I've always held a special attraction to Connery Pond, a scenic little water just outside Lake Placid, because it held splake, that brook trout-lake trout hybrid that seems especially cooperative during the ice-fishing season.

I fell in love with Connery shortly after we moved up here more than 15 years ago. Back when we had "real" winters, Connery ice over in early December (honest) and I dragged a sled through about a foot of snow up the half-mile road into the pond rather than chance getting the truck stuck along the way.

This was back before I went soft and purchased a portable shelter and portable propane heater. On this morning, I hiked in before sunrise, drilled holes and set a series of tip-ups as the sun rose then sat on a 5-gallon bucket, hunkered down as best I could away from the wind, grabbed a jigging rod and played with the yellow perch until a flag popped up.

It didn't take long. Splake seem to read the script when you're ice fishing, readily grabbing a minnow and almost skittering themselves onto the ice as you pull in the line. Within an hour I had a limit, although none were of the size I knew the pond was capable of producing. I say "was" because things have changed at Connery Pond in recent years. DEC no longer stocks splake, much to my disappointment.

Still, the state does plant over 1,000 yearling brown trout annually in Connery's 81 acres, and while many of them are picked off quickly by anglers in the spring (as well as the largemouth bass that are showing in greater numbers), some survive and grow to eye-popping size. I've never tied into a big brown during the hard-water season, but every year it seems like a report surfaces that a 5- or 6-pounder has been landed.

Too, while my first forays onto Connery ice yielded smallish perch, that hasn't been the case in recent years. Some eating-sized ringbacks are now being pulled through the hole, and a friend of mine last year had a memorable day yanking solid perch in great numbers. I followed a day later and struggled to fill a bucket, so like most waters, it runs hot and cold during the winter.

The big challenge these days comes from Mother Nature. We're heading into late December with no real sign of the kind of cold snap needed to lock up area waters. And a word of caution when you visit Connery ice: the access point near the outlet has enough current that it can lead to iffy ice conditions in that portion of the pond. As always during the ice fishing season, use caution.

These days, I hit Connery when I'm looking to land some perch for the frying pan, amid stunning Adirondack scenery and away from the crowds the tend to form on other waters during the winter.

But I sure do miss those splake.