1-29-09 Seaford
Got to Seaford about 10am .. Tide was outgoing but still very high . In this pic you can see the "tide line" . Tide is out about 16" ..

Island #3

Island #1

The Pond above (Williams)

Looking towards the Kayak/Canoe Launch ..

Bird taking flight (Eagles Around)

Fished for 4 hours an NO FISH ! Had 1 breakoff and 1 other bite .. The tide was almost right so I hit the Island and started my campaign 

Got 3 all that size and lost 1 more and then NOTHING !
I decided to try Concord Pond Spillway but had to wait for the Helicopter to land ..



Pretty neat to watch .. I drove to Concord but the water was VERY VERY DIRTY so I went back to Seaford and landed 6 more Crappie in this range ..



Left at 5pm with a total of about 18 Crappie and NOTHING else .. No YP NO Gills and NO LMB 
Cant always have your cake and eat it too I guess 
I saw schools of Threadfin Shad in the Pond above and when I left the whole place was open and NO ICE .. On my way home every body of water I passed was atleast 90 percent thawed .
I am sure they will ice over again (skim ice) tonight ..
Seaford in the snow 1-27-09
Left home about 9am and it was deadly out on the roads .. I passed 4 accidents on my way and lost control 3 times and put it in 4X4 twice . I arrived at about 10am and wasnt gonna park on the road so I had to park too far away ..
I get almost to the water and slide and bust my arse :roflmao:
I was so glad no one was around to see this as I slid about 20 feet 
I get organized and fish the spillway .. Tough bite but I managed a Gill after about 20 minutes ..

Couldnt get another bite so I hit the 1st island .. 20 minutes and ..

A pattern was developing with this LMB ..

Part of the pattern was these ..


Another part was this ..

I had a 15 foot section that I fished very very slow and Crappie were pounding the Fin"S" and if I strayed beyond that point the I had a 20 foot section that fished with current movement only produced LMB mostly but some small Yellow Perch and Gills also .
I worked the Crappie area the hardest waiting for the time to hit island #2 for YP .

I caught about 12 nice Crappie before the time was right to move to island 2 . I made my way there and took some scenery pics ..
These pics were from standing under the "green" bridge in a foot of water ..

Island #3


Underneath the bridge ..

This is island #2

This is the Kayak/Canoe Launch 

First cast ..

50 casts later not one bite
..
I really didnt mind as I know the YP will be here and much bigger soon enough so I headed back to Crappie ..
I took this pic at low tide at island #1 in hope you can get an idea of the water level drop ..

Just as I left it but a better bite 


On the 1st island looking to the front of island #3

Same deal as before .. 15ft of Crappie and 20 foot of LMB


I couldnt see the Eagles when it was snowing but I could tell when they were around because all other birds took flight but when it stopped snowing ..

The bite really gets hot with some better Crappie ..
Almost all the Crappie had rocks in their mouths from bumping the bottom ..




I was on them HARD 


Measured a few for GP ..


The Crappie bite slowed but didnt stop and the YP ..

And LMB took up the slack 

Back of island #1 at low tide ..

The fish kept biting 


The tide started to roll in and put a damper on my day .
Same spot on island #1 about 1.5 hours into incoming ..

Was forced to leave the island but I did find a Positive Identification on the baitfish ..
Yepp it is a Thread Fin Shad ..

Tried for another 30 minutes and no bites so I packed it in ..
Took another Pic first ..

10 am to 3 pm and lots of fish 
Roads were clear on the ride home .. I saw a nice sized Hawk that was White and Tan on my way home but couldnt reach the camera in time ..
I love fishing in the snow 

2-3-09 to 2-5-09 (Neds and Crappie)
Wagamons Pond 2-3-09 Let it snow , let it snow , LET IT SNOW !! 
Stayed up all night anticipating this morning and finally arrived at Wagamons at 9am .. It had been snowing since 6am with no accumulation with winds from the N to NW at 10 to 20 MPH with gusts to 25 and temps hovering around 37 degree's .
I had very high hopes and couldnt contain myself .
Rigged up a White/Chartruse Crappie Magnet on a 1/32 ounce White leadhead and put a 4" casting bobber 3 feet above the lure .. I then added a Splitshot to help in distance while casting. The winds were perfect .. Crosswind from the N to S made it hard to keep the bow out of your line but was just right for "Wind Drifting"
That means cast straight out and let the wind push the bobber along and watch very close for anything that is "odd" .. Like where did it go (You got a bite)
or when the bobber starts swimming against the wind (You got a bite)
or perhaps the bobber takes off with the wind at an abnormal rate of speed (Yepp You got a bite)
.
It takes me 3 casts to get my line loose enough to get out to where I needed to be .. 70 + Feet and if you got farther than that you were in business .. So casts #4 ..

#5

#6

Conditions ..

It was all Neds after that for almost 1.5 hours and these were Females that were fattening up for the spawn .. He we go ... 





Holy crap
I only had with me the 1 lure , 1 bobber and 1 splitshot and the camera and I wasnt going for the ruler but I think this one was over 13"
LMAO !

2 Cow Neds in a row .. I had to get the ruler 

An average fish ..

