The dam @ Dresbach

Is there enough ice at the dam to fish for sauger/walleye?
Thinking maybe this Sat. coming up to check it out…
Tight lines…

BlueFleck might know seeing as he lives up that way…but i can go check it out if nobody knows….

Thanks – will check back later…
Tight lines…

The best ice is at the end of the long wall. Some of that stuff probably isn’t the best. There have been a few guys at the end of the long wall, but what they are catching is anybodies guess. For some reason the lock chamber isn’t freezing and the wind keeps blowing any ice up by the short wall out. If these winds would die down and let the water stiffen up, we might see a hard water season at the dam. Those fish up there have had an easy year.

It was looking pretty darn hard this morning. Still a few steaming open spots, but more ice than I have seen at any other time this winter.

With the winds set to die down today, I imagine some decent ice will be forming.

Sounds like an interesting spot.Any chance of getting directions???Or pm me,if that would work. Thanks,Mike

I-90 WEST will take you right to it. You can’t miss it. You’ll actually cross into MN to gain access. If you look at this picture….in and around those entry/retaining walls on the left side is where people fish.

As I was going home last night about 4-4:30, I saw two guys had picked a path half way up to the short wall. I’m guessing that was as far as they could get. The area they were fishing isn’t a very productive one. A little snow might go a long way in helping to make ice.

Hey Slop Bass ?

Did you take that picture from your deck ?

Nice Shot !!

Well, the ice up there must be better than it looks. A handful of guys were fishing up past the short wall. I didn’t hear of any reports Hopefully this snow won’t have any effect on the quality of ice up there. I’ve been waiting a long time to get up there.

Where and what is the best there? I have fished there one time about 5 years ago. What type of jigs work, I am going to assume you tip them with minnows. Also do you have to go way out to the short wall to catch fish? That would make me a bit nervous . About all I have for bigger jigs are Forage minnows and a few Pimples. Wil that work? I am thinking of giving it a shot tomorrow instead of going to the lake. Any advice would be aprreciated. thanks.

Watson…where will you be tomorrow…?

Slop Bass-I am leaning toward Dresbach, but waiting for a little insider info , as too where to go there. Otherwise, I will probably go and get skunked at the lake . I will not be able to head out until the wife gets back from class which should be 9:30-10. Maybe it will be a little warmer out by then, NOT!! What do you have planned for tomorrow? Can you fish? If so let me know.

I won’t be able to go out until after 3….send me a PM or post where you’ll be….

If you guys head up that way, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE AN ICE SPUD!!!!!!! The ice up there goes from OK to bad real quick. The snow we got last night might have sunk the ice too. Just be careful. The ice around the long wall should be good. I don’t want to read about anybody drowning up there.

BF…..I love your new signature quote….that’s awesome!!

I’m not sure if i’ll get out or not …I never did shovel last nigh t…so i still have 5″ of driveway snow to remove ..Hopefully the “ole lady” will shovel since she doesn’t have to work today!

Yeah, I am not sure about the whole swimming in cold water thing , I think I am going to Black Deer this morning, then maybe to the runway lights until 4 or so. I just got in from shoveling my driveway . Good thing is I have my wife “trained”, she does my half when I am gone and then I shovel hers when she leaves . Well, I need to get things together so I can head out in a little bit. Wish me luck.

I went past there today and there were a couple of shacks up braving the weather. Trucks were parked down on the ice off the boat landing. No ice depth to report, will try this weekend hopefully.

Well the good news is the fish were biting at Dresbach this morning . The bad news is I couldn’t catch the bottom . The ice was not the thickest between the two walls but that is where the action was coming from. I was sitting on about 3-4 inches. I watched several nice eater sized saugers caught and a few smaller eyes. I had a heck of a time. I couldn’t get my jigs to stay somewhat vertical. I used various jigging raps and the larger pimples tipped with crappie minnows. I am sure the minnows were too small considering what other folks were using. I also looked like a dunce out there with my small ice rods while everyone elseused long rods . It was nice to fish somewhere different though.

Fished from 7:00 to 10:30 this morning catching three nice saugers(biggest 17″ smallest 14″) I caught them on medium sized pimples using a walleye minnow. Nothing fast and furious, but overall one of my better days out this year.

I made the journey through the snow storm yesterday hoping for a top notch bite. It never happened……… I fished for 3 hours and out of the 12 people up there, I saw 2 small fish caught.

