Chemical Guys boat products!

First Chance to Ice Fish on Long Island in Nearly a Decade

First Chance to Ice Fish on Long Island in Nearly a Decade

This past week on Long Island, a few lakes and ponds had safe ice over 4-inches thick. Even the island’s largest body of fresh water, Lake Ronkonkoma, had ice as thick as 6 inches or more. This rare occurrence led to a big showing of hockey players, ice skaters, ice fishermen, and even ice boaters.

ice fishing on Long Island at Lake Ronkonkoma
Sean Conway (@long_island_fishing_guy) fishes through the ice in Eastern Long Island while a group enjoys a game of pond hockey in the background.

(Note: On The Water is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.)

For the past 8 years, our winters have been too mild to produce safe ice on Lake Ronkonkoma. However, the recent deep freeze brought temperatures cold enough to lock up Great South Bay, temporarily halting ferry service to and from Fire Island.

Check out these Instagram reels posted by @LongIslandWiseGuy of people recreating over the ice on Lake Ronk:

A post shared by Long Island Wise Guy (@longislandwiseguy)

On the ice, Sean and I fished small tungsten jigs tipped with mealworms and tiny plastic grubs, which yielded a few yellow perch in shallow water. We started at 28 feet, then moved to 6 feet. Even though the fish were small, we were pumped to catch our first-ever fish through the ice. The ultra-light tackle involved in ice fishing made it fun to reel in these small panfish.

ice fishing on Long Island at Lake Ronkonkoma
We found a school of small yellow perch in 6 feet of water and caught them on tiny tungsten jigs tipped with mealworms from a pet store.
A small fishing jig tipped with a meal worm.
We tipped our tungsten jigs with 1 to 3 meal worms, which was the most productive offering of the day.

One year for Christmas, my dad bought me an ice fishing combo—a 13 Fishing Tickle Stick and a Black Betty Freefall Ghost inline reel—that, until this day, never saw any hard water.

I was happy to dust off the hand auger that had been sitting in my basement for over 3 years, along with my ice scooper, which also doubled as a fish ruler. While a powered auger is generally preferable to a hand auger, the ice on Long Island, typically, isn’t so thick that a hand auger is impractical. It took us around a minute to get through the ice, although tag-teaming it helped make the job quicker.

ice fishing on Long Island
An auger and a scooper are two critical items for drilling a hole in the ice and keeping it clear of slush.

Unfortunately, it’s unlikely that the safe ice on Ronkonkoma will last. With temperatures above freezing today and only dipping into the upper 20s at night, the ice will likely thaw quickly and become unsafe. That said, there’s still plenty of winter left, so we’ll see what February’s forecast has in store.

In the meantime, remember to always practice good ice safety if you decide to attempt ice fishing on Long Island, and don’t take unnecessary risks.

Related Content

Long Island Ice

Follow These 10 Ice Fishing Safety Tips

How to Find Good Ice Fishing Spots

Source: https://onthewater.com/first-chance-to-ice-fish-on-long-island-in-nearly-a-decade

$post[‘post_content’] .= ‘Source‘;

Boat Lyfe