1-29-12 Sun

1-29-2012 Sun
3:00 PM – 4:30 PM
Weather: W 7, clear, 22˚, 30.14 rising
Water: 5.1’ rising, 26.1kcfs, clear, 12” ice
Location: Mississippi River Pool 7, Lake Onalaska
Caught: nothing
Partners: myself

Comments

This afternoon was not about fishing. It was more or less an airboat ride to see if it was running well and a little exploration. I punched holes on the west end stump fields, on the east and south side of Red Oak and Ashley Point. I never did spy a fish on the camera, but stump fields on the west side did have promising look to them.

Observations:

The ice on the lake is pretty much snow covered, however it is quite rough on account of all the drifting that had taken place while it was snowing.

1-28-12 Sat

1-28-2012 Sat
9:30 AM – 10:30 AM
Weather: W 12, clear, 23˚, 29.99 steady
Water: 5.08’ rising, 24.8kcfs, clear, 12” ice
Location: Mississippi River Pool 7, Black Deer’s
Caught: four three inch largemouth bass
Partners: myself, Jeremy and Colton Pank

Comments

Jeremy was in town this morning with Colton and he wanted to get him out ice fishing. I really did not have any idea as to where I could take them to catch fish, but I had heard reports of lots of fish behind the house in Black Deer’s slough. I figured if nothing else we would see plenty of fish on the camera and they would enjoy that.
We did see quite a few fish, but they were all very small. Colton did catch four largemouth bass, but they were only about three inches long.

Observations:

There were plenty of fish and there were plenty of fishermen, but nobody was catching anything and the fish that were caught were all small. The lake was very crowded today on account of the Atomic ice fishing derby. Troy fished the derby and did rather well on bass and northern on his favorite tip up spot.

1-27-12 Fri

1-27-2012 Fri
4:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Weather: NW 22 G 26, light snow, 33˚, 29.80 rising
Water: 5.05’ rising, 22.9kcfs, clear, 2” ice
Location: Mississippi River Pool 8, Dresbach Dam
Caught: four walleyes (small) and two saugers – kept one sauger
Partners: myself

Comments

I had wanted to get back out walleye fishing yesterday, but work kept me longer than I had wanted last night. Tonight I was a little more hesitant on going back out onto the ice and making the trek to the short wall. The river stage was rising and the flow had doubled since Wednesday, and there were very few fishermen on the ice when I arrived. I did not have a spud along to test the safety of the ice as I walked, so that made me even more nervous.
I did pair up with another fisherman on the trek out there and he did have a spud. He was also a little nervous and I told him I would follow behind and if he got into trouble I would help him out.
We both got out to the area of the short wall okay and I began to re-tie my bait onto my line. As I was doing this chore a strange little feeling crept into my mind; I thought I could sense the ice moving. After I finished tying my bait to my line, I took off my glasses and surveyed the situation. It was not my imagination! The ice was not moving laterally, but it was moving up and down. It seems with the warmer weather and the increased flow, the ice now had the motion of slow moving waves. The vertical rise and fall was not great, but if I was to gander a guess I would have to say about eight to ten inches.
Needless to say since I had never experienced this before I was slightly nervous. I fished long and hard tonight, but the bite never materialized. I marked quite a few fish on the locator, but not many were in the feeding mood.

Observations:

The river stage is creeping up and the flow along with it. The ice seemed very soft tonight, and I do not expect it to last much longer below the dam.

1-25-12 Wed

1-25-2012 Wed
5:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Weather: S 7, overcast, 32˚, 30.03 falling
Water: 4.81’ rising, 13.6kcfs, clear, 2” ice
Location: Mississippi River Pool 8, Dresbach Dam
Caught: six walleyes (small) and two saugers – kept one sauger
Partners: myself

Comments

The other day when I drove over the interstate bridge to Dresbach, MN I was surprised to see anglers on the ice next to the short wall below the dam. Well, I have not fished for walleyes and saugers below the dam for two years, but seeing fishermen out on the ice got me in the mood.
The next day when I arrived on the ice at around sunset there was already a small crowd up by the short wall. As with any ice over a body of water and especially the Mississippi river below the dam, I was a little hesitant and nervous on the venture out to my fishing destination. The best advice I can give for traveling the ice below the dam is; take it slow and cautiously and follow the trails of the other fishermen if there is snow cover to give you that luxury.
Not wanting to disrupt and possibly offend the other anglers fishing upstream of the short wall, I settled for a less popular spot just downstream from the daring anglers. I say daring because about ten of them were fishing within mere feet of the open water and their possible icy peril.
I drilled my two holes, set up the shack (the wind was rather brisk from the south and made the task very difficult) and settled in for a couple hours of jigging. I drilled two holes not for the sake of fishing out of both, but the upstream one is for fishing out of and the lower one is for my flasher. With the current, the jigging Rapala is usually carried several feet downstream. If the locater was placed in the same hole I was fishing out of the flasher’s cone angle in most cases would not be able to detect my bait.
The first hour of fishing was pretty good. The fish were not big, but I had lots of action and missed a lot of bites. One trick I employ is I fish my bait mostly one to two feet off the bottom and then when a fish comes up to investigate it I slowly raise the bait and jiggle it subtlety. Most of the time fish will follow it up and sometimes if you are lucky they will hit it.

