Circle Hooks for Ice Fishing

Today I played out a fish better than many in this pond, and I thoroughly enjoyed the give-and-take on the Dacron, not having played one on it for three years. Just minutes ago, I uploaded an ice fishing video to my Litton's Fishing Lines YouTube channel, and I checked the date. February 14, 2021. I remember it crystal clear. My wife and I had just bought the Honda I drive. I made an issue of my spending Valentine's Day that way, and she made an issue of making sure I went.

That fish, not surprisingly, turned out to be a pickerel of just slightly under 18 inches. I know that, because I took it home. The moment it came through the hole, it came through dripping blood. That pissed me off, and I immediately vowed to stop at Dick's on the way home for circle hooks.

Recently, I read a Chris Pierra post on Facebook, and his persuasion of the use of circle hooks ice fishing all but convinced me. Old habits die hard, and I've used plain shank size 6 Mustad  hooks since I used to buy them by the loose dozens at Brunswick Sports and Hardware of Trenton in 1975. I went online and saw expensive options as expected, but really, size 6 circles hooks for 90 cents apiece? It's obscene.

What convinced me was seeing the blood on the fish as I lifted it out of the pond. Yes, my wife wants me to bring home more fish. I don't have to remind her about the Y bones until later. Maybe I'll divulge in a later post whether or not I was able to remove them. Patience, patience. A lot on my plate and the pickerel won't be much!

Pickerel have white flesh and a mild flavor. Old Bay seasoning will be interesting cooked into it. But I release almost all the fish I catch. All I can say in favor of taking a fairly nice pickerel is two things. For one, most of the pickerel here are smaller. They might be stunted. Harvesting some might help the size increase. And secondly, there's less competition against the bass population.

Oliver out-fished me again. When we fished with Cronk and Kevin Glenn the other day, Oliver caught the most fish, though Kevin caught the larger pickerel and perhaps the larger perch. Today Oliver caught three pickerel, his biggest slightly shorter than mine perhaps, lost a hook to another, while I missed a hit, and had fish take four shiners and fatheads from me.

What happened that's very interesting is that on two or three tip-ups, Oliver set fatheads only two feet under the ice on his beloved Jaw Jackers. Something got one of them. It could have been a perch, but then again, maybe it really was a trout.

Why pickerel cruise around out in the middle of the pond, far from the bottom of the sharp shoreline drop-offs down to 15 feet, beats me. But they did exactly the same in the Princeton Day School pond I fished during my youth. 

I got to Dick's, where the smallest circle hooks are size 1/0 and a little more than 50 cents each, which is really expensive. Why someone doesn't compete by producing cheaper bronzed hooks that will rust out easily if they DO gut hook, which is possible, when they would be sharp enough...they don't have to be chemically sharpened and all that expensive jazz, beats me. 

At first, I figured 1/0 is way too big. But I gave two different brands of the hooks a careful look, and decided the ones that are a dollar less expensive per pack will do fine on large shiners, and they'll work for Yum Dingers during summer, too. A 1/0 J hook would be too big and heavy for shiners, and for Yum Dinger's I've been using size 2 plain shanks that look bigger than the 1/0 circles at Dick's. Oliver's using circle hooks of about 1/0 on his Jaw Jackers, and he has no trouble catching pickerel as little as 12 inches. That said, I do want to find smaller ones of size 6 or at least size 4. And I really would like to find a reasonable price, but tonight I didn't feel bad when I squandered 10 dollars of my very hard-earned money.  

Smaller Pickerel

Another Smaller Pickerel

Preparing to Set the J-Hook

Tightening Up with Loki

Slightly Under 18 inches

Nice Bass Through Ice

 

Ice at the Valley

It got really cold, in case you missed the news. Colder than forecast. My wife had -7 on her thermometer, leaving for work at 7:00 a.m. yesterday. That's Bedminster, not Sandyston in Sussex County, where it was colder. It explains ice all the way across Round Valley Reservoir to the right side of the photo, shot from the camper's boat launch. 

Oliver Round was out fishing elsewhere, in Morris County, where he had five inches of ice last he was there. Friday last week? Nine inches today. 

Also frozen is the corner to the left of the Main Boat Launch. 

There's as much as two or three inches of ice--very suddenly, I was there when the snow began and not a trace--where they keep the park ranger boat. 

