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.