After work last night I made the rounds in the Winona area and was quite pleased with my findings. The first check revealed a solid 3″ of hard, clear ice, followed by three more spots yielding similar results. I was amped to say the least, and knew that Sunday would be the day that the auger was turned, sled was pulled, and fish were iced. And it was. Justin made the trip to Winona this morning and we made the ice around 9:00 after a stop to pick up some waxies. I guess we should have taken the extra 15 minutes on the ice because they were not needed today. A blood worm plastic from Northland dropped into 11 feet of water yielded the first fish of the ’10-’11 ice season, and it was a solid 8-1/2″ gill 
. It didn’t take long to realize that these fish were feeding well and by hopping a number of holes it was quite easy to pick off a good eater at each new stop. After Justin and I put about a dozen good ones on the ice we went into search mode, looking for new species and a change of scenery. Our walk put us in deeper water: 16-17 feet with a Christmas tree scenario on the flasher. You guessed it: they were all dink fish huddled up in the scour hole! Countless short hits and a few 4″ gills iced and Justin and I were packing our equipment and heading elsewhere. The move put us in about 15 feet of water with the Christmas tree effect occurring once again. I was a little more patient this time however, as I had fished the area a few times in the last few weeks and knew that there were some good fish to be caught with a little technique and patience weeding through small fish. Pounding the bottom with a forage minnow below the suspending dinks proved to be the best technique to catch the bigger bluegills and a couple of bonus largemouth. One solid 3 pounder took my offering and took my 30″ UL for a nice joy ride. i must say under clear ice, 3 lb bass look a lot more like 4 pounders! 
Though we had biting fish in this area, we knew of one more area that needed a comb-over. If we didn’t leave right away it would be hard to give the last area a fair trial. Arriving at the final area we found our options limited as only a small section of the slough had solid ice, and the rest must have skimmed over one day too late. Set up in 10 feet of water we found a few passive marks coming through. Getting them to bite was challenging, hooking them was even more difficult. Still, Justin and I were able to ice a few perch, most of which were small, but a couple that were keep-able, including Justin’s that is pictured below running between 10-11″. Overall it was a great first trip on the ice, and best of all we were safe. Sometimes curiosity gets the best of a guy but knowing we have all winter to venture into the un-tapped is calming enough to keep us in the community holes- for now. It’s always good to stretch that 2 lb trilene ice for the first time of the year!! Good luck to everyone getting out…GAME ON!
-Cade
Nice fish!
We are staring out at pouring rain possibly delaying our start to the ice season. Nice pics and a great mess. Thanks for sharing.