Mercer County Ice?
 

Anyone have a report on how many inches of ice are on the Central Jersey lakes (Assunpink Lakes, Carnegie, Plainsboro Pond etc.)? Just curious to know what is standing between me and some musky fishing once the thaw starts. Don't need names of lakes or anything, a county and a number would be stellar.

Re: Mercer County Ice?
 

Assunpink had between 5 and 7 as of 31st.

Sorry for putting lake name

Andre

Re: Mercer County Ice?
 

Lol. Allgood man. Thanks, I appreciate it. That's not too bad compared to some of the lakes up North. I've been able to get on Lake Mercer as early as mid-Feb in the past, but I think I may have to wait until March this year.

Re: Mercer County Ice?
 

Im getting anxious myself. Was thinking about breaking out the 9ft rods and mag dawgs/bondys and jigging them through an 8" hole. Only thing im unsure about is how to reach in the hole and pull out the fish if im 9' away lol

Re: Mercer County Ice?
 

Lol. Not a bad idea. I know a few places we could try.

Re: Mercer County Ice?
 

You boys crack me up... lock and load... there's ski's to be caught... :D

Re: Mercer County Ice?
 

Lol. Yes indeed.

Re: Mercer County Ice?
 

they sell very stiff ice fishing rods. strap a heavy baitcaster to one and go for it! I've tried but never hooked one yet through the ice.

I brought a pretty big pike to the hole on ultra light panfish jigging gear though in just about 2 minutes...i wouldn't recommend it, but it just shows if you had a good baitcaster on there with heavy line you could crank a musky in with very little fight time.

Re: Mercer County Ice?
 

I don't think they will let you out on Lake Mercer to icefish. That place is run by some kinda liberal biologist and they have all kinds of dumb non american rules there, like no fishing after dark. That same biologist told the state last year they couldn't put 9,000 brown trout in Lake Mercer because it would introduce a disease, a disease thats already been a part of that ecosystem for years but apparently she didn't know that.

Re: Mercer County Ice?
 

Carnegie was opened up to ice skating last week, but I don't know if the authorities have closed it down because of the warm weather over the past day or two.

Re: Mercer County Ice?
 

Yesterday I saw an ice fisherman on the southwest corner of Pemberton Lake in Burlington County, while geese were swimming on the open water in the northeast corner. I didn't see anybody on Collin's Cove yet this winter.

Re: Mercer County Ice?
 

I wasn't going to ice fish there. I do know they have a bunch of dumb rules, including that your electric motor can only be 12-volt and not 24. :confused: The place is a pain to fish anyway with all the skull teams, but I usually only hit it once or twice very early in the year as it's the first place to open up.