[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.