Observations:

The fish were not big, but I had lots of action and missed a lot of bites. Because of construction being done on the dam in the locks this winter it is not possible to fish too far above the short bullnose.

1-22-2012 Sun

1-22-2012 Sun
11:30 AM – 4:30 PM
Weather: SE 7, fog/mist, 28˚, 29.61 falling, 8-12” ice
Water: 4.71’ falling, 10.3 kcfs, clear
Location: Mississippi River Pool 7, backwaters toward Trempealeau
Caught: I kept fifteen decent sized gills and one perch
Partners: Scot and myself

Comments

Today I wanted to try some inaccessible spots on pool seven. I had tried Fox Island for a brief time earlier in the ice season, but I wanted to get back later in the winter and see if the fish had moved in. Well they had not. We marked fish, but I think they were small perch and some shad.
The next spot was a rather large bay near Trempealeau that always produces a combination of pike and pan fish. Our initial assessment of the area was not very promising. The water was very shallow with weed growth almost to the top of the ice in most locations. Where we found the water to be just a little deeper is where we spotted fish on the camera.
I did end up catching a ton of bluegills with most of them being in the six to seven inch range. I also caught a fair number of perch, but most of them were also quite small. Scot did not fare as well as I had but he did catch a decent perch and one nice crappie that both came home with me.
The tip-up action was not great. We managed three pike with the average size around twenty-two inches. There was a group of other anglers there who were unable to figure out the bluegill bite, but did manage to catch a few small pike.

Observations:

Most of the river is now frozen up; however there was a few spots of open water on the main channel. If I had not mentioned it before I am now able to cross the ice on the channel in the back yard and get out onto the lake to walk the dogs.

1-21-2012 Sat

1-21-2012 Sat
3:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Weather: S 6, overcast, 15˚, 30.16 falling, 8-12” ice
Water: 4.83’ falling, 14.3 kcfs, clear
Location: Mississippi River Pool 8, Stoddard Islands
Caught: One six inch bluegill
Partners: I and Scot and Tom W.

Comments

The fishing has been horrible on the lake, so Scot and I decided we would try something different for a couple hours. Tom had also expressed an interest in going so we picked him up on the way. Our destination was my old hometown of Stoddard. The Fish and Wildlife Service had done a tremendous amount of habitat improvement here ten to fifteen years ago and now it has become a first class pan fish fishery.
I had not been fishing here in several years and I was blown away by the size of the bay that holds pan fish. There were easily one hundred fishermen out on the ice, but with a group here and there and a lone fisherman here and one there, it was rather apparent that this area could support the intense fishing pressure that it has been receiving.
We started out just to the west of the public landing, where my good friend Jay had been fishing for half the day. Jay and his friend had gotten a few pike but no pan fish. We knew we had to go look for our quarry, so we headed north and drilled exploratory holes along the way. After a slight problem with a propane tank we got Tom’s propane powered auger purring like a kitten, and made short work of the frozen water. We would drop the underwater camera down into the fish’s world and if none revealed themselves we would continue on our march to the north.
After about twelve holes and no sightings of fish and fading daylight, we decided to head to the vicinity of other fishermen and set up shop for the last hour. We at least spotted some fish on the camera, but they were quite shy and preferred to swim in their world and not greet us on the topside.

Observations:

It was a brief and unsuccessful trip, but I really did not expect any other outcome. I was just going to chalk this day up to an exploratory outing. I definitely want to come back, but I would like to come back with a group of guys all armed with four wheelers and all willing to do some exploring. And of course, they must be willing to share their location if they are successful in their quest for the finned critters roaming below the ice.

