Early 2019 Icefishing Season

Ice season is over.  It was a short one.  My last open-water flyfishing outing was November 24, 2018.  After that, we had ice, but it wasn't good safe ice thick enough to fish on.  Consequently, there was no fishing in December 2018 at all, and then the icefishing locally finally got underway on January 20.

My buddy Jay measured 17" of ice on March 2nd, and 20" of ice on March 8.  My last icefishing outing for this season was March 10.  Then we got some rain, I went on Spring Break, and when I got back on March 23, the ice was gone from most of the local ponds.

Caught some nice fish, especially bass.  I gotta give HUGE credit to Jay Ohm, who out-bassed me by a HUGE margin all winter long.  The funny thing is...we were usually fishing not far from each other, and also using the same lures/bait.  Different colors, maybe.  One other difference was he was using a stiffer ice rod, while mine had a very sensitive tip for detecting light bites from panfish.  What we think was the difference is that Jay would drop his spoon down and pound the bottom a few times, then raise it up a few feet.  He couldn't detect light bites very well with this rod, so he usually moved his lure away from fish when they showed up on his ice flasher, forcing the fish to hit more aggressively.  Bass would come in and HAMMER it.  My success improved when I tried to mimic his technique, but I still didn't catch as many as Jay.  He was fully charged with BASS MOJO!!  :)

We also hit one pond twice during the icefishing season to target catfish.  I didn't use special bait or lures....just used the same thing I was using for crappies, bass & bluegills.  Basically, it was just fishing a pond that had a good catfish population.  They aren't real big, but it was still fun.  The first time we tried it, I caught something like 6 catfish (plus other fish), with the biggest being 24" long.  Pretty fun! The next time we tried it, I only caught one smaller catfish (plus other fish).

Here's some pictures from the season:

Jay with a good ice bass.

This was the biggest catfish of the season at 24" long.

Pumpkinseed Sunfish are so beautiful!  Even during the winter!

Occasionally I think Jay would let a bass swim on by so I could try to catch one. ;o)

This is a beautiful fish:

I'm trying, and failing, to keep up with Jay's bass productivity.

One of these many bass (maybe this one below?) was Jay's biggest bass in years, he said.  I think it was just under 20".... like 19.75".

Yeah.  See what I mean?  The bass were going crazy for whatever it was Jay was doing differently.
My biggest bass of the winter season was this 20" fish:

Big Hybrid Sunfish:

So, it was a very short icefishing season this time around, but we got out a few times and caught some good fish.  That's what we hope for when riding out Iowa winters!

Icefishing February17,2018

Jay and I formulated flexible icefishing plans for Saturday.  We didn't know where we might find safe & accessible ice, so we had a series of "contingencies". 

Fortunately(?) the first place we tried was accessible.  The ice looked "iffy"....lotsa bubbles trapped in the ice, surface cracks....but not really honeycombed.  6.5" of ice.  We fished here most of the day, before hitting another place for the last couple hours.

Fishing alternated between very good, to zero throughout the day for each of us....usually only one of us was having success at any one time.  And then the fish would completely disappear for both of us.  Very bizarre.

Despite not catching much for hours at a time....we had fun and we did catch some decent fish!
We caught some crazy-aggressive chunky Hybrid Sunfish:

Hybrid Sunfish (presumably a Bluegill / Green Sunfish cross)

Even the Pumpkinseeds seemed more aggressive than the bluegills:

Pumpkinseed Sunfish

(BTW...the bottom right fish in the picture above is a Pumpkinseed hybrid.)

We didn't catch any crappies, and just a few bass.  This was the biggest of the day at a chunky 20" (see picture at the top of this post.)

I was looking down the hole when that one showed up and hit!

In other news....remember the ice rod that got ripped out of my hands and flew down the back in January?  Well...that pond's water is typically pretty stained all year.  But on Saturday I discovered it was strangely clear....I could see my lure tipped with a waxworm down to 8' +/-.   When we had arrived at the pond, Jay had initially drilled a couple holes to check ice thickness/quality.  Before we left that pond for the day, I decided to try and fish those holes since we couldn't find fish anywhere else.  I picked a hole that was over 6' of water.  I didn't mark any fish.  I dropped my lure/waxie to the bottom....then noticed something off to the side a bit.  Looked like my lost rod laying on the bottom!  I drilled 2 more holes before getting directly over the top of it.  I put on a rattle spoon and dropped it down.  Within a minute or two, I managed to hook THE CORK HANDLE (not the line or rod or eyelet like you would expect)....and reeled it up. I GOT MY LOST ROD BACK!!!  We decided the chances of finding it and retrieving it were astronomical.  CRAZY how everything worked out like that!  The uncharacteristically clear water was definitely the biggest factor.

Anyway....pretty cool stuff!  Oh....and no muskrats this time, but I did look down a hole once to see a ginormous bullhead slowly swimming just a couple feet under the ice.  I would have loved to catch it...I reeled up as quickly as I could, but it never turned or showed any interest and was quickly gone from view.

Icefishing 1-1-2017

Fished with Jay.  We visited a different pond than the one I fished last week.  7" of decent ice.  Jay was smart and knew when to cut his losses, although he certainly caught his share of fish.  I stayed way too long...fished from 9:15am-5pm.
Action was very slow and the fish really seemed negative.  Had a few aggressive crazy fish that helped the day pass.
I caught 1 bass, 4-5 pumpkinseeds, 4 hybrids sunfish, and 20 +/- bluegills.
Caught 2 Master Angler-sized pumpkinseeds...9" and 9.5".

