02/24 Fishing Report

Had a chance to go over to the Mississippi and found some surprising results. Several of the areas I have usually fished later in the ice season are not producing, but other areas are. If a little slush on top of the ice doesn’t bother you, you will find 12-18 inches of solid ice under the slush. With the warmer weather and rain coming later this week, be careful of deteriorating ice conditions.
Just a few notes on some areas:
Lake Pepin at Lake City had good ice. The bite was slow, but some crappie and sauger are still being caught. Small crappie minnows are working best for crappies and jigging Rapalas or other jigging spoons tipped with a minnow or minnow head are working best for the sauger. Early morning or later afternoon seems to be the best times. Deep water in the 25-29 ft. range are holding most of the fish.
Checked out several backwater areas. Areas like Wilcox and West Newton do not seem to be putting out much. The Wabasha area seems to be slow with some fish in a couple spots. The Finger Lakes are getting to the point where the ice will not be good soon, but a few fish are being caught. I did not get over to the Alma area, but heard from someone that it has been slow.
Fishing may still improve before ice out and I intend to continue trying to find some fish. Late ice can offer up very good fishing. I did catch 4 crappies between 10-13 inches, lots of small bluegills, and a couple bass on my latest trip. Remember to be safe!

Good Fishing,
Mike

Glad to see your health has improved enough to get out and enjoy life!!

I would imagine that the brutal walking conditions are keeping the folks off of CW. It is beyond aerobic trying to get out to some spots right now! It’s been a funny winter out there. For the first half of the season you were flying [censored] over tea kettle every 20 feet because of the polished ice then all of a sudden you needed snow shoes so you wouldn’t sink up to you thighs in the snow. Lately it’s like trudging through 2 feet of wet cement. Also the lakes water color currently is dark rust.. C’MON SPRING!!!!!

Ken

Well Mike, great to see you get back on the ice but does the Doc know what you are doing? Thanks for the report and take it easy Bud. Much prefer seeing you at the Bait Shop than the hospital. Thanks, Bill

Hey Bill,

Thanks for your concern, but I really am doing very well. Should be back to work full time soon.
Fished Foster for a couple hours this afternoon. Managed 1 nice 13 inch brookie, several small crappies, 2 small bass, and 1 perch. Everything came on minnows.

Good Fishing,
Mike

Fished through the ice near Wabasha today. What a beautiful day to be out! There is still 20 inches of solid ice, so the ice fishing still has several days to go.
I caught some nice crappies today. The largest 3 were 13 inches. Also got some nice bluegills. A variety of live bait and plastics worked today. Water was between 4-9 ft. The fish were suspended anywhere in the water column.

Good Fishing,
Mike

Hit the Dike Road Saturday. The weather was great, icefishing without a jacket,hat, and gloves is the way to go. The bite was slow but did manage to catch about 28 fish through the day, with one big 15″ crappie just before heading for home. Plastics worked for me, I couldn’t get a thing on live bait, even color was important. I started out with black, no luck. I switched to the same thing in orange,thats what they went for. Talk about some picky fish.