Western Massachusetts Fishing Report

Winter Break Ice Fishing

During my short winter break, myself and my Dad set up a trip to go ice fishing with Charter the Berkshires. On this occasion, we booked a private charter. Upon setting up the trip, our guide, Patrick, asked what we'd like to fish for. We picked trout as our number one target, and Patrick chose a secret location where he knew there were some good trout. Upon arriving, we met Patrick, and ventured onto the hard water where he had set up an ice tent and several tip ups and ice riggers baited with nightcrawlers and shiners. We also fished jigs tipped with waxworms while waiting for the traps to get bit, and Patrick supplied us with flasher fish finders to use while jigging. Almost immediately, and ice rigger went off, and i hooked into the first fish of the day which turned out to be a nice little rainbow. A little while later, another ice rigger got a bite, and I caught a very small brown trout. We had a few more bites on the traps, but we missed them all, and the jig action began to heat up. My dad caught two browns on jigs, and I caught one brown on a jig. And let me tell you, if you ever jig through the ice and use a flasher fish finder, pull the transducer out of the water as soon as you hook up, or it will cost you. I also had one other mark on the flasher that kept checking out my jig, but would not bite. This led us to believe that it was an older, smarter, trophy sized fish (I will be back!). But it was a great overall day on the water. Special thanks to guide Patrick for a great day and for putting us on the fish.

• Added By: newenglandangler on 07/12/19 02:38 PM
• Location: Western Massachusetts
• Report Date: 1/4/2019
• # of Hotspots: 2
• # of Photos: 4
• # of Fish Caught: 5
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