I checked a gravel pit yesterday near my house in iowa city and it was almost safe – should be good today after that cold last night. also checked about a 2.5 acre pond that i could stand on near the dam but it was a little cracky. that one will definitely be good today.
Give us your findings!!!
I just got home from Pine Lake, it has 3-4 inches right next to shore. A couple spots have been kept open from geese, and they look awfully dark now. Andy, I heard from 2 guys that were on Brushy last night as well. Ice was shaky, but I bet by weekend it will be good.
Just got back from Volga Lake and found 3-4 inches, no one was fishing but I’m going to try to get out there tomorrow. 
Ed
thanks guys. keep em coming. it’s -4 in iowa city right now. alot of wet spots on the pit next to my house froze up solid last night. there was about 2.5 inches last night – hoping for about 3.5 by tonight.
Well this morning started out with high anticipation of getting on the ice and catching some fish, I wanted to wait until it was light out since it has refroze. I get every thing loaded and then do the mental run through of, “did I forget any thing” can’t think of any thing so down the road I go. Driving through the recreation area I spot a doe in the woods half way up the hill. I pull into the parking lot and there is not one vehicle there, I thought that wasn’t a good sign. As I’m parking I suddenly remember my bait is still in the fridge at home. No problem I’ll just use plastic this trip.
I grab the power auger and head down to check thickness, 5 ft. out from the boat ramp there was 5 inches, I move 10 ft. further out where there was a patch of snow, the auger goes through considerably faster, I move over 10 ft. and thicker ice. I go back and grab my tape measure and head back down, first hole was 5 inches, next hole after I kicked the snowy slush away was 1 1/2 inches, last hole was 3 1/2 inches. At this point I figured I might as well go home and babysit my granddaughter, I’ll get out there maybe next week. Going to be to busy the rest. So anyone going out to try it here be sure to check the ice on the way out, and be very careful. Remember SAFETY FIRST!!!
Ed
Just got back from Brushy and I would still be there fishing if had taking my bait & rods to work with me I drilled about a dozen holes off the north boat ramp and found the ice to be 4-4.5″ with the bottom 3″ of clear ice and the top 1.5″ a snow ice mixture. I got about 15-20 yards off the boat ramp. there were 2 guys in a 2 man frabill about 50 yards east of the boat ramp, back towards the foot bridge.then I went over near the handicapped fishing dock, near the circle drive area and drilled about 7 holes about 3′ apart out from shore and found the ice to be a good 6″ all the way out. It was harder to tell due to the shade I was in, but the bottom 4″ looked to be good clear ice. Checked a hole someone drilled off the south boat ramp and it wasn’t much over 2″ so I turned around and left that area. I didn’t see any open water. It was hard to tell how the ice was frozen next to the trees due to the snow pac. I didn’t want to venture out that far by myself, but it looked all locked up
I got on the ice this afternoon in north liberty. checked one pond and there was 2″+ difference b/w the uncovered/covered ice. this is nuts to me w/ these temps we’ve had. i’d think it’d all be locked up by now. anyway…
we fished one spot in n.liberty that was good on about 75% but in the best, deepest area w/ structure the pond had a totally different look to it. we saw where one or probly two guys fell thru yesterday. you could see the tracks in the snow going out and “ploosh”… a big hole and two sled tracks where they were pulled out.
word to the wise… don’t walk from uncovered to covered ice (yet) w/out a spud bar.
had a few lookers and hooked a big bass for a moment but none iced. was nice to see my jig as a red blob finally though!!!
be careful,
I’m gonna check Macbride tonight with a buddy, ice picks, ect. The last time I was out there, it was 100% frozen over with little/no snow cover. I’ll let you know if I get wet.
Thanks for the reports, I’m with you Andy. How can it be this cold without 4+ inches everywhere. Dang snow hosed up the freezing process. I was hoping to get out for my first ice trip of the year this w/e but now I’m not so sure.
Checked the ice at Hickory Grove south of Colo on the way home from work last night. Saw 2 brave(?) souls fishing, but only found about 2 inches of ice in the holes I checked. Maybe by this week end.
Never underestimate the power of snow to slow down the freezing process. Geese, wind, depth changes, and water color (dark water absorbs and retains heat better than clear) can all make a big difference as well. Wherever you go out, if the ice is 4″ in one place it does NOT mean it is safe to walk everywhere on that water. Macbride, for instance, is notorious for having a lot of booby-traps, especially under the power lines.
I have not had time this week to check ice around IC, but one shallow pond that was skimmed over last week has a good blanket of snow on it that would make me wary of just walking out on it. Another deeper pond was still open Tuesday morning, and I am betting that ice is in better shape. (I am going up to Minnesota this weekend, so SE Iowa ice conditions are of little immediate concern to me. 