Dont ya know I was getting hit every cast as long as I got out far enough .. Sometimes I would get the dreaded Helicopter Effect with the bobber and it might take 5 or 6 attemps to get out there , This is what I mean by every cast .. In the Zone .. Guaranteed atleast a bite !
So I jinxed myself but it wasnt all bad as the Crappie started to bite again and some nice Gills as well ..


Had quite a few people honk at me and a few stopped to ask if they were biting and I just smiled 
Josh (fishforever) shows up and the bite is still decent .






Bonus
(Golden Shiner)


Josh after missing a few fish .. You really had to watch that bobber and strike fast
He lands a few fish and then gets this Crappie with a blemish ??


Josh leaves for awhile but says he'll be back and 20 minutes later I get into a school of Crappie like this ..

Landed around 10 Crappie and a few YP and had 4 Pickerel bite offs . While Josh was gone I moved about and changed colors 4 times .. Black/Chartruese got mostly Gills but also Crappie and YP .. White/Clear with blue flakes got the Pickerels attention and nothing else .. Solid Chartruese got everything but nothing in particular .. Clear/Chartruese with Black Flakes got Zippo ! Todays hot bait was the same as yesterday White/Chartrues .
Josh came back and we both picked at fish .. It was still a decent bite but had slowed up a lot by 3pm or so when Josh took off . I stayed and fished till 4pm Picking up a few more Fish .. By 3:45pm the bite had died .
Just for kicks I tried the other side of the spillway and landed 1 Pickerel in 15 minutes with no other bites .



Conditions as I left ..

I caught a lot of FISH 

Did I tell you I love fishing in the SNOW
!
Wagamons Pond 2-4-09
I had to defrost the truck and then swung by and picked up Dockrat (Chris) at about 9am and we headed to the Pond . I got my wind/rain gear out and it was a block of ice from sitting out wet in my truck all night
We had a bit of ice on the right hand side but barely any at all . The winds were from the NW at about 10 MPH but picked up to 20 MPH in about an hour and stayed that way .. It was a tad bit much but we managed a few fish .
I missed 3 fish and Chris takes the first blood ..

Then he gets his first ever YP 

I finally land one ..

Dang fish did about 8 doughnuts on top before taking to the depths .. Pretty funny to watch 

We moved to the left a few feet and got some nicer Crappie

A few Gills ..

And more YP ..

It got dark for a bit and the snow fell .. It looked like fog coming at us ..


We found some Neds to play with ..


Josh (fishforever) shows up and we all catch fish here and there .. Josh with a "Snake Fish"

The sun came out and the fish started to short strike .. It got tough for sure and we missed more than we caught .
Harry (oldsnow) showed up and chatted awhile before the cold ran him off 
Always nice to see ya Harry !
We had to pack it in around noon .. Not bad for a few hours 

Same baits fish the same way .. Conditions were basically the same but temps were 15 degrees colder and the winds were 10 MPH stronger .
Josh and Chris .. Great as always to wet a line with you guys .
2-5-09 BONECHILLER (4 Locations)
I picked up Dockrat (Chris) at 9am and we hit Wagamons Pond . The wind was whipping at 20+ MPH from the NW and a little ice but 90 percent was open water . Bambeklr (Jeff) also showed up not long after we got there and we all tried but nothing was happening .. I think Chris missed the only bite .
We stayed and fished from 9:30am to 11:00am and decided to swing out back to the Broadkill . We met up with Jarjar (Paul) and was joined by Clam Man (Gene who will be a member as soon as I get this report done) . The 4 of us fished for about 45 minutes on an almost low and dropping tide .. The water was CRYSTAL clear and I did see some small 3" Gills patrolling the rocks but no one caught anything .
Dockrat and I decided to hit Seaford and Paul also came along. We fished from 12:30pm to 2pm and had quite a few bite and landed some fish as well . The tide was almost high so the fish were on the small side 
Me first to "break the ice" 

Then Chris get a Gill for his first of the day ..

I got a tiny LMB ..

A few Gills ..

And some 5" Yellows then get this some what bigger LMB ..

Paul was fishing the opposite side of the spillway and landed an 8" ish Yellow Perch for his first but he was too far for the pic ..
We changed locations to the Green Bridge and get into some more small YP and Gills while Chris walked to get a bite at the corner store . Chris comes back but doesnt really fish and Paul and I get a few more small Gills and YP .
We left the babies biting and headed back to Wagamons

hoping the sun had warmed the water some and the fish would bite but again not 1 bite . We fished from 3pm to 4pm and Paul decided to hit Lavinia Pond at the back of Wagamons and Chris and I hit Diamond Pond .
It took about 20 minutes before I get this guy ..

Chris takes one on a piece on worm 

I get another ..

Dead Turtle in the water ..

Me trying to see my bobber 

I get 2 break off from decent fish and land a total of 4 YP and Chris end with 2 YP .
I was trying hard to get a Crappie as none were caught today and dont ya know it .. Last cast 

Well we made "The Last Cast" about a dozen times but the sun was gone and the bite was done .. I wish we had took the canoe out on Diamond first thing this morning !!
Anyhow it weird how the fish were biting at Diamond but not Wagamons .. The 2 Ponds are connected ??
Thats fishing I guess .
Bait was Crappie Magnets and 1.75" Fin"S" for me but caught nothing on the Fin"S" ..
Chris used the Crappie Magnets and a few worms .
Judah these are the worms you bought
I'll give them back when I see ya 
.