I also checked out options for getting on the Swimming Pond, and I found there's a DEP No Trespassing sign where the short trail leads onto the ice from the back of the Main Launch Parking Lot. I asked about it at the office, and I was told that indeed they're not allowing access there. (Another case of denied access.) They have nothing against anyone ice fishing anywhere on the pond, except for along the swimming beach, perhaps, but you have to be off the ice and out of the park by 4:00 p.m.

My suggestion is to heed the law and access the pond only from the East Picnic area. Go ahead and enjoy the long walk in, packing to leave well before 4:00 p.m. I agree, it's not fair to us. Access should be reasonable, and we should be able to fish at least until dusk, but don't upset them. That's what happened in the first place with COVID. People broke rules. People took the power from their control. That's why we have no access near the dike. 

As things are, we're allowed to ice fish on the reservoir and on the Pond. 

That's plenty generous as it is. 

A While Back

 

Wetsuit Boots

Kevin Glenn & 19-inch Pickerel

I never voiced it to anyone, but I expected the lake to be watered over under the snow, and for much of the snow to be melting in the water on the ice, gray-patched. I figured we'd deal with it when we got there, rather than to forewarn the others to no purpose. Brian and several friends were out here on Thursday, finding as much as six inches of ice, so that ice is still there and melting virtually not at all, because that's ice water on top. It basically insulates it from thickening. With temps dropping to zero or nearly that the next two nights, that water on top will freeze and make walking much easier. 

Even this evening as we made our way back to our vehicles, we were able to walk on top of ice nearly two inches thick creating a layer of water underneath it.

I figured that with holes cut Thursday, temps above freezing since then, those holes didn't freeze over thickly. Snow accumulated fast, weighed on the ice, and pushed water up through holes. What my theory might not explain, though, is how water is on the ice a good eighth or quarter mile down lake. Brian did mention someone ice fishing down there Thursday, though... 

I've fished when water is on the ice a lot in years past. What I didn't expect was my boots leaking it in to make my socks soggy. Have slogged through water six inches deep on ice and not got wet, but I've had these pac boots for 25 years. It's time to find a way to waterproof them again. They're great, warm boots.

Once we did get to our cars, temps had dipped from 22 to 17, and you might rightly wonder how I survived some three-and-a-half hours in that environment with wet feet. I felt reluctant to tell anyone, but eventually I mentioned it to Oliver, before I did to Brian and Kevin. Oliver said, "They're wetsuit boots," after I had spoken of how well insulated they are, my feet not especially cold. 

I can't remember if they're 1200 or 600 grain thinsulate, if I have the terms right, but I think 1200. 

Oliver gave me a couple of vermiculite hand warmers when we fished on Thursday, and I accepted them, eventually asking where he got them. (I've had a bunch in my study among my equipment, but I believe they're all thrown out, long ago expired.) He told me Walgreens, so on Friday, coming upon the Walgreens in Bernardsville, I bought a couple. Never had need of them today. In fact, I was so warm after cutting holes with Kevin's electric auger, I felt like taking my coat off. 

Much of the time I didn't bother wearing gloves.

But the hunting bib I've borrowed from Brian weighs on me. Makes walking difficult. Or it did especially because 10 pounds of ice had glommed onto it. Three years ago it was no such trouble. And I did a lot of bending over when setting tip-ups. Crouching and pressing on the knees to get back up is difficult. It all wore on my back and I had a moment when I feared the stress might have been too much. It wasn't. 

We did catch fish and you see photos of some. Kevin might have caught a 13-inch perch, but don't quote me on that one. Oliver did catch one 12 3/4 inches. Both Oliver and Brian caught nice-sized crappies. Other perch got caught. The two pickerel. 

I finally got to see some of the latest ice sonar projected onscreen. Pretty cool to sit comfortably--I didn't try today, I witnessed--and watch your jig onscreen...while a fish nearby takes sketchy interest in it at best.

Easy to imagine that watching the fish take interest and eventually strike onscreen must be pretty cool. 

Most device screens, by what I've gathered, are liquid crystal and fail if they freeze. However Kevin's screen is made, he told me it's a touch screen, too! 

  

Glenn & Cronk

Brian Cronk with a Nice Crappie

Oliver Round and Crappie

Oliver Round and Pickerel

Temps Ranged from 22 down to 17, and ice built up on the leg bottoms of my very warm hunting bib. On the soggy boots, too.

My Only Fish. 

Three Years Ago