Ice Fishing Thread

[Fryowa]

Anyone getting in some hardwater fishing this year? If so any luck?

IGL has been pretty slow, my kid and I went out last Sunday morning from 8-noon and brought home a mixed bag of 28. Some gills, yellows, and a few really nice crappies. Had to toss a bunch of dinks back to get those 28.

Not saure if anyone has heard (or cares), but zebra mussels are becoming a huge problem on East and West 'Boji. They clarify the water to such a degree that the fish are ultra skittish, and on East (which is much shallower), the clear water has weeds in turbo overdrive come spring and early summer. Not good.

Last year we could see 4mm tungsten jigs clear as day in 15' of water. It was bad. This year has been a little murkier but not much.

 

[MelroseHawkins]

Anyone getting in some hardwater fishing this year? If so any luck?

IGL has been pretty slow, my kid and I went out last Sunday morning from 8-noon and brought home a mixed bag of 28. Some gills, yellows, and a few really nice crappies. Had to toss a bunch of dinks back to get those 28.

Not saure if anyone has heard (or cares), but zebra mussels are becoming a huge problem on East and West 'Boji. They clarify the water to such a degree that the fish are ultra skittish, and on East (which is much shallower), the clear water has weeds in turbo overdrive come spring and early summer. Not good.

Last year we could see 4mm tungsten jigs clear as day in 15' of water. It was bad. This year has been a little murkier but not much.

Yea, and the clearer the water, the deeper the weeds can grow, which can be good and bad. I used to ice fish more and have done a few trips up to N Minnesota to Lake Winni, Leech. After a couple years of horrific traveling experiences back-to-back, not so keen on the 8-9 hr trips anymore.

Getting older so it doesn't excite me to lug all that crap anymore. Mobility is also an issue which one must do ice fishing, especially in Iowa.

It's fun when you're on them though.

 

[kicker22]

Crazy how clear water can be a bad thing.

 

[99topdawg]

Killing it at the private farm ponds I've been to. No fishing pressure so it's easy. Don't ever use my ice shack because if I'm catching them, I can leave with my panful early, I can stay and throw back what I don't want, or leave if they're not biting. One pond has perch and they're bigger than anywhere I've ever been. Lots of 12+. Son had a 14. Only keep 8-10 inchers. Been doing a lot of exploring with the depth finder to find places to fish in the summer. One pond has walleyes and want to figure out where the best structure is for them to be in the summer. Have a brother on Big Creek and has been having better luck than usual. That'll slow down pretty quickly.

 

[Fryowa]

Killing it at the private farm ponds I've been to. No fishing pressure so it's easy. Don't ever use my ice shack because if I'm catching them, I can leave with my panful early, I can stay and throw back what I don't want, or leave if they're not biting. One pond has perch and they're bigger than anywhere I've ever been. Lots of 12+. Son had a 14. Only keep 8-10 inchers. Been doing a lot of exploring with the depth finder to find places to fish in the summer. One pond has walleyes and want to figure out where the best structure is for them to be in the summer. Have a brother on Big Creek and has been having better luck than usual. That'll slow down pretty quickly.

We don't have many private ponds up here to work with, $20,000 farm ground kinda trumps having many around.

 

[SwirlinLingerie]

Got out Saturday to a local river to me and got one bull trout and one dying coho salmon. No steelhead. I sort of miss ice fishing in Iowa and Minnesota (only sort of).

My in-laws have a place on Green Lake in the Spicer, MN area. It was already ultra clear, but since the zebra mussels took over 10-12 years ago, it's somehow gotten even clearer. Absolute tap water. Which has caused the weeds to grow thicker/deeper. Combine that with a ton of boat traffic (at least the periods we tend to be there), and it makes for pretty challenging fishing. At least during daylight periods.

Looking forward to getting back to smaller river fishing in eastern/NE Iowa one day soon. Some of the most underrated fishing in the country in my opinion.

 

[Fryowa]

Got out Saturday to a local river to me and got one bull trout and one dying coho salmon. No steelhead. I sort of miss ice fishing in Iowa and Minnesota (only sort of).

My in-laws have a place on Green Lake in the Spicer, MN area. It was already ultra clear, but since the zebra mussels took over 10-12 years ago, it's somehow gotten even clearer. Absolute tap water. Which has caused the weeds to grow thicker/deeper. Combine that with a ton of boat traffic (at least the periods we tend to be there), and it makes for pretty challenging fishing. At least during daylight periods.

Looking forward to getting back to smaller river fishing in eastern/NE Iowa one day soon. Some of the most underrated fishing in the country in my opinion.

My son is going to East O with a couple friends looking for walleyes overnight tonight. I'll be getting to the same spot as he's leaving tomorrow, but I'm after panfish. I'll take a limit of nice bluegills or crappies over 4 walleyes any day. To me nothing that swims in freshwater tastes better than a bluegill fillet.

