Wapsipinicon Ice Fishing Report 1.5.08

Wow! What a great Day! Trevor, Andy, and I met up in North Liberty early this AM- We had high hopes of finding safe river ice to fish. Unlike last weekend, this time we would not be disappointed!!

The morning started off by me being late, yet again. Thanks guys for waiting for me. We headed north this time in search of a deeper hole in the wapsi, that had safe ice- The first spot we came too, had anywhere from 2-8″ of ice. This spot is where we stayed and fished all day.

Our game plan was to cover a big area, with a lot of holes, and vary depths/structure, as well as cover areas with current, and no current. Today it seemed like the fish were staying close to the current but not in it. In the morning the fish were relating to the front of the hole in deeper water. 13-15′ held the best bite for the morning.

Andy got on fire first, and iced five walleyes before I had even had the tip ups set. The most consistent bait today was a yellow jigging rap. We couldn’t buy a bite on a vertical presentation. I had three tip-ups set all day, two with the new weed line from ladredge, and one without. There was one flag all day, and I didn’t get a good hookset on the fish. These fish would not hit a live or dead minnow to save their lives. Tip-ups were a bust today.

Presenting the baits to these finicky fish was a bit difficult at first, but we got better as we figured it out. In the early morning, they hit for about 20 minutes no matter how you presented your bait. Then after that it took some finesse. The most consistent method of lure presentation was a simple raise and lower, and then hold one or two feet of the bottom. If they were going to hit it, they would, if they didn’t, we had to repeat, and keep repeating until they hit the bait. They absolutely would not hit a bait that was moving. Jigging it in their face, did not help one bit. In the afternoon, and evening the fish moved out of the deeper holes, and were relating the back edge of the whole over a sand bottom. The evening bite was crazy- You could count four or five fish on your flasher, and catch one of them, and go back down and get another. It was like picking your prize out of one of those claw machine games. Un-real!! Most of the fish in the evening came in 5-8′ of water.

We didn’t get any big fish, but we had a couple on that were lost at the hole or came unhooked during the fight. My big walleye land ratio is still struggling. I will partly blame this the necessity of using a medium light action ice rod, to present the smaller baits(smallest jigging raps available). You could tell when you set the hook, how much weight was there. On the bigger fish, we just couldn’t drive the hooks as well as we would have liked.

Today was our best day on the ice so far this season- We iced well over 100 walleyes in the 15-18″ range, and a bonus 20 or more smallmouth, with most of them being caught by Trevor.

The only bad part about ice fishing in Iowa? The sand and the bruises- I went through a new set of blades today because of all the sand and debris in the ice. I also crushed my hand while drilling into a tree branch. The auger grabbed, and rather than getting spun around, I let go instantly, and the handle came back around and cut me very well. Luckily it was not my jigging hand!

I doubt much of the ice will be safe tomorrow- lets hope the cold weather returns to Iowa very soon!

Good luck, stay safe, and we’ll see you on the hard water!