Pool 4 Maple Springs Ice Fishing.

After hearing that the bite may be beginning down towards Maple Spings I figured it would be a good way to bring in the New Year with a little on the ice fun. I met up with gator hunter and a good friend of his Joe (the-netter) I believe,is the handle he got labeled. Anyway the ice was 6″ and clear with a lot of shad frozen in time awaiting thaw. There were numerous cracks with open water to step over making me a little nervous getting to our spot. Lenny had the hot pole for the afternoon (we stated fishing about 1:00 and quit about 4:30 I was surprised at the number of fisherfolks on the ice and some had 4 wheelers and their was even a snowmobile that came completely across the lake ! No way would I have done that). I believe I was skunked for the day so I’m glad to get that done for this year on a day when nothing really large was biting through the ice. Here’s a shot of Lenny (gator hunter) and his $1.00 fish. Steve

Here’s Joe ready to tangle with a fish. I think he had a bite. Steve

Another photo of the area and some fishers. Steve

This day get’s the thumbs up. It was great to get on the ice and good meeting up with the two of you guys for the afternoon. Did you guys get out today anywhere? Steve

After reading Dustins report I think we need to drill really close to shore and use ring worms !!! Steve

Now that’s typical Pepin ice fishing the way I remember it. Really good one day… pretty darn tough the next 3.

It was a tough day for fishing but a whole lot of fun. Thanks Steve.
Anybody going out in the next day or two be very careful as the ice is getting real bad. Next week’s cold spell should take care of that.

Gator Hunter

Thanks for the pics. Always makes it much more interesting that way. With the really cold snap coming it should create alot more ice and make it even safer to be out there. Keep the reports and pics coming even if the bite isn’t real hot the day you are out. Remember its called fishing and not catching so nobody expects every report to be a hot bite. Thanks, Bill

According to the telemetry studies done by the DNR, most of the walleye in the system spend their winters in Pepin, mid-lake. During the time I’ve spent fishing it through the ice for walleyes, I’ve found consistently icing the walleyes to be a tough deal to figure out. Saugers were always a bit more reliable and that bite actually got pretty darn good late in the season some years. The walleye thing, well, if anyone has that number dialed I’d love to hear about it ‘cuz I never felt like I had a handle on it!

Six inches of ice would really be nice, today 01/02/04 a balmy 60 degrees here in Covington In . Very tuff to make ice,so far we have yet to make any ice at all this season. good luck to you all. TOM

Used to fish that area a lot when I first got out of service in early 70s. Some of you guys might remember they used to snag a lot of cats out there. We always went downstream to the first point. At times we had some excellent crappie fishing there. Anybody try for crappies in this area? Good luck.

We never tried for crappies but I saw a lot of fish about ten feet off bottom on the vexilar. Maybe crappies.
We were two points upstream freom Maple Springs.

Gator Hunter