Wednesday is my day off, and I wanted to make the most of it. The access to the coves has been tough lately, and I had no solid intel for other spots that I like to fish. I decided to head way up north to place I hadn't fished in a couple of years. I used to be stationed in Fort Devens in MA and found all kinds of great fishing while there. Jimmy and I made the 2 hour drive to a small river that has a pretty big cove. I first iced fished there 23 years ago. I've been getting back there pretty much once a year. I knew the ice would be good... How good I didn't know. The place is usually loaded with big yellow perch, solid 2-4 pound bass and the occassional crappie and I've never seen anyone else on the ice. My kind of place
We pulled the sleds to the edge and I checked with the spud bar, at least 6" so we continued out to my hole. I fired up the nils and was stunned when the auger kept going and going. There was a full 19" of ice
;D We brought nothing but big baits for the bass, I had hoped that that would keep the perch off the baits. We'd jig for them. I'd never fished there with electronics so my hopes were high. I made swiss cheese of the area, the Nils was cutting a hole in 5 seconds flat! 100 holes in no time at all ;D It only took a few minutes to set up the 8 tip ups. We were in 5-8 feet of water along a bank of the cove.
It didn't take long for the first flag to pop... A small crappie, but we were on our way.
We had over 100 holes to chose from, and I just walked from hole to hole dropping the transducer in till I marked fish.
They seemed to be concentrated in a pretty tight area and they were HUNGRY! There were a few holes where they were really stacked up. The jigging was so good, I decided to set the video camera down on a bucket and just let it roll... We were getting crappie left and right. I've never seen so many crappie in there before. We had really come for big bass but this was OK by me. When the hole would slow down, we'd never have to move more than 2 holes away to be right back into them. I finally invested in a fish counter clicker thingy that I wear around my neck so I know my numbers are good. We tallied 93 fish on the day! Less than 12 came on tip ups... That's some hot jigging!
At one point, I was jigging in about 4 feet of water and I got hammered. I thought for sure that I had a big bass. The fish made several good runs and I really had to back off on the drag for fear of popping the 4lb line. Imagine my disappointment when I got this one to the hole... ::)
Some time around 11, the sun started to break through the clouds and the bass bite turned on. Finally... Jimmy had the first flag of the flurry. I had a good feeliing when we saw the tip up spinning slow and steady, so I grabbed the video camera. Jimmy stuck the fish and knew right away that it was a good one. They don't fight much in 4 feet of water and the fish was out of the hole in no time. She was a solid 5 pounds for sure. It was really cool getting the whole thing on video:
My flag popped next. Not as big but a nice fish, close to 4 pounds?
We iced 4 bass in about 15 minutes... They were all respectable fish for any body of water.
After that the flags died down and we got back to jigging again. As I was working one hole in particular, I saw a big flash go by under the hole. I couldn't imagine how big the fish was but I wanted this one... BAD! I concentrated all my efforts on the jig and was watching the Humminbird out of the corner of my eye. I saw my transducer jump...
All of a sudden a muskrat pops up in hole
We had a brief staring contest. I was declared the winner and he shot back down the hole. It took a minute for my heart rate to come back down again. By noon, it was pretty much over. We weren't even marking any fish. I check every hole with the Humminbird but they were just not there anymore. We stuck it out for another hour and a half in hopes of breaking the 100 fish mark but once I started thinking about a D&D coffee my staying power was shot. We were packed up and back in the truck by 2. What a blast! We had yellows, crappie, bass, pickerel, bluegill and rock bass. I don't know why I don't make the trip more often, it's such a cool spot to spend a day.
I'm working the vdeos now, but the rendering in HD takes forever. I hope to get some clips up before I go to the shop, if not I'll get them up tonight. I can't wait to see how they come out.
Finally got the video done 19" of ice in 5 seconds Big bass Red hot jigging 
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