March 5, 2016 Sat

March 5, 2016 Sat. 8AM-230PM, ice fishing with co-worker Nate Hoffman//630PM-123OAM walleye fishing with Scott

Where: Ice fishing: Mississippi R. Goose Island//walleye fishing Trempealeau Dam

Weather: Ice fishing (1153): N10, overcast, 37°, 30.20↓, 10” of ice//walleye fishing (2053): S6, overcast 35°, 30.21↓

H20: 6.08↓, 46.1kcfs, 34°, clear

Caught: ice fishing: Nate-22” northern, me-nothing//walleye fishing: me-approx. 15 walleyes/sauger, Scott: approx. 20 walleye/sauger, kept 10

Observations: All the areas on the river with any amount of current are ice-free. Most of the snow is gone. Sheltered areas with not current and adequate depth for pan fish wintering areas are disappearing.

The first trip of the day was an ice fishing trip with one of my co-workers. The late winter ice conditions were just perfect to make it to a couple of the remote spots I like to fish when the sloughs are ice-free. With the open water I am able to take a boat to get to these spots. Whereas in the winter it is either dangerous to walk to them or the distance makes it prohibitive. Unfortunately I had issues with my motor and the boat to idea was scrapped. We did try a couple other areas around Goose Island that we could walk to. Unfortunately we only caught on fish. In retrospect this trip really sucked!
I wasn’t home for ten minutes from my ice fishing misadveventures , when I got a text from Scott asking me to go walleye fishing. I decided what the hell, even though I was tired and discouraged I needed to get some good fishing in. The fishing started out slow, but gradually improved as the night went on. It ended up being a late and tiring night, but the action was pretty decent.