Ken & Curt hit the “Hard Water” & Ice Fish Lake Hopatcong 3/29/2015

This past Sunday, 3/29 Curt & myself decided to head north….. to Lake Hopatcong to try our hand one more time at a little Ice Fishing. We have never ever ice fished this late in the season(or perhaps I should correct myself……& say this early in the Spring!). Hard to believe it`s a couple days from the beginning of April & we were on ice at Hopatcong that was about twelve inches thick!
Default 1
Curt showed up at my house at 8am. We loaded up my truck, got some gas & grabbed a coffee & away we went. Our next stop was “Dows” up on the lake to get our bait.
As we made our way out onto the ice, the wind still had that ” cold bite” of old man Winter in it as it howled across the lake.
Upon reaching a likely spot, we started setting up. I grabbed the auger to cut the holes & Curt started unraveling & setting up the tip-ups. As I cut about a dozen holes through the “hard water”, Curt followed by placing the tip-ups in place.
Default 3
We weren`t there much more than forty minutes & the first flag was up! Curt said, “Go ahead take it!”
As I knelt down & slowly pulled in the line it went tight……… then another sharp tug………then the fish veered & pulled hard ……..and then I yanked the line……..and missed! Damn it! I re-baited the hook & set it back into the icy cold water. Nothing quite like the excitement of seeing one of those flags flipped up on a tip-up!
Now when it comes to the tip-ups, Curt & I take turns…….. so he was up next and wasn`t too long till we had another flag up!
Default 2
Curt set the hook & flipped a nice, fat Perch on the ice! Alright! We were on board!
Default 4
Default 5
In the meantime, I started jiggin` to see what I could wrangle up.
Default 7
After about forty-five minutes, I managed to lure in & flip this nice Bass on the ice!
Default 1
 The action was very steady throughout the day as we ended up with about 50 or more fish and brought home a few “keepers”. All in all, it was a really enjoyable “Last Day of the Hard Water Season” for us on the ice at Lake Hopatcong.
“The warm afternoon sun felt good on the back of my neck as the temperatures rose throughout the day”

4 thoughts on “Ken & Curt hit the “Hard Water” & Ice Fish Lake Hopatcong 3/29/2015”

    1. Hiya Nate! ha! ha! We had a really fun day out on the ice on Sunday! Not a lot of big ones, but a lot of fish!
      We`ll have some fun on the river when ya come to Jersey!

  1. NJ Outdoors Adventures With Ken | Ken & Curt hit the “Hard Water” & Ice Fish Lake Hopatcong 3/29/2015Good going Ken another adventure outdoors.

Comments are closed.