2016 Ice wrap up

[saxmatt]

Fasteddie and I sat in our cars in disbelief today watching the wind rip into what little ice was left by the beach at Budd lake. I tried to get on the ice but the shorlines had 10' of open water from the rain and there was only about 2" of honeycomb ice off the docks. I set a tipup off the dock and we watched for about a half hour trying to decide what the hell we are going to do the rest of February and March. It's hard to believe we were fishing 2' of ice this time last year. This was one of the shortest ice seasons I can remember. There was no safe ice in Jersey until the first day I got on Budd, January 6th, and now it's almost gone. The fish definitely liked the warm weather though. I had my best year ever catching 13 muskie and at least 20 pike, 6 fish over 40".
After first ice at Budd I went up to CT for pike. My first day out I caught a 37" pike and my buddy got a 42" 20lb fish. 2 days later we caught over a dozen pike, including a 35" fish that sucked my buddy's dead stick down the hole with a $700 Van Stall reel on it. After about an hour of drilling/looking down holes we found the rod and jigged it up with the pike still attached. It was one of the sickest things I've seen on the ice.
When I came back to Jersey I started hitting a few muskie lakes in NJ. My first ski trip of the year was unbelievable, definitely the best day on the ice I've had. I caught 4 muskie, 43,41,41,37. I had never caught 2 40" fish in a day, let alone 3! My next trip I got a 44, and a week later I got my heaviest ski yet at 44" and over 28lbs. After all those muskie I decided to hit Budd again and what did I catch? Another muskie! I've heard rumors about Budd tigers for years and the rumors are true, I caught a scrawny 30" tiger.
After the Budd tiger I fished a few more pike and muskie lakes and caught a some decent fish but no monsters. Even though this was a short season, it was one of the most memorable ones for me. Fun times with friends and some giant fish. Short but sweet season for sure, can't wait until next year!