It’s the most wonderful time of the year? Not for fishermen. The Cape Cod fishing scene remains in limbo this week with most lakes having too much ice to allow open water fishing, yet not enough ice to allow ice fishing.
Some of the larger ponds are open, allowing for some trout fishing. Dan at The Hook Up in Orleans fished Cliff over the weekend, and caught a couple rainbows.
With many small ponds already skimmed over, fishermen are hopeful they’ll be ice fishing soon, but the 10 day forecast doesn’t hold much promise for making safe ice. Temperatures will remain above 40 (even at night) through the weekend, with rain coming in on Sunday to polish off what little ice will remain by then.
On the bright side, some more water should open up to allow fishermen to at least wet a line.
Trout will be the top target. Fish small shiners or worms, or slow-moving lures like jigs or stickbaits.
If you need to get on the ice, check out Ron Powers’ Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine Fishing Forecast for more info on some frozen waters. A roadtrip to the north and west will put you into ice fishing territory. I’ll be road tripping north and west this weekend, past all the safe ice to the Salmon River in Pulaski, where hopefully I can end the 2014 season on a steel note.
Don’t put yourself at risk venturing onto ice that you are unsure about just so you can set a tip up or two. It isn’t worth it. Most ice fishermen here at the On The Water office wait for a minimum of 4 inches to get onto the ice because the ponds don’t freeze evenly. Sure, 3-inch thick ice will support an average fisherman, but there could be pockets of ice that are only 1-inch thick. That’s not a risk worth taking to handline pickerel.
This is going to be the last fishing forecast for 2013. We’ll pick them up on January 2, and hopefully, there will be plenty of fishing, either through the ice or from the bank, to kick off 2014.
Best Bets for the Weekend
Get in your last-minute Christmas shopping, and relax with a copy of the 2014 On The Water Special Edition, which should be hitting your mailbox this week. If you need to get outside, wade one of the larger ponds or take a road trip North and West to find safe ice.
I was looking on bass pro and I was wanting to buy some three way swivels for striped bass fishing off the boat. I wanted to fish eels with them. But, when I went on bass pro it had a bunch of different sizes for the swivels and different pound tests. So I need a little help knowing what size swivel to get and what pound test it should be. Any advice would help.
Thanks and tight lines
Hey HT, if you’re three-waying eels I would skip the three-way swivel and tie a three-way rig. Excess hardware is best avoided and a three-way swivel is just one more thing to snag, catch weed and possibly spook skittish stripers. You will need a barrel swivel between the main line (50 lb braid for me) and the rig leader. Don’t break the bank on a swivel, I usually buy bulk of 80-pound plus and replace them as soon as they show a hint of corrossion. A neat three way rig consists of 20″ of 50-pound mono with a double surgeon (or dropper) loop tied in the middle and another loop tied at the end of the tag end. The double surgeon loop is for attachment of the leader (4 to 6′) to the hook (usually 7/0 Octopus) and the tag end loop to the bank sinker! This rig has stood the test of time for sharpies!
Good luck!
-Ron
Ron,
I’m a little confused… haha. I looked up some videos/demonstrations on YouTube on how to set up a three way rig. But in the videos they are using a three way swivel. I’m a little lost on how you would tie this together if you only used a barrel swivel. It would be great if you and the OTW crew could put a demonstrational video on the website on how to tie this. If that can’t happen maybe I just need some more explaining. Hopefully I can learn this rig by spring. Any more advice will help.
Thanks and tight lines!!!
A video probably wouldn’t be a bad idea! Meanwhile, the rig I mentioned does the same thing as a three-way swivel. The barrel swivel connects the main line to the rig line, this takes the place of the top eye of the three-way swivel, The double surgeon loop in the middle of the rig is in place of the middle-eye of the three-way swivel and the bottom loop is there to hold the sinker! Again, many feel that the less hardware there is, such as an actual three-way swivel, the better! It’s funny but I plan on writing an all-eel feature for the striper season and that will be a subject I intend on covering. I hope this clears things up.
Ron,
Yes, it sure does clear things up. Thanks for all the advice and help! I hope I will be catching big stripers this fall using eels.
Ron,
One more question… Hopefully I am not a bother. Is the double surgeon’s loop to hold the weight. When I looked up how to tie that knot it looks like I would tie the weight to that double surgeon’s knot. And then the hook with the eel would be tied on the bottom part of the barrel swivel? Sorry for the inconvenience!
No problem at all HT. To really put you at ease I spoke to my friend Captain Jason Colby who taught me everything I know about three-waying eels. The double surgeon loop which you tie in the middle of the rig should be tied long enough for it to stick out from the the rig at roughly ninety-degrees from the rest of the rig. This loop attaches to the 4′ – 6′ hook leader. At the end of the tag end of the double surgeon loop, tie a single loop (surgeon or perfection) which will be used to hold the sinker. The reason for the non-reinforced single loop is that if the sinker tangles you sacrifice just the weight and not the whole rig. When it’s done properly everything lines up vertically except the double surgeon loop which extends to keep the hook leader from tangling!