December Meet and Greet -- Unicorn Lake

[Mark]

Great, thanks. See you in the morning!!

You're welcome.

Let's hope the picks are hungry.

Again, we'll be there between 9:00 and 9:30. If you launch prior to us or after and have a radio, we'll be on Channel 68.

[mchottie]

Best of Luck Gents, hoping for a successful outing with lots of pictures to share with us keyboard anglers who live vicariously through y'all during the weekdays.

[Mark]

Best of Luck Gents, hoping for a successful outing with lots of pictures to share with us keyboard anglers who live vicariously through y'all during the weekdays.

Thanks Michael.

We'll take some photos. I cannot guarantee any will have fish in them. But we'll try.

I'm sorry the weather caused us to cancel our trip on Saturday when you could have joined us.

[Mark]

Michael, and all,

I promised you photos, so here they are. Unfortunately, there are only two pictures of Unicorn and as you can see it was still unfishable:

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The lake remained frozen despite our recent 3-day warming trend. There was sliver of open water near the dam but the rest of the lake was iced over for as far as we could see.

J. Rentch, Wheatonkyak and I stood near the launch and lamented our misfortune. Then we decided since fishing was out of the question and it was too early to drink, we might as well eat. We had a good breakfast and some great conversation at the Parkside Deli in nearby Sudlersville. It turns out that Wheatonkayak is familiar with the sites John and I have fished near Tampa, FL and he also has fished with the kayak guide we are going to visit next month on FL's Space Coast. Small world! What an enjoyable chat.

From there we made a command decision...let's try Tuckahoe. Surprisingly, Tuckahoe was 99.9 percent ice-free. That's hard to figure since Tuckahoe and Unicorn are not very far apart.

There was a small area of ice in one corner of the lake:

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But otherwise the lake was unfrozen.

Here's John near the dam:

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Here's a couple of shots of Wheatonkayak:

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The geese were plentiful overhead and on the shore:

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Here's a beaver lodge in the back portion of the lake:

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Of course, I'm showing you this stuff because I have no fish photos. I had nary a bite. I threw a wooly bugger, a Mr. Twister on a jig, and a weedless paddletail. John at least had a tap, not far from the ice, no less. Wheatonkayak actually had a few bites and had a bass bend his rod and break the surface. I was hustling over to photograph it but the fish came unbuttoned. That was it for pullage today on the lake.

The bite was tough. But Wheatonkayak takes the honors by actually having a fish on his line, albeit for a short time.

Such is the story of our December M&G. Postponement due to ice and then tightlipped fish when we found some water we could actually float in.

But John and I thoroughly enjoyed meeting Wheatonkayak and we look forward to seeing him again on future outings.

[J.A. Veil]

Sorry your trip was not more productive. Nevertheless, it was a pleasant December day to get on the water.

[J. Rentch]

Yea, our day looking for Pickerel didn’t work out, but it was a pleasure to meet Sam (Wheatonkayak) . Also was a nice few hours on the water for December.

[Wheatonkayak]

I thought it was a great day. It's hard to complain about a beautiful day on the water in December. Also, of me, it was a great day because I've been lurking around this forum for a while and it was great to connect with people from here. Aside from being good company, I'm still in the process of learning the fishing around here and being able to pick mark and John's brains really accelerated the learning process. I will definitely make meet and greets. I love the tone of sharing on this forum-definitely goes over to IRL.

It was really fascinating that Unicorn was frozen solid and tuckahoe was 100% open. Maybe because there is a heavier in and outflow at Tuckahoe?

Sam alias "Wheatonkayak"

[mike o]

I think Wheatonkayak is right probably the current that kept Tuckahoe from freezing. I am surprised you didn't get any fish there. I fished Loch raven again this afternoon and caught 4 big pickerel. I regret not joining the pickerel tournament now.

[Wheatonkayak]

I don't know what others experience has been but I have had really limited success at Tuckahoe.

[mike o]

I only fished Tuckahoe once and that was last year. I caught 7 small pickerel but the place looked very fishy.

[Mark]

I've never had a particularly good day at Tuckahoe but I've never fished it in spring or early fall like I have other Eastern Shore ponds where I've had more success. I agree Tuckahoe looks exceptionally fishy, especially up that creek at the far end of the lake. Today, we were just glad to find water we could dip our paddles into after seeing the ice at Unicorn.

[mchottie]

Any day on the water is better than the alternative.

Mark, thanks for the photos!