In Iowa, we have learned that if there is ice, you better be fishing! And nothing rings truer for myself. If there is ice, I am fishing! We just had a major cold front swing through yesterday, like most of the midwest, and fishing should have been slow, but that was far from reality!
Today I was joined on the water by Andy Craig and Tony Paglia. Here is fellow staffer Andy Craig with a healthy predator bass that has been caught before. This fish hit the same presentation that Andy was using to catch the crappie, a green chartreuse ratso.
I would like to take a moment and talk about the overall balance of Lake Macbride. I believe the panfish are becoming healthier because the lake overall is becoming healthier. This year, some of the biggest/fattest bass in years were getting caught and released at Macbride. These big predatory fish are keeping some of the panfish in line, allowing some of these white crappies to grow to magnum size!
With a high of five degrees, and a nasty -30 windchill, the game plan for today was much different than that of the weekend. Normally, I don’t fish inside of a house, but that Otter Lodge sure helped us ice fish today. It was even a little too windy for me out there.
Our focus was to locate key structure that fish were holding on and to find the most aggressive fish relating to that structure. Saturday the most aggressive fish seemed to be holding in 10-12 feet of water, suspended over 20 feet of water. Today the most aggressive, dominate crappies were coming in 17 feet of water, hugging tight to the bottom. It took quite a few holes, but eventually we set up shop in the most active area. Boy was it fun fishing in the shack sitting on top of a honey hole!
Tony and I caught our fish on the Froggie Diamond Jig, and Andy Caught his fish on ratso’s.
We are running anywhere from 5-7" of ice as of yesterday. The snow coming today should stop ice production, but at least there is a good base layer of ice for now.
Tony and I kept each kept three smaller fish tonight for a meal, remember to release those bigger fish, so we can enjoy great ice fishing in Iowa for years to come!!
Good luck, stay safe, and we’ll see you on the hard water!
Nice job guys
Guessing there wasn’t much competition
Can’t believe you sissies were fishing in the shack.
You got more will power than me. The couch was the only place I wanted to be last night.
Great looking crappies
Nice looking crappies guys!!! Way to go!
Great Specks!
John
Nice fish Luke. How big are those magnum crappies? Those big dogs are a blast to catch, and although legal, its a shame to see guys take those home.
Nick, taking a few of those big fish now and then won’t hurt a thing. Most likely they are near the end of their life cycle or getting very close to it. But in the end, it’s personal choice all the way.
Most all those bigguns are females with next year’s eggs, so I prefer to turn most of them loose.
Something to experiment with sometime if you think of it:
Take a 14 or 15inch female, and then a 11 inch male. Clean them both. I found the 11 inch male will have almost the same amount of meat as the big female just because that egg sack streches the fish’s belly to where there is very little meat on it. This will only work if you, like I, save the belly meat.
Thanks for the report Luke. I don’t blame you for using the shelter. Thanks for including the ice conditions.
13-14″
Beauty fish guys.
Great job Luke
Those are some nice slabs.
Wallster ><((((>
You could have said 15-16 and I would have believed it, you guys must just take good pics
Nice Pies
I didn’t measure, just taking a guess
They could be 15-16
I think you were modest my friend guessing 13-14, 15-16 is what I was thinking, nice fish. Why don’t you tell me the exact local and I’ll tell everyone the size for sure
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Nothing wrong with selective harvest, enjoy.
those are some dandy lookin slabs boys!!!
Glad to see there running big and bountiful!
Keep up the great reports
Good job guys
Nice fish
Great report Luke
Glad to see a fellow make something of himself