1-13 through 1-15-2012
Weather: Sunny, the temperature while hunting varied from a low of 10˚ to a high of 70˚
Location: Ogalla and Hayes Center Nebraska
Bagged: Four Pheasants and all were shot by Dick
Partners: Myself, Dick, Tom, Dan, Jerry and Roger

Comments

I was on a long weekend of Pheasant hunting in Western Nebraska. Tom Had set the trip up with some of his friends that live in Oregon. One of the Oregon natives (Jerry) was meeting one of his brothers Jerry that lives in Nebraska for a visit and some hunting. Jerry’s brother Roger works for some farmers that have hundreds of acres in the area and he had said pheasants were plentiful. So with having set the plans in motion Tom asked Dick and me if we wanted to come along. At first I was a little hesitant, but it is always an adventure hunting with Tom so I packed my bags and counted myself in.
The trip was a rather long one; seven hundred miles to be exact. We left Wisconsin (snow and cold) at about 6:30 PM and arrived in Ogalla Nebraska right around sunrise. We were tired and weary from our long trip, but we were very enthusiastic for the hunt. The first spot produced a few birds and a few shots, but no weight was added to our game bags. The rest of that day and the next two produced pretty much the same results. Dick was the only one of the group to bag any birds over the weekend, and I guess that was only right since we were using his dogs.
In summary it was a very unsuccessful hunt, but the companionship, food and countryside made for a memorable hunt. We all agreed the hunt could have been very successful if we would have had a blanket of snow covering the fields. The birds were definitely present, but they were staying out in the crop fields away from us and their possible demise.


Observations:
The countryside is intensely farmed for corn and wheat, with the majority of the crops being irrigated. The daily weather conditions for hunting were exceptionally nice, except for the dryness. This part of the state is in a serious drought cycle at the present time.

1-6-2012 Fri
7:30 AM – 4:45 PM
Weather: NW 8, sunny, 49˚, 29.72 rising (1153) no ice to four inches
Water: 4.79’ falling, 13.3 kcfs, clear
Location: Mississippi River Pool 8, Goose Island area
Caught: Approximately (combined) six pike 22 – 33 inches, one 8” bluegill
Partners: I and Scot in the am, and Adam W. joined us in pm

Comments

It was an all-day fishing outing with the air boat around the Goose Island area. All the conditions were beautiful except for the ice thickness. The sheltered bays were covered with plenty of ice, but the sloughs were blanketed with only about an inch. This made travel with the air boat very tricky especially with an extra passenger. So, to be on the safe side we did not venture too terribly far from our launch location.
The first spot Scot and I tried was a sheltered bay to the west of the landing. We fished this area hard for about five hours and only had four pike and one bluegill to show for our efforts. After we finished our burgers over an open campfire, we made a move to another sheltered bay to the east of the landing that is actually accessible without a boat. This is also the spot where Adam joined us.
This is an area that was once popular with ice fishermen, but it has gone out of favor. The water was very shallow and weedy. We managed to pull two pike out of here but none of the pike had any size to them. I did quite a lot of peering into the underwater world with my Marcum camera, but no fish were to be found.

Observations:

The ice is still holding up with the mild temperatures, however anyplace there is any current there is not much ice.

1-2-2012 Mon

1-2-2012 Mon
1:30 PM – 3:30 PM
Weather: N 20 G 24, sunny, 21˚, four inches of ice
Location: Mississippi River Pool 8, upper end Spillway Drive
Caught: Plenty of little bluegills, one little perch and a little bass
Partners: Myself

Comments

2012 did not come in with a bang as far as the fishing was concerned. The wind roared in like a lion but the bite was more like a meek little lamb. Fish were plentiful, but the size was more or less on the tiny side.
The bluegills were everywhere in the water column. Most of the areas I fished were ten to fifteen feet deep and the locator was lit up from five feet below the ice to the bottom. After catching nothing but small gills curiosity got the best of me and I had to lower the camera down to get a bird’s eye view of what was actually down there.
And it was just as I had suspected; there were tons of small gills with a decent sized one sprinkled in the mix now and then. The main reason I sent the camera down into the depths is because I wanted to see if any crappies inhabited the areas I was fishing, and they were. There were not a lot of crappies, but there were some and I definitely want to come back and fish them some night after work.

Observations:

The wind was brutal today. The ice still has no snow cover and it made it very difficult to set up the portable shack and not have it turn into an ice sailing boat.

112-31-2011 Sat

12-31-2011 Sat
7:30 AM – 4:30 PM
Weather: S 10, fog/mist, 31˚, (1200) four inches of ice
Location: Mississippi River Pool 8, upper west end
Caught: I kept 10 crappies and 12 bluegills, total game fish we caught were three pike 2 – 30”, 1 – 14” and six largemouth bass 12 – 17”
Partners: Jay, Jake and Zack

Comments

It was New Year’s Eve and it was an all-day fishing day with Jay, and Jake and Zack joined us around 1230 PM. We had hoped to put a hurting on the pike, but the bite never really materialized. We did catch a few, but for an all day fishing outing it was not very successful.
The pan fish on the other hand were very willing to bite. Both the size and the quantity of the bluegills and the crappies were very good. The pan fish bait of choice today was a Little Cecil tipped with a wax worm. I did try tipping the Cecil with plastic, but had absolutely no luck with that combination.

Observations:

We had a good time fishing today, and except for two fishermen early in the morning we had the place to ourselves.