2-21-2012 Tue

2-21-2012 Tue
10:00 PM – 4:30 PM
Weather: W 15 G 30, overcast, 40˚, 29.56 rising (1253)
Water: 4.79 steady, 13 kcfs, clear, 12” ice
Location: Goose Island Back Bays
Caught: two pike 17 and 20”, 12 bluegills, 4 perch; I kept 7 bluegills and 2 perch
Partners: myself

Comments

I had been wanting to get down to Goose Island this winter and fish a great pike hole next to the main channel, and today was that day. Last year I and two friends fished the area and we did pretty well, although the sizes of the fish were small.
As I drilled holes and set up the tip-ups I scoped the underwater scene out with my Marcum camera. What I saw was lots of weeds; in fact it was solid weeds in every hole. I also saw baitfish: bluegills and perch. The majority of the area was around three feet deep. I fished the area for around three hours and caught two small pike and one perch. I actually caught the perch on a rather large shiner on a tip-up. I also had quite a few flags with the shiners being stripped from the hook; the work of perch I believe. As an afterthought I wished I would have only set out two tip-ups and used a jig pole for pan fish on my third line.
The second spot I went to was much closer to the boat landing and had a little more depth and fewer weeds. I had fished this area earlier in December with Scott and we managed a couple of small pike. Today I did not have a flag here, but I did pan fish with one pole and caught some nice gills and a couple of perch. I actually saw quite a few bluegills on the camera and they were almost all nice sized.

Observations:

The weed growth in the bays down here was quite heavy this year and the water level is probably one foot lower than normal for this time of year. The ice is starting to weaken and the side channels with current are ice free!

2-19-2012 Sun

2-19-2012 Sun
3:00 PM – 5:15 PM
Weather: calm, sunny, 32˚, 30.14 steady
Water: 3.15 rising, .64 kcfs, clear
Location: Black River Back Bay
Caught: two pike 20 and 22”
Partners: myself

Comments

It was a quick Sunday afternoon fishing trip. I had my sights on pike, but I was also using the camera to see what else was lurking under the frozen surface. I managed to catch two pike rather quickly, but the last hour and one half was dead.
I did see a few bluegills and perch under the ice, but the numbers were not big. Surprisingly the fish I did see the most of were dog fish. Every time I bounced the camera off the bottom and stirred up debris into the water column one would show up. I am not sure if they were aggressive or just curious.

Observations:

The water in the bay is not deep, but there is enough to hold fish. The only part of the conditions I did not like was there was not a lot of weed growth, and the weeds that were present were covered with moss.

2-18-2012 Sat

2-18-2012 Sat
9:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Weather: W 3, sunny, 34˚, 30.25 steady (1153)
Water: 620.67 rising, 10.7 kcfs, clear
Location: Mississippi River Upper Pool 9 – Genoa Dam tail waters
Caught: combined catch of approximately 25 saugers and 10 walleyes, 2 sturgeon and one gar most fish were small, but we did keep three saugers
Partners: myself and Scott

Comments

Scott and I made the road trip to Genoa today hoping to catch a few decent eyes. Scott was here last night and did all right, so our expectations were high. Even though our expectations were high our results were not. The bite was slow in the morning and almost non-existent in the afternoon.
We started off a distance to the south of the dam and caught the three keeper saugers, rough fish and some small walleyes mixed in. Our next stop was directly below the dam in 35 – 60 feet of water. This area provided consistent sauger action, but they were all small. At the end the day we ran back down stream to where we had started in the morning, but the bite was dead.

Observations:

The water is in very good shape; if anything it is quite low. The low water makes vertical jigging very easy. Along with the water being low it is extremely clear. In the morning and again at night we were forced to deal with forming ice sheets.

2-16-2012 Thr

2-16-2012 Thr
5:15 PM – 7:30 PM
Weather: W 10, mostly cloudy, 36˚, 30.07 rising
Water: 4.7’ rising, 10 kcfs, clear
Location: Mississippi River Upper Pool 8 – Dresbach Dam tail waters
Caught: walleye 13”, perch 11”
Partners: myself

Comments

Tonight was my first open water walleye fishing adventure of the year. Both the landings at Dresbach are still iced in so I took the air boat. There were only three other boats out there braving the elements, but the three that were there sure gave me the once over. I don’t think they had ever seen somebody walleye fish out of an airboat.
It was tough! I do not have a trolling motor on the boat and the cage and blade acted like a sail in the slightest breeze, so as you can imagine boat control was non-existent. I did manage one perch on a ring worm and one small walleye on a jigging Rapala.

Observations:

Everything except the main channel and the major sloughs are still iced over. We are still a longs ways away from ice out.

2-12-2012 Sun

2-12-2012 Sun
1:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Weather: VRBL 5, clear, 30˚, 30.03 falling (1353)
Water: 4.88’ steady, 15.9 kcfs, clear, 12” ice
Location: Mississippi River Upper Pool 8 – Pike Bay
Caught: 6 crappies 8 – 10”, 4 bluegills 4 – 6 “
Partners: myself, Ty and Scott

Comments

Pike Bay was once again a bust for pike. The only reason I was back was because Scott and Ty had expressed an interest in catching some pan fish. We did catch some pan fish, but the bite was far from spectacular.
As far as the pike action; there was none. Not even a flag!

Observations:

The ice thickness has increase about two inches, but the main channel is wide open below the dam.

