What a great weekend! My buddies and I got on the ice in one of our favorite Iowa River ice spots for probably the last time tonight. With the very warm weather and all the snow and ice melting we actually started the day fishing open water in the morning near Iowa City. We got into some great walleyes including a 5-6 pounder. This evening, however, we opted to check the ice in a spot to see if we could hit it one last time. We were able to get on about 4 inches of deteriorating but solid ice and had some great results!
We arrived at about a quarter to 4 and Trevor ventured out on the ice with a life jacket and picks. Well, he didn’t fall through and got a hole drilled and we still had a good 4 inches of solid ice. It was time to grab the flashers and rods.
The bite was pretty slow until about 4:45. I did manage one keeper eye and we had several lookers but we know the Iowa River eyes really put on the feed bag in the last 1/2 hour of daylight. When they started it was a pretty good frenzy until well after sunset. All three of us were using horizontal jigging baits – jigging raps and chubby darters. We were fishing in 10-13 ft of water adjacent to a very deep 20+ ft hole that we think the fish lay in until it’s dinner time. Jigging very aggressively about 3-5 ft above the bottom would draw fish in and you could see a little flicker on the bottom on the flasher. Then, you could lower down to them slowly and start working them up. For the big fish, you could only get them up about a foot and you’d have to just slightly wiggle in front of them until they bit. Many of them decided to leave the baits alone but we managed to get 6 nice 16-19" fish on the ice.
The smaller fish, on the other hand, were not nearly as picky as the big guys. If you could get them started coming up, they would commit and just fly up and take a whack at the bait. We caught at least twice as many dinks as we did keeper sized fish. And when I say dinks, I mean some were as small as 5 inches. The couple that I cleaned were stuffed full of shad which explains why the silver jigging rap was a hot bait! It was a great night on the ice but it looks like it will be the last time in this spot until we get another cold snap.
If you are thinking of testing ANY ice in the next couple days, make sure you’re not alone and have a pfd and ice picks to stay safe!
Good job Andy!!
Nice fish guys. You have been putting the hurt on the river eyes. I cant seem to hook up with anything short of a bunch of 12 inch crappies. I guess I cant really complain. This has been one of the best ice seasons Ive had, and we still have 2 months yet!
That was a blast! I love that photo you took of me “double fisting” Can’t say that I have ever double rod fished through the ice- but it made for a good time!!
Awesome report & pic’s, Thanks
Great job on the eyes
Nice report Andy
The balmy day yesterday must have made things comfortable. Nice pics too,no gloves or band-aids 
You guys are nuts. How much ice you on??
come on Kooty, it was all of 1.5inches
seriously, we had 4 good inches. we did not venture out far from where there has been ice for weeks. with 3 guys and life jackets and picks we were in good shape 
No, you guys are nuts. Has nothing to do with the ice!! Great report, I’m just jealous. I spent the weekend painting the baby room.
Hey, I guess you gotta get your time in when you have it….I am sure painting baby rooms is in store for all three of us “nuts” sooner than later.
What can we say, we love ice fishing!
The fish look great, wish we were with you.
Welcome to IDO, jsFishin! It was just a great weekend that we, honestly, deserved. We’ve been disappointed a lot more than rewarded this season. When it pays off it just does. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions about the site. It is THE best out there.
Nick,
we both know there are a ton of eyes in brushy, what’s the deal? Everybody tight lipped or not willing to share tactics?
How’s the Cornelia ice doing?
Nice fish !
nice eyes