The ice up there is OK but I strongly urge using a spud. The thinnest ice was around 4 inches. I didn’t press my luck to find anything thinner. The snow we received yesterday was really weighing on the ice and making it very slushy. Hopefully this cold weather will firm the ice up for better conditions down the road.

Hopefully the bite will turn around too. Rumor has it they bit very well Sunday. Another case of should have been here yesterday.

Well….now that I’m finally back on the site , time to post my report from last night at Dresbach.

Met Watson there about 3:25p.m…..he was setup on a spot that we had had success on last week….Got setup, started catching fish almost instantly…2 in first 10 minutes…good start….I was fishing a #7 Rainbow Trout jiggin rap on one rod and a # 5 blue/chrome on the other. Fish were hitting both. VERY LIGHT STRIKES…and most of my hits came on the dead stick…With 1 fish donated by Watson, and one by Blue (WHO SHOWED UP LATE!!), took home 5 nice fattie sauger… Overall, very nice Medium size sauger being caught.

Now, for the bad part of the report …Watson Set the hook on a good fish…Nice Rod bend going on, and he said it felt “heavy” …..So i drop my gear and walk over to his spot and am watching him fight the fish. He gets it to the bottom of the hole and all i can see is a REALLY NICE head of a walleye…He starts pulling it up through the hole when the line snapped. ….I’ve never hit the ice so fast in an attempt to “NOODLE” a fish out of the ice….Watson dropped just as fast…but it was too late …We both sat there in disbelief….but what could we do? The fish definitely had some LB’s to her….Next time Watson..next time.

Blue was walking up when he saw our “NOODLE DROP”…he got a kick out of it…lol….as did several other on-lookers who saw we just missed a good fish.

On a side note, when cleaning the fish…i cut open their stomachs and saw that many of them are full of minnows…just a thought for you jig-n-minnowers out there.

Here are a couple of fatties from last night.

Great post . Slop was really putting the fish on the ice for awhile there . Let me tell you, Slop is lightning fast…as soon as he saw the line snap he was elbow deep in the hole . Oh well, it was still fun just to see that big head come to the hole. Bad thing is, it was my best producing jig. Now I will have to break out the 100# cable and deep sea rod with a 12″ hole I had a fish lightly hitting my jig for awhile, then the minnow was gone. I then put on just a tail of a new one and then caught a sauger. When he came out of the hole, he spit out a whole minnow that was still alive. Wierd. All in all, after the wind died down, it was a pretty nice evening.

Do you guys think it is worth going out after dark? I have to work until 5:00 and your posts have gotten me all worked up now for a little fishing.

It would be worth a try, but you would need a shanty and heat…If my shanty didn’t suck, i’d do it.

I have both so that is not a problem. What is the ice thickness? Hand or power auger? I will have an open spot if needed.

ice varies from 4-6″ or so….Hand is fine if the blades are good….Power if you plan on moving around…..I’m on call this weekend..no can do…but let me know when you go….

Went out tonight and met johnl for the first time, then Blue made it out. John did well, considering he had 2# test and a panfish rod . He started off by icing a dead and nasty shad . He then proceeded to get a couple keeper saugers. I ended up catching 3 small saugers and a fisherman, I’ll get to that in a minute. Blue started off slow, but when he got warmed up-look out, he was on fire . Now for the fisherman I caught. I at first thought I had a snag or something really big because it was kind of pulling upstream. I ended up slowly pulling the line hand over hand because my reel just wouldn’t reel it in. This went on for awhile. The line kept tugging the whole time. While I was doing this John or Blue, I can’t remember which noticed a guy in line with me fighting a pretty big fish. One of his partners had the gaff waiting for the big one to show his head . Anyway, finally I get my jig to my hole and notice I am hooked to a tiny jig with a live minnow on it. I then had to figure out how to get that jig off of mine, while the lines were as tight as they were. When I got them free, his jig shot like a bullet back down the hole, and all of a sudden the guys “big fish”, is gone . We never did let them know what was going on, but it was sure a blast watching them guys. The fish were pretty slow tonight.

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The fish were pretty slow tonight.

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sounds like i went to the right dam after all

It was pretty funny watching watson and the other guy fight it out I am sure that guy is going to the bar tonight to tell his friends the story of how he had a monster fish on and it suddenly just let go It was nice to meet watson and to fish with blue again, hopefully we can do it again some time. MattH was also out there for a bit but he was just there to pay his dues so he can hook into one the next time . We didn’t get into a mess of them but it was stil worth leaving work at 2:30 for it I am going to post a pic of the two I did bring home. And thanks Waston for showing me the ropes @ Dresbach