I just thought I would post this. There were vehicles that went through the ice on Lake Altoona and Lake Eau Claire over the weekend. In my trip around the area today I saw a lot of open water and unsafe activities. BE SAFE AND DONT DRIVE ON THE ICE!
I read about those in the paper…good advise! Have you done any walleye fishing around the area? Like around Menomonie or say Lower Long lake by New Auburn? I’m looking to go this weekend but haven’t heard of anyone doing anything. Or I might try some gills and northerns somewhere…not sure but I need to get out!
I’ve made it down by Durand a few times and once to Lake Altoona. Haven’t been out a lot yet.
I’ve never fished Lake Altoona and I’ve lived all my 38 years in Eau Claire and Chippewa. 
Is the icefishing pretty good there? Have you ever fished Half moon?
Lake Altoona turns out some really nice perch and some good gills and crappies. You sometimes have to weed through the small ones. I really like fishing there early ice season. There is a lot of car traffic and morons out there once you can drive on the ice then I don’t go as much. As far as Half Moon…I have never fished that. Joe Turner fishes that a lot I think. I usually fish in the Mississippi bottoms down by Wabasha and Alma and the Durand area.
As Krisko said all those species are great there is also a good early ice walleye bite. a guy brought two fish over 25″ and one 24″ walleye into Scheels a couple weeks ago, the problem ice fishing is all the pressure it gets once the ice is thick, and when this lake shuts down about the same time guys start driving all over it, it really shuts down. The same can be said in summer, the lake is either on or way off and nothing in between!
Someone told me that a 10# eye came out of Half Moon a few years ago, but I’m not sure I believe them! I’m thinking about heading to Lower Long Lake to see how they are doing up there. In the spring I usually fish the Mississippi down in Fountain City while turkey hunting in Arcadia! Makes for a nice vacation! I’ve ice fished the back waters but am not to crazy about it….fell through about 4 X-mas’s ago…good thing we were pushing a flat bottom across the channel!
Where abouts on halfmoon do you fish for walleye? Seems everytime I drive there in the evenings there is no one out there! Of course with the ice conditions, I can see why!
Well as max. depth is around 9 feet you must go to the channels. There is a back bay by the Lakeshore School, south of the little bridge that goes over the lake. Now, way in the back of this bay is a little dirt boat landing, you go on from there. Out in the middle of the back bay is where the channel is around 9 feet. Here is where my buddy caught a 28” and 21” Walleye.
I would also say there may be walleye in the west arm of the lake, because its also very deep.
That’s kind of where I thought…thanks Joe. I fished that spot about 20 years ago with a buddy of mine and we ended up getting one flag…it was a nice fish but never saw it as I lost it by the hole. They used to put a snow fence up around the open water…do they still do that? That’s where we put our tip-ups! I may have to try it again!
still, don’t be afraid to fish spots without current…you have to use your head, but i fished an area today with no current and only 3 fow MAX, and there was at least 7-8 inches of ice or so…maybe 6″ of it was good solid clear ice and the top 1-2″ are honeycomed and very wet. I was fishing in a slough that connects to a main slough that has current. The main slough was all open as you can see in the pic, and if you look closely, you can see a major crack that i was standing about 5 feet away from..I was on about 7″ at that point, but on the other side of the crack, it appeared to get very thin in a hurry. This pic is kinda cool i thought, sorry though, its from a cell phone so its not the greatest.
As said, be safe and use your head!
Yes Dartman they now put up fences around the three open spots on the lake.
One more question Joe…is it usually an evening bite for those eyes down there? I’m debating whether to go just before dark or try it early morning!
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