Early ice out!
The other day, we went to Rockland to run some errands. The recent weather had been warm, wet, and windy, but I was not prepared to see Grassy Pond in Hope almost completely free of ice. I had to look multiple times to confirm that I was indeed seeing open water, and it is a fact. Round Pond in Union also shows a significant amount of open water where the river current flows, and Seven Tree Pond is free of ice enough to launch a boat. It's truly amazing if you ask me, but any hope of ice fishing locally is now gone. I usually look for this event late in March but never on the first!
After a winter that never seemed to get started, I believe we might be heading into an early spring. However, this doesn't rule out the possibility of a snowstorm or two in the next month. This just means that I should prepare my spring fishing equipment and uncover the boat. Although the water will still be quite cold, there's now open water available for fishing!
My priority will be spawning pike in the shallow weeds on the first warm day in the next couple of weeks.
