Found a few….

…12″ crappies this morning early. Open water of course. Not a lot of them but enough for lunch. All on plastic.

I can not wait to get to the water.

Taking my boat out of storage this weekend.
DT

What’s the water temperature by you Jimmy?

Hope to ne on open water by next week around here. One last ice outing Sat. a few hours north first.

gimruis wrote:

What’s the water temperature by you Jimmy?

Lake Zumbro north of town was at 38 on Sunday. We were on backwaters this morning and the water was 37-39 degrees depending on where I dropped the thermometer. The thermometer is about 40 years old and the numbering is hard to decipher when its not being read in direct sunlight so I’m currently on a hunt for a new one. I use submersible stream trout thermometers on an 8 foot tether. I don’t put much stock on surface temps but, rather, read the water temps at the depth the fish are hitting at.

I’m picking my boat up from Iowaboy on Saturday. Might be a little chilly but was thinking of getting it wet Sunday or a day this week possibly since the daylight will give a small window to fish after work now.

John Rasmussen wrote:

I’m picking my boat up from Iowaboy on Saturday. Might be a little chilly but was thinking of getting it wet Sunday or a day this week possibly since the daylight will give a small window to fish after work now.

With temps forecast to be in the neaar 60’s on Monday, Tuesday and Weds, I think I’d wait until next week and maybe take an afternoon off to target nothern shorelines.

We needed vertical structure and water at least 15 feet deep this morning, finding the hitting fish at 5 feet.

Good info, thanks. I might take my boat out for a spring cruise this weekend just to make sure everything is working properly. I foresee a spring crappie outing within the next 10 days after the warm up.

The fish today were super depth specific. We had the slip floats set at 5 feet. 4-1/2 feet in the same area got zip. 5-1/2 to 6 feet got zip.

Another factor was shade. As soon as the float drifted into strong sunlight, the bite stopped.

All typical of immediate ice out crappies. We actually got there late and probably missed 90% of the bite. Saturday I’ll be back and fishing in the dark until about 8:30. After 8;30 in this spot the bite generally shuts down until very late afternoon. The best bite is that last hour of dark before the sky begins to lighten up. Once the sun is high enough to cast strong shadows, the bit dwindles to nothing and usually by around 8, 8:30.

Jimmy Jones wrote:

With temps forecast to be in the neaar 60’s on Monday, Tuesday and Weds, I think I’d wait until next week and maybe take an afternoon off to target nothern shorelines.

Yep it will happen quickly this year. Thanks Tom.

Jimmy Jones wrote:

Another factor was shade. As soon as the float drifted into strong sunlight, the bite stopped.

I mentioned this exact same thing in an ice fishing thread a while back where the fish wouldnt bite when the sun was out, but were furious when there was cloud cover or shade. We were limited to fishing about a foot of open water around a pier. We could see them, but they wouldnt bite when the sun was out.

I think we may try and see if we can some panfish on the ice on Sat. and on open water on Sun. That would be interesting and something I have not done before.

I was wondering if this post was gonna show morels already Was checking soil temps in Southern Iowa and they’re hovering at 60 degrees, so I might be out looking soon. Congrats on the crappie!

Steven Krapfl wrote:

I was wondering if this post was gonna show morels already

Funny. I checked my asparagus beds today thinking things might be moving there, but nada.. Yet.

I did grill some asparagus and steaks for dinner tonight. A local store had the veggie at $1.88/pound so I sprung for enough for three meals. Love the stuff.

Jimmy, how do you generally cook the aspargus?? not an of it steamed or boiled…its either raw or on the grill wrapped and seasoned in tin foil!

I wash and trim it to get rid of tough ends, then roll it in a cake pan with olive oil and seasoned salt and toss it into a grill top veggie pan and cook it until its just starting to char in a couple places. Asparagus is a tender veggie and doesn’t need much heat to cook it. I love the stuff and have three different beds of it so we don’t seem to run out often. When its coming along well we’ll eat it four or more times a week. Never freeze it, never pickle or can it. Eat it fresh or raw.

Jimmy Jones wrote:

I wash and trim it to get rid of tough ends, then roll it in a cake pan with olive oil and seasoned salt and toss it into a grill top veggie pan and cook it until its just starting to char in a couple places. Asparagus is a tender veggie and doesn’t need much heat to cook it. I love the stuff and have three different beds of it so we don’t seem to run out often. When its coming along well we’ll eat it four or more times a week. Never freeze it, never pickle or can it. Eat it fresh or raw.

i dont roll it in oil. lay it on tin foil, put butter in it season it then wrap it, put on grill. i’ll even throw some winter onions in with it. about half done i open the tin foil!!!!! i dont like it overdone either.

That sounds good too Glenn.

Man this thread will give ya the spring fever. Crappies and asparagus and morels oh my.

Riverrat wrote:

Man this thread will give ya the spring fever. <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>SUNFISH and asparagus and morels oh my.

i fixed it for you!!!!!!1

glenn57 wrote:

SUNFISH

Beginner kiddie fish you mean.

^^^^^^^^^

naw much better tasting fish!!!!!!

Tonka yesterday afternoon. The earliest I’ve ever been out in a boat on that lake. Most of the lake still had ice but the northern bays were open. Didn’t find anything shallow. They were still where I caught them last October. Water temp was 41.2 in the bay and 42.4 in the shallow channel in the cattails. I think ice out will be Monday or Tuesday. Two other boats out. Many would come up to the jig but few would take it. Did best with a 4 mm tungsten jig.
Showing pics of the school on the Helix and the LiveScope to show the difference.
I was fishing the top of the school. None of the fish showed signs of barotrauma.

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Speaking of spring fever, after work yesterday I went out cruising some public hunting ground and seen 3 strutting toms in a field with about 20 hens. I had my box call in the arm rest of my truck and I pulled over to the side of the road and cut a nice yelp and one tom fired back at me with a gobble. Got me ready for turkey season, that’s for sure!

Move along Steven, this is the fishing forum, we have a hunting forum.
Kidding, everything goes these days!!!!

Was on Tonka yesterday. Bays open that I saw were Stubbs, Maxwell, North Arm, Crystal, Smiths and LaFayette. Carmens was open from what I could see from county road 19. Browns was locked up which also stopped the water patrol on their ice out excursion.
I tried a few shallow channel areas and didn’t find any panfish in them yet. Saw ~5 hammer handles and a fungus covered carp that looked like a ghost and could go belly up at any moment. Panfish still deep and less cooperative than last Thursday. I did mark some in 10-15 ft off some weeds but they wouldn’t bite either. Yard work today and I’ll give it another try tomorrow.

Netguy wrote:

Was on Tonka yesterday. Bays open that I saw were Stubbs, Maxwell, North Arm, Crystal, Smiths and LaFayette

Water temps please.

Tonka main bays were 44 up 3 degrees from last Thursday. Shallows varied between 45 and 47, up from 42 last Thursday.

Netguy wrote:

Tonka main bays were 44 up 3 degrees from last Thursday. Shallows varied between 45 and 47, up from 42 last Thursday.

Thanks Netguy