Iowa Ice Fishing Report 12.16.2009

Gentlemen start your engines!! That is your Strikemaster auger engines!!!

The Iowa ice fishing season is finally underway, and that’s a good thing, I have had enough cabin fever to drive three people insane!!!

To say that we have had a mixture of all types of weather conditions here in eastern Iowa, would be a major understatement. Freezing cold temps started it off, and we began making ice nicely, but wait, what is this? A single storm that covered the entire state, and dumped 12-16" of snow across the state. After that? 50MPH winds to blow the snow around and made roads shutdown.

It was NASTY! Then we get a warm up and the ice gets too shady to walk on comfortably. Fast forward to last night, Mitchel and I met up on Macbride in search of some paper-mouths. It was cold, with air temps hovering around 0.

Neither of us had a shack, so I punched quite a few holes with my strikelite, and began searching for fish with the marcum. I don’t know what it is about first ice, and catching your first fish of the season, but it is like falling in love for the first time all over again!! I was grinning like a little boy on Christmas, when the marcum showed the first fish.

I lowered the gill pill down to the suspended mark coming in at 15 FOW, over 24FOW, and just couldn’t get down there quick enough- It was such a rush of pure adrenaline when that mark began to rise to meet my falling offering. BAM! Fish on, and that is what is is all about!! I was using my new quiverstick/fly reel combo from Thorne Bros, make sure you check out these rods, they are unreal!!

Thorne Bros Quiverstick

I think why ice fishing gets me going so much, it is the anticipation of that bite, watching the fish on your screen, watching him rise, and then the hit…it is unlike anything in world to me!!

I don’t have much of a bite to report on, there wasn’t much of a rhyme or reason to catching these crappies. We were fishing from 17-24 FOW and waiting for the high risers to come in on the screen. Those fish would hit, and hit hard. The other fish on the bottom, were content to not eat.

I was using a glow red diamond jig and a black/white gill pill, or as Matt has coined it "zebra", and mitch was using a glow red diamond jig as well.

We are still forming our ice, and much of the lake is getting better ice, I can’t wait until I can go wherever I please.

I kept five fish to fry up for my new neighbor across the street. My wife and I just built a new home, and my neighbor is custom building an auger rack for my snowmobile, so fresh fish is the least I could do!!

Well, I have the first report out of the way, and I am headed back out there now to find the infamous WIPER!!

Stay safe, and we’ll see you on the hard water!