Lake Onalaska Update

Fished the lake this morning with nothing good to report. We started off by the runway lights in 3 fow. We marked a few fish but found none to be taking our offering. I tried every sized jig tipped with either waxies, spikes, and even tried red wigglers. We then moved to a deep hole where usually with a little searching, you will pick a few crappie up. Not today though. In the deep hole, I drilled about 10 holes and ran the vex before fishing any. We did mark a few on bottom, but still no takers. There were many shad filling the vex in the deeper water. I have found that most of my better days on the lake this year have been in the afternoon. I am not sure why that is though. I did notice that the ice was a little thinner in the deeper water. Makes you a little nervous when you have 8 inches of ice and the truck is pretty close to you, LOL. It wouldn’t be too bad if the truck went through, but it sure is a long walk back to the landing I am hoping to get back on the water for an evening try tomorrow.

I went to 22 yesturday and got 13 slabs. I fished in 6fow and used waxies. Lots of little ones getting in the way but a good day overall. I also have better light at night.

‘Gill or Crappie Slabs?

I made it out to the lake mid morning until later in the afternoon today. Good news is, I found some fish . Bad news is, it took a lot of holes and a lot of jig switching. I concentrated in a smaller area in the weed bed by the runway lights. I know from past experience that the fish are there, the question is, where? I drilled four holes in a random pattern in a 20 foot radius. I then dropped the vex down each hole before fishing. When I marked what appeared to be fish, I hit those holes first. I have found that the vex really does not help much in 3 fow, so I only use that for depth and a quick “look” down the hole. I then used larger jigs and worked my way down until I got hit. The best jigs today were the finkys in dark colors tipped with waxies. If these holes didn’t produce like I wanted, I moved over 20 yards or so and started all over again. I am sure glad I kept the Trap Scout for these kind of excursions. The Otter is great, but is a little big for a one man run and gun technique. The power auger also helps. I managed a few nice perch but mostly gills. The gills were not very good sized but not the tiny ones either. The bite picked up around 2 o’clock. I also had a few nice bass come through the hole just under the ice.

Could somebody post a current ice depth report for the runway lights area. I want to take my five year old boy out this weekend and need to make sure things are O.K. We fished Black Deer last week and brought a few home. We caught all our gill’s on glow in the dark jigs and seemed to do even better when I zapped them with the laser light. The little bugger actually out fished me and I haven’t heard the end of it yet. If anyone has a good spot to take a kid(need to catch fish or I have to break out the snacks WAY too early) any suggestions would be appreciated. I am new to this site/thread but will be back often. Thanks

Welcome to the Site Belgianbuctail ,

I haven’t been out that way, but i’ve seen plenty of Trucks over in that area. I don’t think you have anything to worry about as far as ICE thickness….I’d say it’s well over 8-10″ all over…But always be carefull!!

There is a good 10-13 inches of ice out by the lights. I do not know if I would get on at the sailboat club and drive there that way yet.

I went to fishemens road on Friday and got about 10 ok sized gills, and in the afternoon went 22 for some crappies. People were keeping crappies smaller than the gills i had so i knew what was bitting there… then on saturday nothing was biting at fishermens.. Anyone have a good suggestion for sunday/monday?

I was at the runway lights this afternoon. Picked up a few nice gills, and I mean a few. I am going to give the lake a break, as well as my nerves, and head to Trempeleau in the morning. It sounds like it is going to be very cold . I have not heard any reports from there so do not know what to expect. I also heard they were doing pretty good in Stoddard.

Fished @ Blackdeer Sat. and Sunday morning with few gills caught. Sunday both ends opened up from the wind. Fished up stream and there was only about two inches of ice. There were shad/bait fish everywhere. Moved three times in that wind, same thing everywhere; a few gills and school after school of shad. That can’t be good for fishing??

It definetly won’t be good for throwing up tip-ups….With that many shad around…The bigger gamefish (northerns/bass) will have a buffet of shad before they get to your near dead shiner ..lol…Not sure how big school moving in and out would effect the panfish bit though.

Hi guys. I tried Black Deer last Saturday (1/17) and had some luck with the crappies. They were very hard to persuade to bite. Worked all day for 12 so-so fish. It was fun to watch them approach. There are alot of fish down there and this is a great place to sight fish. When we did get them to bite it was all in the presentation. Waxies and spikes for the gills and minnows for the crappies. Drop your minnow just below the ice slowly and give it a couple of jigs. That seemed to bring the big ones up. I’m going again next weekend. Just a note to some. It’s customary to ask first if your going to walk up next to me and drop a line in my hole 3 feet away. Seems like some people still don’t get it when you tell them a little courtesy goes a long way. Good luck to all.

Fishfan

I’m most likely going to be fishing in and around the Runway lights this weekend, anyone going to be in that area? Just thought I’d say hi if you were around…

FishFan-Welcome to the world of Black Deer . Last year a buddy and I were fishing with tip ups there. We had them in a star shape pattern and were doing fairly well on bass and northerns. Then this guy comes up with a power auger and starts drilling right in the middle of our tip-ups!! My buddy who is not to tolerant with that kind of thing just snapped. He unloaded both barrels on that guy. But, it didn’t matter, he kept jigging away. It is a great place to fish, but very confined. I like it a lot better in the open water. During the week I can fish alone most of the time.
SlopBass-I will probably be out by the runway lights this weekend. If you go out there let me know and maybe we could shoot the breeze.

