After experiencing awesome ice fishing friendly freezing temperatures all weekend,  Monday found us in a spring warm up as double digit warm temperatures, wind, and sunny skies descended on the East Coast.

Although Bassan had to work today, he still wanted to get out for one last kick at the cat ice fishing. We headed out around 3:30pm and made tracks back to dog pond. The ice looked sketchy after a full day of 10ºC temps, sure enough the 12" of ice consisted of a top 4" that you could scrape away with your boot. Hidden spots that didn't freeze well this winter could be quite dangerous now.

We chose not to ride out onto the pond, and didn't bother walking out to the middle and instead switched gears and made tracks back the road for plan B. Over the last week we were unable access the upper end of one of the necks due to a line of open water blocking our way.

There is no path from the road to the section of pond beyond the open water but we managed to ride the bikes quite a ways into the woods towards the pond and stash them out of sight. With axe in hand we bushwhacked a walking path down to the pond.

Ice conditions here were similar to what we checked earlier, sketchy for the bikes but lots of ice for walking. There was a lot of melt water and slush on the ice after a long day of warm temps.

As the sun set we packed up our gear and headed back to the bikes empty-handed. We had a couple lines skinned of bait but alas no trout this evening.

I figured it would be a bit of a job getting the bikes out of the woods as the snow was deep and loose and the way out was uphill, but our trusty Honda Foreman's tackled it with ease!

ATV trails in the area still have a lot of snow on them in places, but melt water is undermining them. This can lead to deep ruts and the bike to high centre if your not careful. All in all it was another great afternoon in the woods and a nice way to end off the ice fishing season.

Cheers, MIKE

Copyright © 2011 Michael Smith