Back in Business and Avoiding the February Blank

Here's a beefy common that I landed today in
this beautiful sunny weather. Expect the carp
fishing to perk up when many of the state's ponds
lose their ice this week.

 It has been years, maybe decades, since I blanked in a winter month. As most of you know, I fish for carp year round, and some years it can be very good in the dead of winter. But, not this year as I was headed for a blank this February. Fishing has been particularly tough this February.  My usual winter moving water spots were not producing, and all my still water spots were completely iced over. I got out maybe a half dozen times with no luck until today.

Today I managed to put at least a few fish on the board for February.  It was a beautiful afternoon and the fish decided to hit. I got them to take my usual combo bait of sweet corn and a white artificial fished on a hair rig. I was also using a small method ball.

I get the feeling that carp fishing will break open this week in RI with a bout of warmer weather and rain headed our way. Carp tend to come to life at ice out, and I suspect many ponds in the state will lose their ice covering within a few days to a week. Get the carp gear ready. Spring is in the air.

Only Show in Town

 

It's not open water carp fishing, but it's fishing! I got out onto the ice this morning with my son Jon to do some jigging.  We came away with a lot of action and a lot of fish.  We caught bluegills, crappie and largemouth bass from the small pond we fished.  All the fish were caught on small gold Kastmasters tipped with a meal worm.  This is a deadly combo for jigging, and somthing we used to catch a lot of fish years ago when we actually had an ice fishing season.

I was surprised to find the ice was a solid 5 inches of clear, hard ice. How long it will last is anyone's guess. But, for now, we have the start of an ice fishing season here in RI, and I'm going to take advantage of it!