Start to the New Year!

Well I started off the New Year with what I enjoy the most. A few friends headed out to Lake Wyola in Shutesbury, MA for my first ice fishing outing on 1/1/09. Myself and 5 others got on the ice around 7:00 am. After a quick ice check we found out there was at least 3 inches of ice by the shore wich is enough for us crazy folk. The ice actually got thicker the farther out we went. We saw about 5 inches in the middle.

The weather was extremely cold! Cold to the point of it being dangerous! You had to be careful when exposing skin and I even had icicles hanging off of my eyelashes! We all set up our equipment and got our tip ups in the water a little after 7:00. About 10 minutes later I had my first fish of 09! It was a chain pikerel. Nothing huge by any means, but I was just happy to be catching!

I was able to hook into another pikerel and a perch that day. Everyone ended up catching something. I saw some perch, crappie, panfish and pikerel being caught. My friend brought some venison to grill up for lunch. Things slowed down after about 10:00 am, which seems to be the norm when ice fishing, so we packed up around 2:00pm and headed home.

All in all a great day to be out. It was cold, but it was rewarding to get the first fish of the season out of the way. I can't wait to get out again!