Ice Fishing in Central Iowa - December 24, 2016

After seeing the windy/rainy forecasts for Sunday and Monday, I decided to rearrange some plans in order to free up Saturday (24th) for icefishing, while the ice is still in good condition.

Visited one local pond, had 9" of good ice.  Caught a bunch o' fish....largemouth bass, bluegills, hybrid sunfish, and pumpkinseed sunfish.  First time I'd ever caught pumpkinseeds from this pond.

I tried a few different ice-lures, the most effective for this day seemed to be a Lindy Frostee Spoon tipped with a waxworm.

Pumpkinseeds:

Hybrid Sunfish:

Ice-Fishing, Feb. 7, 2016

Got out icefishing again this past weekend with my buddy Jay.
Caught a bunch of Bluegills, as well as some Pumpkinseed Sunfish, Crappies, Hybrid Sunfish.  Jay also added a couple bass.  All fish were released.

Jay with a nice Hybrid Sunfish.

And finally...this was an interesting fish...a Pumpkinseed Sunfish with a genetic defect:

Icefishing Outing - January 30, 2016

My buddy Jay and I fished Pond #1 in the morning.  Ice was 9.25" thick.  We caught bluegills and crappies, and Jay added a bass.
Jay with the first Crappie of the day:

My first Crappie of the day:

The fishing was slow, and the fish were definitely negative.  So, around noon we headed to Pond #2.

Ice was 10" thick here.  We were on fish right away, Jay was hammering them non-stop.  My fish took 10-15 minutes to wake up...but then they got aggressive too, and I caught fish steadily from the one hole until things finally slowed around 4:30, and I left at 5pm.  We caught Crappies, Bluegills, Pumpkinseeds and Hybrid Sunfish.  I didn't get any bass...maybe Jay got another one here?

I lost one HUGE fish right in the hole....either a Pumpkinseed or Hybrid Sunfish.  And my "fish of the day" was probably this massive beast of a Hybrid Sunfish:

2nd Icefishing Outing of 2016

My buddy Jay and I  caught a BUNCH of fish...Mostly bluegills (some really nice ones!), some crappies and just a few bass.

I fished 2 ponds (I say "I", because Jay had to leave before I did because of a bad battery on his Vexilar...he didn't fish the 2nd pond).  Both ponds had  large areas cleared for hockey.  If you see this...do NOT drill holes in those cleared areas.  Refrozen holes (and open holes, of course) can be very dangerous for the skaters (usually kids).  I met one kid yesterday who said somebody drilled a hole in the middle of their cleared area last year, and he was skating backwards and fell over it...now he wears a helmet, but he still gets headaches and has other issues.  That sucks!  Other people had clearly fished both these ponds recently, but thankfully everyone stayed away from the cleared hockey areas.
It was interesting...Jay and I had one pond to ourselves.  After he left, I went to the other pond, and also had it to myself...for awhile.  Soon, it practically became a neighborhood party!!  Kids skating, parents and dogs roaming around, guys coming down to socialize and icefish.  The amount of recreation and socializing supported by that one pond was incredible, and really great to see!  Everyone was really friendly.  Kids were skating over and checking out my gear and watching me pull fish out of the water...I let them release the fish, which they thought was GREAT, several of them asked their parents to let them icefish, and one kid even DID fish for awhile, and caught a couple.  Smaller kids were coming over and poking sticks into my icehole, and their parents admonished them to leave me alone....but it was all good, and the fish were still hitting good the entire time.
It was an awesome day to be out on the ice!  :)

Oh...and at the first pond, a Muskrat swam under the ice, nosed my transducer puck for a few seconds before swimming on.  Pretty cool!  In the past, I've even had Muskrats swim right up into my icehole to get a few breaths before diving back underwater.

Icefishing - March 1, 2015

Been awhile since I had anything worthwhile to post.

February passed by with only one short ice-fishing trip to show.  The fish were as negative as I have ever seen them, usually running away from my presentation as fast as they could.  I felt very lucky to manage just 3 small bluegills out of that trip!

So, I sure am glad its MARCH!  I went icefishing yesterday (March 1, 2015) with my buddy Jay.

The pond we selected treated us well when flyfishing it this past summer, but we icefished it one day last winter and only managed a combined total of ONE fish for a couple hours of effort.  The only fish we marked that day (besided the one caught) were TINY fish not interested in eating.  Flash forward to yesterday.  I was the first to arrive at the pond, and drilled 5 holes across one end of the pond.  I marked fish in 3 of the 5 holes.  Good sign.  As Jay pulled up and started unloading his gear, I dropped a tungsten jig tipped with a waxworm down one hole, and immediately had a fish on.  Then I missed a couple, and then landed another by the time Jay walked out on the ice.

We did well.  I don't know Jay's totals, but by the time I left @ 5pm, I'd landed at least 50 Bluegills, 5 Pumpkinseed Sunfish, 5 Crappies, 5 Bass, and at least 10 Hybrid Sunfish.  Fantastic!  The fish were mostly VERY positive, often charging the lure from 4' away and striking immediately.

The bass weren't big....probably all less than 12".  The bluegills weren't very big either, probably topping out at 7.5", although I've caught bigger ones there during the summer.  The Pumpkinseeds were pretty decent, fought REALLY well, and are pretty rare to catch while icefishing.  In fact, they were the first ones Jay and I had ever caught through the ice.  The crappies were healthy.