<b>NEW YORK</b>

<b>Adirondack Mountains</b>

A little fishable ice actually formed on Lake George, and yellow perch fishing was fantastic on the lake, because the fish hadn’t been targeted previously this season, said Luke from <b>FISH307.com</b> in the village of Lake George. This was during the cold front in the past week, and the ice was the first that was fishable on the lake this season. Anglers couldn’t know how long the ice would remain, during this warm winter. George is a large, deep lake that’s always the final to freeze each winter in the area, if it freezes. The lake is also susceptible to wind that hampers freezing. Anglers also scored pretty well on lake trout from the ice on George then, at waters that hold the lakers. Ice was fished on many other small lakes in the Adirondacks, including Brant Lake. Crappies and perch bit well at Brant on wax worms and grubs. South Bay on Lake Champlain harbored a ton of crappies. Ice-fishing was great for them. A large supply of ice-fishing baits is stocked, including three sizes of suckers, three sizes of shiners, fathead minnows, hunts, wax worms and grubs. The shop’s holding blow-out, clearance sales on ice-fishing gear, while supplies last. <a href="http://www.fish307.com/" target="_blank">FISH307.com</a> is both a brick-and-mortar store and an online store. Join the email list on the website to get announcements about sales. 

<b>Salmon River and Western N.Y. Rivers</b>

Before the cold snap, creeks fished well for brown trout and steelheads early last week, said Jay Peck from <b>Jay Peck Guide Service</b>. Weather became too cold to fish late in the week and during the weekend, but was warming now. The trout were the huge browns he fishes for on Lake Ontario’s tributaries in western New York around Rochester. They grow large because they summer in the lake. They winter in the tributaries because forage is more abundant there that season. The steelheads were ones that swam tributaries of Salmon River, an hour to 2 hours east of the trout waters. Salmon River is itself a tributary of Lake Ontario, and Jay usually fishes for the steelheads on the Salmon itself throughout winter, but the water was too high this past week. The Salmon on Monday ran at 1,250 cubic feet per second at the reservoir dam and 1,500 CFS to 1,600 farther downstream at Pineville. Jay was unsure why the Salmon ran high, considering that precipitation’s been scarce this season in the area. But he expected the river to lower this week, and hoped to fish for the steelheads on the river again later in the week. The brown trout are usually also caught in rivers, not just creeks, toward Rochester, including Oak Orchard River. But the Oak ran too low for the fishing, in the scarce precipitation. Why the Oak ran so low, but the creeks didn’t, was unknown. Seven to 12 inches of snow was supposed to fall around Rochester from Monday to yesterday, and that was welcomed precipitation. During the cold snap, temperatures dipped as low as minus 10 degrees around Rochester and probably minus 20 along Salmon River. The creeks froze but would probably thaw now. Salmon River is a larger body of water that never completely freezes. The trout creeks often freeze throughout an extended time in winter, preventing fishing. But the creeks were mostly free of ice, enabling the fishing, during this warm winter. Jay specializes in fly-fishing and catch-and-release, and books trips that fish with conventional tackle with his other guides.

<b>NEW JERSEY</b>

Ice was fished during the cold spell this past week, including on Budd Lake, Tilcon Lake and the coves at Lake Hopatcong, said Kevin from <b>Ramsey Outdoor</b> in Succasunna. But most fishable ice would probably melt in warmer weather now. Maybe some smaller, private lakes would hold the ice in the next day or so. But weather reached higher than 50 degrees, and rain poured, yesterday, and relatively warm weather, above freezing, is forecast for daytimes this week. Still, yellow perch fishing is usually great during ice-out on lakes. Not much seemed to happen with trout fishing on streams during the cold and then yesterday’s rain. The rain would probably blow out the streams a moment, but stream conditions will probably be perfect by Friday or Saturday. Good hatches of early black stoneflies will probably come off. Once trout become keyed-in on them, fishing the hatches should be on.

In the cold in the past week and the rain yesterday, nobody really fished, said Larry from <b>Fairfield Fishing Tackle</b> in Pine Brook. Lots of cold water would flow into rivers and lakes from the rain. Passaic River would be flooded. Customers fish the river for catches including northern pike and carp. The river is one of the few places in the state that harbors the northerns, and the state stocks the pike in the Passaic. The fish can be big.

Pouring rain yesterday probably flooded trout streams, Burt from <b>Efinger Sporting Goods</b> in Bound Brook guessed. Weather was cold before then, including 5 degrees one morning. Maybe some lakes to the north will continue to hold fishable ice, but the rain and warmer weather now probably melted much ice. Nights are supposed to remain cold, though. A few customers bought shiners, probably to fish places like Round Valley Reservoir for trout or Spruce Run Reservoir for northern pike or whatever would bite. A few bought meal worms, butter worms and mousies for ice-fishing. 

Lakes were frozen, said Jeff from <b>Blackwater Sports Center</b> in Vineland. Nobody really fished, because of that, and simply because this was February. Ice-fishing isn’t common this far south, because waters don’t usually freeze long enough to draw interest. Maybe the ice will thaw by the weekend, and maybe anglers will fish then, in warmer weather than before. No minnows were even stocked in past days, because they become difficult to catch when much water is frozen.

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