Macbride/Pleasant Creek Ice conditions

From the reports below, it sounds like the ice south of HWY-34 is taking a beating.

Some of us were planning on heading to Macbride tomorrow evening, so I was curious if anyone who may have been out today could fill us in on how its holding up?

PC had >10″ of thick, black ice under the crusty stuff as of last Sunday. We may want to consider changing plans based on the latest weather and ice conditions…

Thanx,

Joe

King, three of us fished Belva Deer yesterday and had 10+” of ice. Water was coming up around the trees as we fished. Iced 17 8″-9″ Gills out of 14′ of water. Also caught a few Bass. Arrived there about 6:30am and pulled out about 10:30am. Headed for Keomah, we had been told of big Gills being iced. There was to much open water for us (didn’t look safe)and we didn’t see any drill holes. Went on to Lake Darling and that was a bust. Ice was safe 10+” but nothing but very very small gills and crappies. Big open water at the dam and another open area at the first point south of the dam. Lots of water sitting on top of the ice. First time I have fished and had water running back into the hole. Have not heard of anybody doing very good on Bride.

Hersh:

Thanks for your report!

I just got back from MacBride; and as of tonight, its fine. There was ~8″ of decent ice under the crust. I would stay away from any water in-flow areas (brooks, culverts, etc.). Gianni and I fished over some structure out the main boat ramp. On my way out, water was flowing into the culvert in the parking area and into the lake. I steered clear of that culvert.

We fished from 5 until 10pm or so. In all that time, all I could manage was a dink bluegill and one dink crappie. Gianni got 3, with one crappie that almost approached table size. Action was slow to non-existent. We marked a lot of fish over the brush, but the bite just never materialized. Glow jigs outperformed non-glow. One guy fishing near us had a speck that might have made 9″, but that was it for him.

Regards,

Joe

Wish I had some ideas about what was going on down there. Every time down, there’s a pile of fish on the flasher, but nothing to show for it. I’ve pretty much exhausted my inventory of jigs trying to get them buggers to bite.

I’m gonna try to figure out what the story is with the pond here by the house. Maybe when I get back from St Chuck we can hit that one afternoon.

Gianni, that’s what my son (JPHersh22) and I have been doing. Hit the ponds. We have caught Gills up to 10″,Crappie 13″, four to five lb. cats and last week I iced a five+ Bass. This time of year go to the deepest water you can find. All of the above fish came out of 12′ to 14′ of water. Good Luck.

I looked on my way past last night, and all the snow that was on the monster hill is now 4′ of open water around the ice in the pond. S’posed to get some more cold this week, hopefully things will still be safe when I get home from St Louis.