open water for trout if your home base is southern or eastern Massachusetts. Holdover trout that have packed on inches and feature heightened color can be taken from most any pond that MassWildlife lists as a frequently stocked pond. Leave the micro-wares at home for the stockies next month; I met a guy who took a 19-inch rainbow a short while ago and has landed consistent survivors with a 3/8-ounce candy-colored Kastmaster. Don’t be afraid to throw big stuff out there–those larger holdover trout have big appetites. If ice is your game, there’s some good hardwater in South Meadow Pond in Clinton, and if a running river is more to your liking, rainbows are available in the Quinapoxet River. Orange continues to be ice-central in the Bay State with some of the more interesting fishing happening on Barton Cove in the Connecticut River. In New Hampshire there are rainbows, white and yellow perch, and black ice among many of the bays of Winnipesauke. But for a real mixed bag in Maine, set your traps in search of pike from Taylor Pond or free-line a “tommy cod” for cusk and trout from Thompson Lake.
Are comet, whalom or mattawa still safe? I’m Looking to go out there tomorrow