Lake Hendricks, Iowa – Ice Fishing

By sports_anchor 0

It’s back to my roots for my first fishing report as an IDA Field Staffer! I spent a chilly and windy morning ice fishing on the lake I group learning how to fish, Lake Hendricks, in my hometown, Riceville, IA. The results were pretty surprising!

I was shooting another edition of my Howland’s Headin’ Outdoors segment for KAAL-TV and recruited an old buddy from high school to help me out. Scott Hockens is an ice fishing fanatic and he definitely had the fish dialed in! He did some scouting the night before with my dad and reportedly caught a bucketful of crappies and bluegills. I was a bit skeptical at first, but as soon as we started the camera rolling he was reeling them in!

Here’s a picture of Scott with the biggest crappie and bluegill of the bunch.

Scott was a master at using his vexilar and knowing when the fish were ready to bite his waxworm. I appreciated that because we didn’t have to roll as much tape and the editing video process will go much quicker!

We were fishing in around 11-12 feet over some submerged pallets. They’d been put in the water ten years ago when the lake suffered a complete winterkill and was completely drained and re-stocked with fish.

My ice fishing ability was a little suspect (I haven’t fished through the ice in 20 years, not an excuse, just a fact.) Scott did all of the catching, with seven crappies and probably ten bluegills in the short span of two hours.
I told Scott I plan on returning home this weekend to give it another shot and redeem myself. He promises that if we go in the late afternoon when the bite is best, he can guarantee I’ll catch at least one!

By the way, the Howland’s Headin’ Outdoors story will air on KAAL-TV on Monday, Feb. 20th and will also be viewable on our website.

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0 Comments

  3. Nice report/ How much ice did you have. I am thinking of getting out this weekend might have to give Hendricks a try

  4. Plenty of ice and, from I’m told, more and more each day. It was at about a foot-and-a-half for thickness this morning.

  5. Great fishing with you today anchor man.Bite shut down after you left.Snow begining to cover lake now.Im sure glad i have a gps to get you back on the fish this weekend.Maybe those elusive bottle bass will bite.

  9. Great post on hendricks. I fish it alot in the summer time. I have been told they were catching a few but with this report for sure confirms it.

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