)
Heading up to give Clear Lake a try this afternoon. Kid has BB in Belmond so gonna head up after should be out around the Island around 2:30 or so. Look for a Frabill Twin and a lime green Artic Cat. Ice was 7 inches as of weds.
I fished a farm pond near Iowa City yesterday and it had 3 inches of good clear ice. I wish it was a little more, 3 inches makes me a little nervous, but I had a PFD and ice picks just in case. The gills were extremely finicky. I left in a rush and did not have any waxies or larvae. I just had Gulp Maggots which have worked well for me before. I caught 5 small bass and even a catfish, but could not tempt the gills into biting. I had an Aqua Vu going and could see it was a sizable school of gills that would cruise through. 1-2 fish would stop and look at my jig briefly then they’d move on. I used a glow red #12 Custom Jigs and Spins Diamond jig, a smaller #14 purple Diamond jig, and a small Forage Minnow Spoon. All have been good lures for gills for me in the past and even on this pond. I just wonder if I would have had waxies instead of Gulp if I would have had more takers.
Jonthan and I made it out this morring. pretty much sucked. all the heavy snow coming down and fish not biting. we tired a little lake with no luck. so we call a guy to see if i could try down at his pond. found to have 6-4″ of ice all over. still had no luck at all. but we noticed we where losin ice fast! we where sittin around 4″ and leavin we lost about an inch of ice. some spot you could turn the auger 2 times and you would go though. hopefully next weekend.
-Aaron
We fished a pond south of Iowa City this afternoon, it had 4-6 inches every where, with 3-4 being good clear ice. we caught 8 nice gills in about an hour on waxies and chartruse jig. It came to a screeching halt and not a bite for the next hour. It was good to be out and give it a try.
Thanks
Chad
Due to the snow that came through, I left Minnesota this morning and returned to Iowa City. So, I went out and put some holes in a local pond this afternoon. I found about 5″ of good ice, and the rather picky fish other people reported. In two hours I caught nine bluegill and two crappie, but they were not real aggressive.
Got out for the first time Sat.the 20th. Went to Casey Lake at Hickory Hills Park North of Dysart. 5 in. of good ice but no fish. The kids had fun snow boarding and sledding. It felt good just to be on the ice but a few fish would have been nice too. Talked to a couple of other fisherman. Thet had no bites either. Saw a few fish on the vex but they did not want to bite. Good luck to all and stay safe on the ice!
thanks for the reports guys.
i hit a pond near iowa city today. ice was really good – about 6 inches. we just killed the bass. three of us standing right next to each other catching one after another. mostly about 13″ ers or so but trevor got a nice 2 lb or better bass. i got one crappie too and didn’t know they were in the pond. the gills were really finicky though. i had one on that popped it but the rest were just looking. you could tell if it was a gill or a bass b/c the bass just hit right away w/ no hesitation. just using little fat boys w/ waxies.
keep the reports coming.
Got out on Hickory Grove near Colo for the afternoon yesterday. Ice was about 6 inches thick. Caught one small bass, but that was it. Nice day to be on the ice anyway.
Andy,
We tried several spots to see if we could find a good depth, but nothing seemed to work. I went back over Saturday morning. Got on the ice about 6:30 in the morning and fished a spot over about 20 feet of water off a point on the north shore. Caught two very small crappie on a #8 Ratso tipped with a wax worm about 7 a.m. Then nothing after that. Left the lake about 9 a.m. to get some other things done. Hoping to get back over there Monday afternoon to give it another try
My in-laws live in Ames also, you ever try ice fishing the new ADA HADEN park area going north out of town on Grand. My father in-law was going to see if anyone was trying it this week. Saw a few guys fishing the borrow pit off of Highway 13 by the CR Sewer Plant. Always wanted to try it, but don’t know if I can stand the smell if the winds out of the west. Another friend fished the borrow pit up by Brandon and said ice was pretty good there too.
I haven’t fished Ada Hayden. One of our graduate students did creel census all summer the year Ada Hayden opened to fishing. I wasn’t very impressed with the numbers he was finding. As I understand it from the fish biologists here, there isn’t much spawning habitat at AH and as a result, there isn’t a big fish population there. As a result, I’ve always gone elsewhere. I’d be interested in hearing from someone who has actually put a line through the ice there though.
FYI, that survey also said there were no shad in there 
all you have to do is go out there in the summer and you can see huge schools of shad everywhere on the surface.
Not saying there’s good fishing there but I know they were wrong on at least one thing.
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