Recent weather has made the ice in the Essex and Franklin county regions turn to junk. Snow covered slush and variable ice throughout much of the region. There are pockets of decent ice if you explore the region, but many of the go to lakes and ponds have been on hold. They will be back in rotation by mid week, and luckily there is enough water to hit ponds that nobody has fished. This helps because during a thaw/snow/freeze event areas with a lot of holes drilled become sketchy to navigate. The holes melt and can widen and spider web out making them not safe to be near. And if you have 30 holes in a region that can make navigating that area a pain. The holes can also let a lot of water onto the surface adding to the slush layer beneath the new snowfall. We try to rotate where we fish constantly. Provides the guides a fresh and exciting area to fish, unpressured fish, and a clean canvas of ice to drill. All good things. Recently we have been targeting pike, bass and panfish as the trout waters are not super safe yet. Some were just coming into form until this last weather event. Cold weather for the next extended forecast so fingers crossed good ice sets back up across the region and this slush bonds with the current ice! Hopefully not a repeat of last season!
