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Date: January 23, 2022 Body of Water: Little Sebago Lake, Maine Moon Phase: Full Moon plus six days; waning gibbous moon Boat: None, Ice Fishing With: Alone Target: Trout Time: 7:15 AM - 3 PM (lines out) Conditions: A foot of ice; 4 - 28 degrees F after an even colder period; generally calm to mild NW wind; mostly cloudy with some mid-day sun My inaugural ice-fishing trip in Maine (and first excursion of 2022) was to Little Sebago Lake. I chose this based on known bait availability, public access and the presence of my preferred target, brown trout. With a dozen smelt and a dozen shiners from Sebago Bait and Tackle in tow, I hoofed it across the lake to try to find a break or weed line for the trout to cruise. With five lines to fish, and on a new-to-me lake without mapping, I started punching holes. By the time I had my five "traps" in place, covering from 6 to 46 feet of water, my first flag flew. A shiner 20 feet down over 30 feet of water had been crunched and dropped. After resetting, I visited my deepest trap, where the shiner 25 down had been treated similarly. After a lull, these same traps sprang again, and this time I caught the culprits; not trout, but rather small yellow and white perch. Not what I was hoping for, but at least some life, and a probable cause for the first couple of flags. These were by deepest sets, and so I moved my shallowest out to more than 30 feet. I also spent some more time scanning these depths with the sonar, looking for suspended fish. Seeing none, I switched to jigging the bottom. I could pretty consistently call some marks in and raise them off the bottom. For the most part, these would not bite, but occasionally one would; and these proved to be more small yellow perch. A few more flags flew (still on my deeper traps), and in each case, my suspended bait would be hit and dropped. At about 12:30, my shallowest flag finally sprang. I was pleased to see the spindle turning, and when I arrived, it was obvious that this fish had taken a lot of line already. When I tightened up, there was some substantial wright. I carefully played my Fish of the Day to the hole. I was surprised when I saw green mottling instead of the spots of a trout; but I was okay; at a fat 21 inches, this was a pretty nice chain pickerel! These were fun fish from my youth, but I hadn't caught one of these since the late 80's, and this one was certainly larger than average. This trap was placed along the edge in 25 feet of water, and my shiner had been swimming about 15 feet down. The deep sets had gone dead and so I drilled another hole shallow. Too shallow, perhaps (8 feet), but I had drilled it and so I was going to use it. Shortly thereafter, this flag flew, but it was another drive-by. And that was it. No more flags, no more marks. And I certainly wasn't hand-drilling any more holes! My best baits had been picked over. The weather had moderated, and had I been on any fish, I'd have stayed for the late afternoon bite. But I wasn't, and so by 3 PM, my lines were pulled. What do I have to say about this? Of course, I wanted some trout action. I never found that, but I'm happy enough with finally getting out on the ice again. With my first-ever white perch through the ice and my first chain pickerel in decades, there's enough to remember the day for. I'm already looking forward to my next session! And these two New England natives provided a nice "Welcome Home!" on the ice. I am also day-dreaming of an electric auger. Hand augering 8-inch holes through a foot or more of hard ice (and it's still early in the season) becomes grueling work, and that makes me less mobile. I'm no longer young, strong, stupid or poor. My current auger is from 1986, and I think I can treat myself to one more in my lifetime. Pondering the questions of core essence and finding meaning in unexpected ways
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