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Ice fishing started this week with mixed reviews. Fishermen were slow to get started and few fishermen were noticeably absent from local hard water. Let's hope for a better weekend. Good luck and tight lines.
It appears that we are going to experience a split weekend weatherize. Despite this, it looks like there will be a large number of ice fishermen out drilling holes to celebrate the arrival of the new year. Keep in mind that there will probably be a run on live shiners and the possibility of some sizes of shiners running tight is real. My advise would be to get your bait early and make sure you have plenty. Nothing ruins a day of fishing than running out of bait.
Local ice fishing has been good even though not many fishermen have been out to enjoy it. Looking across many lakes, the scene appears to be one from the frozen tundra. There are no tip ups to be seen or fishermen huddled in a circle. Local bait shops are quiet and there are no discussions of the latest hot spots. Despite the lack of fishermen, there are a few faithful and dedicated anglers making the rounds of local pods checking ice conditions and scoring on fair to good numbers of active fish. Schools of perch have kept fishermen busy jigging small artificials, setting ice traps, baiting hooks and chasing flags. Fishermen have been reporting catching dozens of hefty yellow perch from Chebacco Lake, Putnamville Reservoir, Brown's Pond and Sluice Pond.
Happy fishermen have been telling stories of aggressive bass steadily taking offerings of medium and large shiners. Some of the most active locationxs have been Chebacco Lake, Pillings Pond and Beck's Pond. Despite numerous slow periods most fishermen have been satisfied with the action.
Trout fishermen have been scoring nicely on feisty trout from local trout waters. Along with good numbers of trout, anglers have tallied some of the latest stocking of broodstock salmon. The popular baits that have attracted hungry trout on a steady basis have been small shiners and power bait. Small and medium shiners have scored big on salmon. When fishing for trout and salmon, keep the activity on the ice at a minimum, at least until there is a snow cover.
Good numbers of hefty pickerel have been pulled through the ice by excited anglers looking for trophy sized catches. Pickerel have weighed up to four pounds with the largest pickerel falling victim to large shiners. Most pickerel have been caught in fairly shallow water, often times in less than five or six feet, Position your traps around areas that haveweeds and stick ups as structure. Be prepared for some fast action.
Ice fishing is due to start this week. Anglers are already checking in with the shop inquiring about the availability of shiners for the weekend. With warmer temps and fair weather promised for the week, it appears that ice fishermen will be out in full force. Happy holidays and a safe ice fishing season.
All terminal tackle makes for great stocking stuffers ad are on sale for 50%off the marked prices, This is the time to stock up for summer. Remember these items don't go bad. Rods, Reels and Combos are all on sale for 40% marked prices. Example of savings; wire line striper trolling combo spooled with 50 lb. wire, Reg, Price $299.99 less 40% ($120.00) equall Sales Price $180.00 SAVE$120.00
COMPAREABLE SAVINGS THROUGHOUT THE STORE
Holiday week hours are as follows: Friday, 7 to 4: Saturday (Christmas Eve), 7 to 1; closed Christmas Day; Monday thru Friday, 7 to 4 and Saturday, 7 to 4, Hours are subject to change depending on volumn of business.
The link to the tide chart page will continue to remain part of this site after Main Harbors shuts down their site and limits tide information to Maine and New Hampshire on January 1 due to a lack of operating funds. To get local tide information for the Salem area click on tide information for Kennebunkport, Maine. Kennebunkport tides are within two minutes of Salem tides.
We are accepting donations to keep this site online. To date we hyave received a total of 4 donations for 2006. This ia not enough to cover the multitude of expenses that are incurred by running this site. Without your help, this site will be forced to close. Our goal is 100 donations. With a quarter of a million hits each week,there are fishermen that are not making a donation.
Starting Thursday, we will have small, medium and largeshiners in stock. As of this writing, therehas been no increase in price. Just a reminder to bring a bucker with an air pump to keep your shiners in good condition. Make sure no to crowd your bait to insure shiners remain in good condition without starving them for air.
This is the first ice of the season and extreme caution is strongly advised. Ice thickness varies from pond to pond and thin ice created by springs is common during this early period. It is a good idea to carry a pair if ice picks to help you get out of the water in case you go thru thin ice.
Reports of local ice conditions are starting to filter into the shop. Condition from local bodies have covered a wide so=pectrum of conditions from open water to as much as four or five inches of black ice. The smaller and more shallow waters have the thickest ice cover. There have been no reports of snow ice. Reports include a fairly good run of yellow perch being caught on small and medium shiners. Largemouth bass have been intercepting medium and large shiners. The larger fish have been running along drop offs and hanging around bottom structure like rockpiles, hills and bumps. Crappie run the mid level waters located above selected bottom structure.
With the holidays upon us and preparations well under way, few fishermen are making their way to the beaches and shores of local waters. Requests for tide charts have been made. Go to tide charts on the menu bar and download a chart. We will not be carrying them at the shop due to expense and failure to sell the minimum that I must purchase.
The 2006 website donation drive started on November 1 and to date we have only a single donation. With nearly a quarter of a million hits a week, there are many users that are failing to help out but are taking full advantage of the site. This will not pay for this sites expenses. Some of the expenses that need to be paid are; Registration fees, Server fees, Domain fees, Data Base fees, storage fees, site maintenance fees, security fees, author expenses and royalties, page fees and reconstruction expenses. Without your support through donations we will be forced to close down the site. We want to avoid this drastic result, but can not afford to shoulder the full cost of running this site and keep improving its content. To all the fishermen that have donated we thank you for your support and hope you will continue to support this site. To those of you that have not donated, we hope you will reconsider. We will take another look at the donations in a couple of months and decide the fate of the site at that time. Donations may be made through the site by clicking on the donation button and filling in the form or you can send your donation directly to the shop at; Pete's Bait and Tackle Shop. 121 North St., Salem, MA 01970
Last year's site donations fell far short of needed revenues. With only 27% of the needed donations made, the site fell far short of covering expenses. I can not operate this site in the negative. This years donation drive has started. Please donate.
Fishing reports along the North Shore have all but been non-existant. Local reports have been thin at best with only a few boats getting out for cod and fewer getting out on the fresh water. There have been a limited number of reports telling ofcod on jigs and bait. Check with Marine Fisheries for the new cod regulations. As of this report, we have not been notified of the official changes. We will post new regulations as soon as we receive the official publication. Smelt catches have been limited with a few anglers scoring at the familiar locations like the Gloucester Pier, the Beverly floats, Congress St. and Manchester Harbor. Bits of sea worms work well but trout worms and smalll killifish perform best. Largemouth bass fishermen do well when presenting jigs sweetened with a piecew of bait, live shiners produce fair numbers of bass around drop offs and decaying weed beds.
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