This is one time when this report really lives up to its billing as a forecast. If you’re hobnobbing with your hardwater friends, odds are that there isn’t a heck of a lot going on. But for a moment, about as long as it takes for your cup of Joe to cool, we had hardwater and the intrepid had game. The long-range weather forecast has the chill returning next week and you may be able to plan your excursion on how others did on the brief period of hardwater we had a few days ago.

Jim from JCB Bait in Cheshire said that anglers were indeed out and about on Cheshire Reservoir as well as Plainfield Pond, reveling in the fact that finally they were standing on 3 to 5 inches of ice! No pike were reported taken out of Cheshire, but some pretty decent largemouth bass made for a good consolation prize. The shop is brimming with gear and shiners, and it won’t take long for Mr. Freeze to lock up local water bodies once again.

While skim ice in Orange hasn’t translated to any safe hardwater yet, the guys catching open-water rainbows from Lake Mattawa aren’t complaining. Patrons of the shop continue to pick up walleye with jigs/minnows and jigs/worms by the Northfield boat ramp on the Connecticut River. Other river action for decidedly different quarry is the catch-and-release/fly-fishing only section of The Swift River from below the Winsor Dam out to the Rte. 9 Bridge, where those who excel in stick-to-itiveness are fooling an occasional brilliantly colored 2-pound-plus rainbow. Instinct compels bows to seek out salmon eggs this time of the year, and even though it’s a fruitless quest, they’re making egg flies effective. Rod said that sometimes salmon and even lake trout are taken below the dam and out to the Y Pool.

Eddie of B&A in West Boylston wishes he could reverse the calendar since Wachusett Reservoir closed for angling last Sunday, but the Stillwater River remains open all year long upstream of the railroad bridge and the Quinapoxet has no closed season either upstream of the Oakdale Dam. And in case you haven’t heard, the state-record laker was taken in one of the tributaries… so you never know what’s lurking there. Guys trolling Grey Ghost streamers throughout Comet Pond are picking up rainbows, which were freshly stocked this fall.

Laura from Ippi’s in Lynn told me that the trout action is so good at Sluice Pond in Lynn that the ice can wait – well, for a little while anyway. This pond is heavily stocked by Masswildlife, Lynn Fish and Game, and occasionally Ippi’s also! And some of the bows are 15” to 17” long! For some sweet warm-water species action, consider panfish and bass from Browns Pond and Floating Bridge Pond, both of which are in Lynn. Ippi’s carries shiners, which are a hard-to-beat bass bait when the water gets cold.

Tim from Suds ‘N Soda in Greenland, NH suggests that you travel a bit to the north country to ensure you have enough ice. Once we regain more typical New England December weather, look for good ice and good warm-water species fishing from Upper Baker Pond in Washington. For something you can really sink your teeth into or something that could sink its teeth into you if you’re not careful, check out the “setbacks,” which are oxbows or sloughs outside of the main flow of the Connecticut River, north of Dartmouth. Both pike and walleye call this stretch home. Chad from Dover Marine had customers out and about on Willand Pond a few days ago and the bass and bows were willing. It won’t take long for that local pond to lock up again. Another option is Bellamy Reservoir in Madbury. Tim is touting his new hardwater squeeze jig rods – the Dave Genz legend series—which he says are so sensitive it almost gives him an unfair advantage. You can hear more from Tim this coming Tuesday evening at the Great Bay Discovery Center in Greenland where he’ll be putting on an ice-fishing seminar, with the emphasis on safety.

Maine truly is a different planet when it comes to ice fishing. According to Dylan of Dag’s Bait and Tackle in Auburn Maine, the Androscoggin River had about 25 traps on it recently with the result being a few pike up to 40 inches! For some, December is all about brookies since many water bodies were heavily stocked in the fall and the fish are usually easy pickings initially. Dylan recommends that anglers looking to take advantage of that early flurry head northward and check out Norcross Pond as well as Sandy River Pond. Brookies are famous for coursing the shoreline in water from a few inches to a few feet making this a relatively safe early option as well.

Not surprisingly the salt scene has gone about as quiet as the seas have been as of late. Rick of Fore River B&T in Quincy has a few patrons who lob clams into the horizon behind the Hull High School in the hopes that they’ll pick up a couple of keeper cod. Regulations are such that anglers can only harvest 2 cod per person now, but the prospects of putting two 5-pounders in a cooler is one that some find hard to resist. Rick continues to mine the backwater of Quincy to find grass shrimp for a few diehards who keep trying for smelt. While hardly a banner year, Rick recommends Hewitt’s Cove and the piers of Hull as best bets for smelt.

Best Bets for the Weekend

If you must have hardwater and can’t wait, head to Norcross Lake in Maine or Upper Baker in New Hampshire, where there are brookies in the former and plenty of panfish in the latter. Maine can’t be beat for brookie fishing since the IFW stocked the heck out of such places as Norcross Lake. The Bay State best bet is the Berkshires region where one good cold snap should lock up Cheshire Reservoir, where there are hungry pike lurking. If the salt life is for you, then chuck some clams for a chance at a cod behind Hull High School or grab a gill of grass shrimp from Fore River and have a go at the piers of Hull and Hingham.