Newton Ice Report

[SkunkedAgain]

[b]So I was sitting here complaining to myself why we don't have much for new reports after what was probably a pretty big ice fishing weekend...  Then I realized I hadn't posted my trip either... [/b]

[b]So here goes, sorry it wasn't great, so that's probably why I wasn't going to post, but maybe the info will help someone else make a decision...  I hit Newton just before sunup on Saturday, last I heard the margin ice was dicey, so I was careful getting on, but turns out there is around 6" of ice on the south main bay, I didn't get on the leg going north, the rumor was that didn't freeze until days after the main bay, so I expected the ice up that way to be thinner...  Anyway I started in the middle of the big water and was sitting on top of 20-25' of something, don't know if it was tiny minnows, or what stacked up in the bottom of the pond.. Water was 46' deep in that area... Anyway, after nothing touched my initial efforts and not wanting to pull up small fish that I couldn't return without barotrauma so I headed into the shallower area.  [/b]

[b]Set up with my JJJ fishing a 12' deep hole and I tried at 17'... Really wasn't seeing much and was ready to move when the jacker went off... Managed to land a monster 6.5" perch, reset and tried again... Few minutes later the jacker went off again.... This time it was a 7" blue gill.... was a good looking gill, even though it was still on the small side...  Was getting ready to pull up stakes again and had a nice solid hit on my hand rod, it felt big, so I quickly let it get away...  "After a rebait, I dopped back down and a few minutes later had a slow tentative hit on the dead stick, so I set the hook, this one pulled pretty good as well, but not like the last one...  Ended up landing a 10.5" perch and that was the end of the catching... [/b]

[b]From then on, like 9:30 on, all I did was move and look for fish and find nothing...  Did get to visit with Scott a bit and I don't think they did very much better than I did, so it was a slow day if Scott isn't catching fish... Pulled up stakes around 11:00 and called it a day... [/b]

[b]Fun to get out and check out some of my ice gear that I hadn't used since last year... Really should have done that before I was wanting to fish with it, but I didn't get it done... Everything was still in relatively good order.  There were probably 9-10 folks fishing on the pond, which wasn't too crowded considering that was probably in 5 groups... The water is up like 26' deeper than last year, maybe a little more.  I fished the area that was dry dirt last winter and maybe that's why I didn't find a ton of fish, but the guys that fished deeper  didn't seem to be catching much either... [/b]

[b]Summary is Newton is fishable in the south bay, possibly north leg by now, but better check as you go there, I seen a buckle in the ice that looked like open water around it, but I didn't get close enough to tell for sure. I think I would take my snowmobile next time, since it's snowed now, but I would check before riding on the north leg... fishing was slow, but I sort of expected that after the high pressure the last couple years when the fish were concentrated in the small area... Don't expect big catch days, but can be fun to go if you don't have too high of expectations... Later Jeff[/b]

At least you didn't get skunked, is there much snow up there? Thanks for the report.

Hey Curt on the snow question that will be a tale of two days... On Saturday, there wasn't much snow at all on the ramp, just a few small patches, but the ice had maybe 2" so it was enough to keep it from being slick, but not enough to make it hard to pull a sled at all.. But we got 4-5" of new snow by Sunday, so I expect Newton will have a similar shot of new snow, but looking at the forecast I expect that will need updating on a daily basis this week... Was good to not get skunked there, I seem to keep that going on on Cutler... Almost broke the skunk last night had a big cat on the line, took 4-5 minutes to get it's head up the six inch hole (which it barely fit), just as it broke the water surface the hook popped out and I couldn't grab it fast enough, probably a 25-26" cat, but I let it get away again... skunk remains... Later Jeff

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Did you use your camera? Was wondering about water clarity

Hey Lance, I took extra time to charge my camera over night so I could use it over there.... Then I ended up getting lazy and not taking the time it takes to set it up... My last spot seemed to have small perch on the bottom that I could see follow my jig off the bottom, but they never would take it, so I was going to use the camera there, but it was too close to go home time, so I didn't put it down the hole... Water clarity looked good from up top, but I didn't see what the camera would see... Sorry I'm not much help for you... Later Jeff