Pool 8 First Ice Madness

Well… It’s a weird fact that it’s almost Christmas and it has been nearly a month since I last drilled a hole in the ice! Here in Southeast Minnesota and West Central WI, we have been plagued with warm weather. We’ll get teased with a couple days of ice building weather, and then rain and warmth will wipe it all off like dry erase markers on a whiteboard. After Draco left his mark on the coulee region, however, it appears old man winter has seized his grip! A look at the temperature as I sat restless at 3AM this morning convinced me I might as well just brew some coffee and get my gear ready. It was 6 degrees out, and I knew that it was game on.

I was able to put feet on the ice at sunrise and was pleased to find 3-1/2 to 4" of ice on a deep backwater that is a classic first ice spot for the La Crosse area. It did not disappoint. I was able to ice a half dozen or so gills over 8-1/2" and some other solid keepers, along with bass and a crappie. Unfortunately some technical difficulties sent me home early to regroup and get ready for the afternoon bite.

I met up with a friend and headed to another prime early ice location in search of monster gills, crappie, and perch. This particular location is a deeper depression in an otherwise massive shallow weed flat. A perfect wintering location for Mississippi River panfish. Due to wind exposure, the ice here was much thinner. It brought me back to the day in late November where myself and Alex Welter tip toed anxiously across ice that we wanted to believe was 2" to catch our fish ice fish of the year. There was an honest 2" of ice here, but after spending the morning on good ice, this stuff definitely made me cringe. The fishing helped calm those nerves, thankfully.

Using a black ratso i was able to coax several fish to the ice immediately. This school is one of the more impressive early ice schools I’ve seen, and it’s there for the taking every year if you can gather the nads to get out there on the eggshell ice. I could count on one hand today out of the 40+ fish we probably iced, the number of fish I would deem as "non keepers." Even the non keepers were healthy 5 and 6" bluegills. The rest were absolute brutes with big shoulders and flat round heads. The kind that make you feel like a kid on christmas morning, or a fat kid at Dairy Queen. For those few hours, Casey and I were in first Ice heaven. A few nice bonus perch also came to the surface, with casey getting most of those using a swedish pimple on the bottom in 8 fow. I spent most of my time fishing up in the water column where the larger gills seemed to reside. Every once in a while a mark would slide in between 3 and 5 feet and these tended to be crappies. You’ll notice that none were in the pile… I only iced two and both were around 9-1/2". I lost 3 that I’m sure were crappies based on their reaction to the bait, and one more that came off at the hole that was pushing 12". Overall, it was a great day with several gills over 9" caught and released and a handful of beautiful 8 to 8-1/2" class "selects" that went home with Casey. Hopefully I’ll have more to report after my morning stint tomorrow.

Merry Christmas!

Cade