We are fast approaching my favorite time of year here in the La Crosse Area- and that is ice out! 
Although my favorite type of fishing occurs during the soft water months, I still can’t help but to take advantage of the great soft water fishing this area has to offer right now, before it’s too late and all of the ice is gone. This year our goal has been to go out with a bang, and I think we’ve accomplished some good things. It hasn’t been amazing, but we’ve been doing alright. We haven’t broke a lot of ground this last sprint to the end, but right now its all about catching fish, and hunting for that big one. This weeks hunt started for me on Thursday shortly after Justin beat the snot out of the crappies on Tuesday. Unfortunately for me, a massive cold front moved through and left the crappies’ world upside down by the time it was my turn to have my shot at them. Although I iced close to 30 fish, only 5 of them were keepers. I wasn’t disappointed, mostly because I wasn’t getting my hopes up for a hot bite, but of course I wish I could have had the kind of action that Justin got into 
Saturday was brilliant. The weather was absolutely fantastic, and there were a few nice fish caught. Although we didn’t put the smack on them like we were looking to, the ones we did catch hit hard and fought well. The best part is we were getting them on a swedish pimple with no meat making for a fun and easy way to catch fish. I caught my biggest crappie of the day early, an 11″er, and Justin was quick to top that with 2 fish pushing close to 12″. What really kept me busy today was the white bass. I felt like I really had them dialed in and iced close to 20 of those with several in the 14-17″ range. The only way to get them was to keep the bait on top of them, then quickly raising it on a fast twitch to get them to fly 3-5 ft for the hit. When they hit they exploded on it, and gave some really powerful runs. If it wasn’t for the white bass action I probably would have been looking for a change of location. Overall the day was a success. We caught some decent fish, enjoyed the beautiful weather, and gave a bag of fish to my aunt and uncle to enjoy later on. Hopefully another action packed report will be on its way after a day on the ice tomorrow. Hopefully the warm weather has the fish on a hot bite. I don’t want to get wet for nothing 
I have a feeling the keyword tomorrow= “JUMP”
The first 3 pics are from thursday and the rest from Saturday’s 5 hours on the ice.
It’s been the year of the stripers, seems like they are everywhere.
