By Dan King
While others may grouse and gripe about temperatures plummeting into the single digits, ice fishermen sure won’t.
Thus far it’s been a more “average” start for ice fishing, compared with earlier starts in recent years, said Rob Steele, owner of Tom’s Bait Shop in Bomoseen, Vt.
“People have been getting a bunch of pike so far and I’ve been talking to people over at Chittenden Dam who have been catching fish too,” Steele said.
Occasional warm temperatures and substantial wind last month had put a damper on getting an early start to the season, but weather forecasts show temperatures in the teens throughout this week and the mid-twenties next week, ideal for bodies of water to freeze over.
Leonard Field, owner of Honey’s Bait Shop in Whitehall, shared a similar sentiment about the South Bay of Lake Champlain, saying the cold weather this week should have the South Bay ready for anglers.
“I’ve seen guys catching some good pike, perch and blue gills, and that’s just what I’ve seen,” Field said.
Anglers should be cautious when out on the ice, he said.
“You never know, ice is funny, it doesn’t develop the same all the way around, so you’ve just got to be careful,” Field said.
The same precautions go for other water bodies.
“Bomoseen is still about 70 percent open, up by the flow bridge is good and frozen, but the wind has been a problem,” Steele said.
Some general rules of thumb apply to ice fishing:
-If the ice is less than two inches thick, stay off of it; four inches is the normal threshold for fishermen on foot; five inches tends to be safe for ATVs or snowmobiles; eight to 12 inches is ordinarily strong enough for a car; and a medium-sized truck usually requires 14 or 15 inches of solid ice.
-Thickness is by no means the only factor that impacts the safety and strength of the ice. The insulation of snow can slow the freezing process, as can large schools of fish.
-Ice that forms over flowing water, as well as older ice, tends to be less sturdy than newer ice and ice that forms over stagnant water.
Northern pike and panfish will be some of the top fish to catch early on, before bass and trout seasons open up in Vermont. Lake Champlain supplies both Vermont and New York fishermen with the opportunity to find a vast array of species of fish, including trout, land-locked salmon and walleyes.
In New York, Cossayuna Lake and Lake George both offer a diverse selection of fish species.
On Cossayuna Lake anglers can find black crappies, bluegills, pumpkinseeds, yellow perch, northern pike and tiger muskellunge, while Lake George offers those species, plus lake trout, land-locked salmon, rainbow trout, brown trout and chain pickerel.
In the Green Mountain State, anglers can also venture to Lake Bomoseen, Lake St. Catherine and Lake Hortonia.
New Yorkers are required to get a fishing license, which costs $25 for a year. Anglers in Vermont are also required to purchase a fishing license for $25 or $119 for five years. Both states charge extra for non-residents.
Certain species have specific seasons in each state and ice fishing season typically runs until mid-March.
However, based on weather, seasons can vary.