 

[Fryowa]

Got out Saturday to a local river to me and got one bull trout...

Always wondered, what do you do with one of those if you gut hook it or gill it? You still toss 'em back and just hope they live, or do you keep it and not let the carcass go to waste? Not sure if you'll get nailed by your DNR (or equivalent where you live)...

 

[99topdawg]

My son is going to East O with a couple friends looking for walleyes overnight tonight. I'll be getting to the same spot as he's leaving tomorrow, but I'm after panfish. I'll take a limit of nice bluegills or crappies over 4 walleyes any day. To me nothing that swims in freshwater tastes better than a bluegill fillet.

I totally agree. They're the best. I do like catfish, but once we speared some in a shallow spot in a frozen river (opened it with an ice saw) and that's the best fish I've ever eaten. Not nearly as gamey as in the summer.

 

[SwirlinLingerie]

Always wondered, what do you do with one of those if you gut hook it or gill it? You still toss 'em back and just hope they live, or do you keep it and not let the carcass go to waste? Not sure if you'll get nailed by your DNR (or equivalent where you live)...

I pretty much always use spoons, spinners or twitching jigs, so not really an issue. Sort of funny - they are generally protected on most river stretches the states manages, and completely protected on river stretches in the national parks (Olympic NP has some great rivers). But tribal members hate the things because they go to town on juvenile salmon and steelhead. So if you are fishing with a tribal guide (the only way you can access rivers on tribal land), and you catch a bull/dolly varden, they want you to rip the gill and dump it back in.

One time my buddy and I were fishing on the rez and he figured if he was going to rip the bull trout's gill he may as well throw the fish in with the salmon we had caught. He kept a couple that day...they are a char like lake trout, so I assume they are decent. We've caught them up to 6 pounds or so in some of the rivers - pretty fun - eager biters and at times you can see them come out of the shadows and chase down your lure. Might be all that's left one day as the salmon fisheries crash.

 

[Fryowa]

I pretty much always use spoons, spinners or twitching jigs, so not really an issue. Sort of funny - they are generally protected on most river stretches the states manages, and completely protected on river stretches in the national parks (Olympic NP has some great rivers). But tribal members hate the things because they go to town on juvenile salmon and steelhead. So if you are fishing with a tribal guide (the only way you can access rivers on tribal land), and you catch a bull/dolly varden, they want you to rip the gill and dump it back in.

One time my buddy and I were fishing on the rez and he figured if he was going to rip the bull trout's gill he may as well throw the fish in with the salmon we had caught. He kept a couple that day...they are a char like lake trout, so I assume they are decent. We've caught them up to 6 pounds or so in some of the rivers - pretty fun - eager biters and at times you can see them come out of the shadows and chase down your lure. Might be all that's left one day as the salmon fisheries crash.

We have a huge yellow bass problem here. They're invasive and really destroy bluegill and other populations in smaller and medium size lakes. Bigger lakes like east and west Boji and Spirit around here they can somewhat coesxist, but they'll just absolutely demolish smaller ones.

Even at the bigger IGL I don't throw any back. There's no limit so everything that comes through the ice goes in my bucket big or small. They eat great so I filet the bigger ones, but the dinks go towards fertilizer and cat food at my buddy's farm place. There's a lake here where they've gotten completely out of hand, they have a tournament each winter and summer for gross poundage of yellow bass, I know in the ice fishing one you'll see hundreds of 33 gallon garbage cans full of yellow bass. The bigger ones get cleaned, dinks end up in a manure spreader.

 

[MelroseHawkins]

Killing it at the private farm ponds I've been to. No fishing pressure so it's easy. Don't ever use my ice shack because if I'm catching them, I can leave with my panful early, I can stay and throw back what I don't want, or leave if they're not biting. One pond has perch and they're bigger than anywhere I've ever been. Lots of 12+. Son had a 14. Only keep 8-10 inchers. Been doing a lot of exploring with the depth finder to find places to fish in the summer. One pond has walleyes and want to figure out where the best structure is for them to be in the summer. Have a brother on Big Creek and has been having better luck than usual. That'll slow down pretty quickly.

If that pond has weeds, they might be hanging on that weedline to the deeper part in the spring. Maybe deeper as the summer goes.

 

[MelroseHawkins]

Got out Saturday to a local river to me and got one bull trout and one dying coho salmon. No steelhead. I sort of miss ice fishing in Iowa and Minnesota (only sort of).

My in-laws have a place on Green Lake in the Spicer, MN area. It was already ultra clear, but since the zebra mussels took over 10-12 years ago, it's somehow gotten even clearer. Absolute tap water. Which has caused the weeds to grow thicker/deeper. Combine that with a ton of boat traffic (at least the periods we tend to be there), and it makes for pretty challenging fishing. At least during daylight periods.