Hi all – This is not really an update for lake Onalaska but I was out there on Sunday and my portable was blowing all over the place (with me in it) To get to the point… I have a clam 5600 and I saw cabelas have “ice loks” for 24.00 dollars a pieace, but I was wondering if anyone else have any ideas before I purchase these…and if anyone else has had the same problem I did how many loks did you buy or how did you solve this problem besides not fishing on windy days

thanks for the insight
John

I stick my foot in the hole and use it as an anchor to hold my self from moving….(no kidding)

If there is snow on the ice…pack it around your shanty…that sometimes help.

I’ve never used ice locks….

Set your shanty up so the end with the rope points into the wind. Drill your fishing holes accordingly. Take your auger and drill a hole about 2/3 deep and leave your auger in it and throw your rope over the auger. It works for my Frabill. An ice spud will work too.

The wind is a bummer with a portable. Even if you can anchor, the canvas flaps and it can be very annoying and possibly detrimental to fishing. Since we don’t get snow here in MN anymore it’s even tougher. I like to do what the Fleckster does. Either that or just try to find a backwater that’s fairly protected.

4″ long eye hook screwed into the ice and tie your rope to it. portable drill makes a nice hole

John….I used pipe 12ins.long, run a piece rope through it..tie knot in the end after threaded through pipe…tie knot on the other end pipe also, overall length around 8ft. …next take another piece of rope, tie in the center of pipe, also around 8ft.in lenght….drill hole in the ice and lower pipe down with rope with 2 knots, till pipe clears bottom of the ice, now pull up pipe till it hits bottom of the ice with rope tied in the middle of pipe,attach other end to your tent….you wont be blown all over the ice with this…

Well I made a last minute decision to leave work a little later and hit the ice. I should have stayed at work. I got to the lake around noon and threw tipups out until 4:15. No flags or any action at all. I watched other folks and they looked to be pretty slow as well. I sure hope it turns around before too long.

Well I am headed out this afternoon again. If anybody wants to stop and say Hi, I will be out by the lights. I will have a black F-150 short box stepside with Calvin taking a wizz on Anti-Hunters in the back window. I will also have my Trap Scout close by. I am determined to find fish today!!

Went out Saturday on the lake lookin for some hot action , and things didn’t start off too well . I got all the way to the ice, unpacked everything, walked out aways, just to realize I didn’t have my extender bar for my Clam2000. So back to the truck I go, re-packed everything, drive home, found the bar sitting on the garage floor, and head back to the lake. Finally get out to the lake, start to pop up the clam, and the metal rods are frozen and won’t pry up/open. So what do I do I start beating it with the rod that i had earlier forgotten. DON’T TRY THAT!! I busted the locking mechanism on the extender bar..(that’s what holds the sides up). So I end up “rigging” it up w/ a stringer i happen to have along. So I finally get my stuff setup and start to drill holes…or try to . After drilling my first of 3 holes through 16″ i realize i’m sitting over an impossible weedwed which wouldn’t even allow me drop a jig in.

I had a guy w/a power auger drill me some holes (thanks) and off i went…Not that fishing was any good ….As you can tell by the disgusted look on my face below… this sunny was my only prize fish (of the 3 or 4 I caught).

p.s. JimF.–>Nice to meet you …glad you were doing better than i was(he took home a nice bag of brut’s!! ) You’ll have to show me how you do that!!

Watson–when are you going out next? I think i’ll try it over where you go? anything doing this weekend for ya?

very impressive Mr. Slop Bass……you know, you could probably get a replica mount of that guy for about 12 bucks .

By the looks of that HUGE SMILE you hade a great day !!

Keep your chin up buddy, If it wasn’t for the bad days , we’d never know when we had a good day !!

You certainly deserve a break slop bass.

I am about to throw in the towel as far as the lake this year. Everywhere I go all I get is those #$%^ shad interfering . Until they get thinned out by the big fish or die off, I do not think we will see a flag this year. I have not been out a whole lot lately. I went on Saturday and got absolutely skunked, not even a nibble . I might try again tomorrow mid morning, and for sure this weekend. Wait…there is a BF Invitational this weekend isn’t there. Maybe I will have to go to that. Something has got to give. My jig poles are going through withdrawls and I am getting edgy . I wonder where the fish are hiding? I have tried all my usual “hot spots” and not much action. I wonder if I just need to get back to the shallow water. I just read another report of catching gills and craps by the tracks. I am assuming they are fishing in very shallow water in the weeds. I would have never given that place a second, or first look. Maybe I need to try different areas that I am probably overlooking.
Slop Bass-What time do you think you will be heading to the BF Inv.? I really should go to that one, since I missed the GTG in PDC.

I plan on being out there all day….So i’ll probably be setting up sometime after sun-up/early morning..

I’ve gotta ask you Slop Bass, why do you carry a stringer with you ice fishing?

Gator Hunter

Good question ..and I have a good answer .
When i was at the baitshop before xmas…I bought some bait etc…Well…. they were handing out little gift bags as a nice xmas gesture. IN that bad included a few ice jigs, tiny bobber, and a STRINGER!!! lol…So i threw it in w/the rest of my ice fishing gear…and it’s been there since….