2-11-12 Sat

2-11-2012 Sat
11:30 AM – 3:45 PM
Weather: NW 18 G 23, sunny, 19˚, 30.46 falling (1353)
Water: 5.08’ rising, 22.9 kcfs, clear, 10” ice
Location: Mississippi River Pool 8 (Goose Island)
Caught: Two pike (25 and 30”)
Partners: myself

Comments

I did not have all day to fish, but I did have about a four hour mid-afternoon opportunity. I am always looking for and trying new spots and today that was the game plan. I decided to hit my hometown waters of Goose Island. I specifically wanted to try a spot that I probably have not fished in twenty years. In fact, the last time I had fished this spot I was driving a Ford Bronco II and my gas tank had fallen off in the parking area.
I was concerned about the depth of water I would find. The river is quite low and this is definitely a shallow water spot. When I got to the parking area I was delighted to see the tell-tale tracks of previous fishermen heading in the direction of my chosen spot. Unfortunately the tracks went right past where I was planning to fish and crossed a major slough which was not frozen solidly enough to hold my weight.
From the looks of things no one had been fishing my old hot spot and more than likely no one had been fishing it for years. I could see a couple portable shacks set up to the south of me where I had never seen anyone fish in the past, and there was also some tip up fishermen on the other side of the slough which I could not cross.
I drilled and exploratory hole in the part of the bay which I figured would have the most depth to it. As my auger broke through the bottom of the ice, weeds appeared in the slush; not a good sign. I set up the camera to take a peek at the underwater surroundings. It was shallow; eighteen inches to be exact and that included ten inches of ice. Amazingly I spotted a decent gill in amongst the jungle of weeds.
If I had not seen that one gill I probably would have packed my bags and moved onto another spot. I drilled about four more holes around the area and started hole hoping with the camera. Amazingly the second spot I scoped had a constant stream of decent gills, perch and crappies swimming by. The fish were acting as if they had been spooked by my drilling activity.
I decided to set a couple of tip-ups out and fish for a while. I gave it about forty minutes with no flags and no pan fish in the bucket to show for my effort. I did see lots of small gills, but not too many decent ones. I do think this spot could be good at early ice or maybe at late ice if the water level was another six to twelve inches higher.
Spot number two was another area on Goose Island that used to get fished quite heavily. I had fished it earlier in the year with minimal results on pike. Today I caught two decent pike in the hour that I spent fishing it, so I would have to give this spot two thumbs up today.

Observations:

Today was cold and windy. We do not have the normal amount of ice cover on the back bays for this time of year, so I am thinking we will not have a very long window of opportunity for late ice fishing.

2-5-2012 Sun

2-5-2012 Sun
11:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Weather: NW 5, overcast, 31˚, 30.33 falling (1253)
Water: 4.88’ steady, 15.9 kcfs, clear, 10” ice
Location: Mississippi River Pool 8
Caught: Lots of nice gills and crappies
Partners: myself and Jay, Jake, Cole and Mark T.

Comments

It was Super Bowl Sunday but for the last several days I have had fishing on my mind; specifically pike fishing. So, I got together a good group of friends and their kids for an ice fishing ho down.
We were fishing the upper end of pool seven in a dead end bay that varied in depth from ten to thirty feet. This spot usually holds a good number of active pike and it always holds some good numbers of decent gills and crappies. Today it held the gills and crappies, but they pike were nowhere to be found. We had close to ten tip ups out at one time but we never managed to get a flag.
Really it did not matter though, since the pan fish kept us quite occupied. I also got a decent fire going and we cooked steaks, sausages and garlic bread over an open fire, what a feast!!

Observations:

The fishing was pretty good, except for the pike; they were not on the chew. The back bay areas are still covered with about ten inches of ice, but the width of the main channel was not completely frozen over. Today the Brice Prairie Conservation Association had a fishing derby on Lake Onalaska and several vehicles, including a wrecker broke through!

2-2-2012 Thr

2-2-2012 Thr
10:00 AM – 5:30 PM
Weather: Calm, cloudy, 33˚, 30.03 rising (1253)
Water: 5.1’ rising, 26.1kcfs, clear, 12” ice
Location: Mississippi River Pool 6 and Pool 7
Caught: Approx. ten bluegills and five pike 16” to 39.5” (kept 26” pike and three gills)
Partners: myself

Comments

I had the day off today, and I was going to take full advantage of it with a day of fishing. I targeted two spots that are very inaccessible and when the ice is questionable they are only accessible by airboat. The main plan was to set up two tip-ups and jig for pinfish with the third pole.
The first stop I visited was a back bay to the north of Trempeleau. This spot is not a great pike spot, but I did catch one over forty inches there last year, besides it can be a very good pan fish spot. Well after two hours it was neither. I never had a flag and the pan fishing was very unproductive. I did keep three decent gills, but the bite never materialized.
The next spot I fished was a back bay on pool seven. This spot is not a good pan fish spot, but it is a very good pike location. From the onset it seemed as if it was going to be a stellar day. I had my first pike on the ice even before I got the last tip up set. It was not big, but it was a start.
The rest of the day was rather mundane; except for the thirty nine incher I caught around three thirty; what a beast! That fish made my day and probably the season! I did try a little pan fishing here and did see some nice gills and perch on the camera but they were very tight lipped.

Observations:

The main channel above Trempeleau is still very ice covered, although it is starting to rot. I was the only sole fishing both spots today. The spot above Trempeleau looked to be getting some fishing pressure, and the spot south of Trempeleau had some definite pressure with some pike coming topside from the looks of the blood on the ice.