Looking forward to getting back to smaller river fishing in eastern/NE Iowa one day soon. Some of the most underrated fishing in the country in my opinion.

I grew up on the Cedar in NE Iowa. There is the Little Cedar that is a tribute to the Big Cedar. When a teen we used to walk that as it is shallow in most places and catch smallies. They'd be pretty easy to find just looking for any structure with a little deeper (sometimes 3-4 ft) water. Any rocky shoreline. It was fun as heck to catch them. Water was so clear they'd shoot out from any little structure and kill a grub or anything that resembled food really.

 

[MelroseHawkins]

My son is going to East O with a couple friends looking for walleyes overnight tonight. I'll be getting to the same spot as he's leaving tomorrow, but I'm after panfish. I'll take a limit of nice bluegills or crappies over 4 walleyes any day. To me nothing that swims in freshwater tastes better than a bluegill fillet.

You can have both. You can hit that early evening crappie bite and evening walleye bite. You could have all your gills prior to then.

 

[MelroseHawkins]

Always wondered, what do you do with one of those if you gut hook it or gill it? You still toss 'em back and just hope they live, or do you keep it and not let the carcass go to waste? Not sure if you'll get nailed by your DNR (or equivalent where you live)...

Now I have to Google bull trout. Damnnit.

 

[MelroseHawkins]

We have a huge yellow bass problem here. They're invasive and really destroy bluegill and other populations in smaller and medium size lakes. Bigger lakes like east and west Boji and Spirit around here they can somewhat coesxist, but they'll just absolutely demolish smaller ones.

Even at the bigger IGL I don't throw any back. There's no limit so everything that comes through the ice goes in my bucket big or small. They eat great so I filet the bigger ones, but the dinks go towards fertilizer and cat food at my buddy's farm place. There's a lake here where they've gotten completely out of hand, they have a tournament each winter and summer for gross poundage of yellow bass, I know in the ice fishing one you'll see hundreds of 33 gallon garbage cans full of yellow bass. The bigger ones get cleaned, dinks end up in a manure spreader.

They are good eating, though. Right under a crappie, in my book, and they can get to a decent size in the larger lakes that can handle them. Yea, keep all you want. When you are on them you are on them. Sometimes for 1.5-2 hrs straight non-stop. Too bad they take over because they are a decent table fish and are plentiful.

 

[Fryowa]

You can have both. You can hit that early evening crappie bite and evening walleye bite. You could have all your gills prior to then.

They're going to be in a pop up hub shack, not a permanent. I'm too old to sleep out on the ice bundled up on a cot with a Buddy heater. When I was younger I'd do it. But I'll have 8 hours sleep in my own bed when I leave town for the lakes tomorrow morning and my kid will be cold with a sore back.

 

[Fryowa]

They are good eating, though. Right under a crappie and they can get to a decent size in the larger lakes that can handle them. Yea, keep all you want. When you are on them you are on them. Sometimes for 1.5-2 hrs straight non-stop. Too bad they take over because they are a decent table fish and are plentiful.

Used to have a buddy who'd take all the dink yellows I could catch. He'd chop 'em up and freeze them in gallon ziplocks to have catfish bait all year. One year he went went on a week long flathead trip with a bunch of people and said they didn't have to get bait anywhere cause he had like 10 frozen blocks of chopped up yellows along in his cooler.

 

[MelroseHawkins]

They're going to be in a pop up hub shack, not a permanent. I'm too old to sleep out on the ice bundled up on a cot with a Buddy heater. When I was younger I'd do it. But I'll have 8 hours sleep in my own bed when I leave town for the lakes tomorrow morning and my kid will be cold with a sore back.

Well, I wasn't saying all night. Maybe til 9:30 -10:00, depending on your drive.

I have a hub tent. It's nice when it's set up but a pain in the azz, specially with wind.

 

[MelroseHawkins]

Used to have a buddy who'd take all the dink yellows I could catch. He'd chop 'em up and freeze them in gallon ziplocks to have catfish bait all year. One year he went went on a week long flathead trip with a bunch of people and said they didn't have to get bait anywhere cause he had like 10 frozen blocks of chopped up yellows along in his cooler.

They also make for decent fish tacos. Ya don't have to clean too many that it gets annoying. Just enough to provide some fill in the taco with the other stuff.

I really like perch to, Ya get a nice fish stick out of them and they are easy as hell to clean. A very small rib cage. Even a smallish perch can get ya a nice fish stick, IMO. My first ice fishing trip to Winni was in a 8 X 12" sleeper shack with my good bud from HS and my cousin. We were early 20's (Cousin prob 19) and had a complete blast catching the jumbo perch. Literally filled a 5 gal pail and cooked them up that night. I think we ate literally every last fish.

I think it was the year or two just before Minny put the regulations on the number each could have. Damn that was fun. The first trip is always the funnest.