Last couple of Days ice report

[fishingbuddies]

Not sure how I pulled it off, but got 3 days of ice time in! WOW!
Sunday..headed up to the Stokes area to see what was bitting. The answer is.... PICKEREL. Couldnt get the panfish nor anything else to play...but the pickeral kept us entertained for hours. Landed about 15ish... lost a few... kept a few to pickle. It was a morning of 1st. My buddy took his dad out ice fishing for the 1st time... and he caught his 1st fish over ice. His GF had caught plenty of fish over ice...but no pickerel yet (shockingly in NJ). Her 1st pickerel was landed and her 3rd pickerel was her PB ever (just shy of 22inches). Burgers...brats...brandy n good times. We chased flags n busted our a$$es a few times too. 9 degrees warming up to mid 20s...8 inches of ice. The edges were fine after the weekend rains. All fish on shinners or Fatheads in 6 to 7 FOW.

Monday I got in a few hours with a buddy in the boonton area on a tiny neighborhood pond. Landed a tank 13.5inch crappie and he got a fatty perch. We lost a biggun something to a bad knot connection (tip up line to flouro). The rains came n the bite died. 6 inches.. edges fine... caught on shinners n jigging (acme Pendu jig gold with a tiny creature plastic). 5 to 6 FOW.

Monday I snuck out before the wife n kid could miss me n make me feel guilty for missing breakfast. Allamuchy area in the low 30s. Mainly jigged as I had no bait. Searched out for crappie...could only get the bluegills to play. 5 to 7 FOW. Same pendu with creature.

Anyone know where the crappie are? ... deep? Shallow? Weeds..sneaky bastard have been avoiding my hooks all winter.

Hope the season continues. I see high temps in the nxt couple of days.
Hope we have all of Feb left.

[fishingbuddies]

Mon n Tuesday

[icebadger]

congrats to the lady on her pb slime dart, looks like you guys had a good time. glad to hear that your buddy got his dad out on the hardwater perhaps a new ice angler in the making there.. that crappie is a slab for sure cool report:cool:

[Mikey topaz]

Glad you got out and enjoyed some good times and fishing👍

[FASTEDDIE29]

Good times had by all on the HARDWATER! Nice mixed bag of species. Plenty of ice left. Just have to pick your spots carefully with this warm front. Great pics dude!!!:D

[fishingbuddies]

ICE UPDATE for Saturday 2/12.
Went out in the allamuch area...small pond... edges were really beat up. Almost open. Took a few steps in and was boot deep in water. Packed up and tried a smaller shallower pond, that was 100% fine. 5 to 6 inches and edges were good. I think it's a pond by pond...lake to lake situation whether safe or not.

Got my son on his 1st iced fish. Landed about 10 gills on Mealworms and mousies. Nothing jigging.

He insisted he wanted to eat a fish. So one sunny for the din table.

Be safe out there.

[fishingbuddies]

2/16 Update. The pond I was on had 1 launch that was NOT safe. 1 spud strike straight thru. The other 100% safe. No issues. Middle of the lake was still a solid 8 to 10 black ice inches.

I accomplished the impossible. I got the Wife on the water and she caught her 1st iced fish as we were packing up (on a tough windy day)! Hell yeah!

[fishingbuddies]

Pics

[icebadger]

wow, great report, sunnies are good eating if you get good size ones. it is nice to see young kids jigging for fish and not just siting around waiting for flags to fly. congrats to the lady on her first iced fish hope to see more reports with her getting fish with you. As for the ice getting bad the warm temps we had before super bowl sunday did not help and the forecast for the rest of february does not look good. we might have safe ice on smaller ponds and lakes up in the north corner of the state but you should always check the ice as you did with a spud bar.

[fishingbuddies]

Went out Monday... private lake my buddy invited me to. Packed my stuff up and headed out after work for two hours at sundown. Edges were ok. 4 to 6 of inconsistent black ice in the middle. Managed 2 perch on fatheads. The jig bite was weak. Frustrating nibblers that wouldn't commit.
Last day out????
Any reports recently???
I might head out Saturday afternoon n search for safe ice for Sunday morning.
Be safe n Spud spud spud!!!!

[icebadger]

Nice fish those yellow perch are fun to catch. as for ice for the weekend of march 5-6 you might be out of luck, with warm temps this week does not look good for the end of the week. Some of the smaller bodys of water up in the north west corner of the state might be your best chance if any. the ice took beating all over the state and has melted early this year. as always check before you go. i was out today on 6" on a small pond but that might be gone by the weekend. be careful. the wavy gravy as we like to call it can be tricky. the shores are the biggest concern.

[fishingbuddies]

Drove around Sunday n found the last remaining body of water with safe edge/launch seems like. A slushy 5 inches Sunday (day temps in the mid 40s). Got 4 pickerel on fat heads. Jigged up a dozen panfish (mainly small blugills) with mealworms n waxies. Great time jigging!!
Today was a different day. Mid 20s n solid all around. Solid 5 to 6inches with a few small open areas in some back edges. It was hard to keep our holes from freezing over. We did Ok. 1 pickerel... 6 perch and 1 gill. One Slob perch was the highlight.
We pretty much agreed that's the end for us this ice season.
To a great 2022 ice season!!