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| First fish of the season, a whopper yellow perch |
With the end of my 2017-2018 ice
fishing season, I look back and reflect on the highs and lows of the previous
ice season.
This
season started somewhat on time and found me ice fishing in northern Iowa by
the second weekend in December. Many years folks in that area are on the
ice around the first week of December, if not sooner, so this year wasn't too
far off from that time frame. Central and Southern Iowa would take a little
while longer to lock up and have fishable ice, but I was able to find some ice
there around Christmas this year.
I was
fortunate to log 47 trips on the ice to 27 different bodies of water; 10 of
which were new to me this winter. These figures are quite a bit higher
than previous years and i attribute that to good ice in northern Iowa through April and a
reinvigorated zeal for fishing new lakes. My travels this winter also
found me fishing in three different states (Iowa, Minnesota, and South Dakota). I was also fortunate enough to fish the latest I have ever been on the ice, with a quick trip to Rice Lake towards the end of April.
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| Two man limit of walleyes 4-21-18 |
This winter provided some of my best competitive fishing ever as I
competed in four tournaments and one derby. Derbies differ from
tournaments in that you only have to catch the largest fish for predefined
species and takes some of strategy out and replaces it with luck.
The first tournament this winter was the Central Iowa Icesticks
tournament at Badger Creek Lake. I fished with my regular fishing
partner, Todd Reed, and we were able to secure first place out of 18 teams with
a bag of 8 crappies and 8 sunfish totaling 10.85 pounds. I was also able to
catch the largest redear sunfish with a 1.08 pound specimen. With my previous experience of the lake and by doing our homework prefishing, we were able to develop a solid
game plan and thankfully our pattern held on tournament day.
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| Final Standings for Central Iowa Icesticks tournament |
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| Todd and I with a few of our winning fish |
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| Two 10.5" redear sunfish |
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| Three keeper redear sunfish |
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| 10.5" 15.2 ounce redear sunfish |
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| 10.5" 1 pound 1.6 ounce redear sunfish |
The second tournament was a quick turn around and found Todd and I
fishing the Iowa State Fishing Club tournament the following weekend at Hickory
Grove Lake. We finished in second place, out of 17 teams, with a total
weight of 7.84 pounds for our bag of 10 panfish. We were disappointed in
our finish as we had won the year before, but were edged out by close to three
quarters of a pound by the first place team who had an impressive bag of 10
crappies. This tournament was bittersweet as it will be the last one at
Hickory Grove, for a while, as they are renovating the lake starting this
summer.
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| Leader board for the tournament |
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| Our 10 keeper panfish |
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| Todd and I with some of our better crappies |
The third stop was at the Holiday Lake fishing derby the first
weekend of February. Holiday lake is a private 150 acre lake near Brooklyn, IA
which allows the general public to fish there one day a year and the proceeds
go to the fishing committee to stock the lake. Four buddies and myself
weren't sure what to expect as we had never fished the lake nor took part in the
derby, but our eyes were opened up by the experience. There were 404 participants for the derby which is about twice as many people as I was
expecting. Fishing was fair, but our group was able to catch bluegills,
perch, crappie, bass, and a walleye and one member of our group was able to tie
for first place in the bluegill division with a 9.75" fish.
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| Flier for 2018 Holiday Lake Derby |
The Yellow Bass Bonanza at Clear Lake, IA was the following
weekend and would be the second time I fished this tournament with my friend
Lance. We set out to fill our bag of 30 yellow bass and compete against
300 other teams. The yellow bass had been elusive most of the
winter but thankfully fishing picked up right before the tournament and 90 teams out of
301 caught their limit of 30 yellow bass. Our team finished 27th last
year and we looked to improve upon that this year, but unfortunately we were
only able to reach 40th place with a weight of 14.08 pounds. Our efforts weren't in vain as 40th place was awarded a new Vexilar FLX-12 flasher.
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| Lance and my bag from the YBB |
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| Largest yellow bass (10.75" 0.75 pounds) and white bass (15" 1.75 pounds) |
The final leg of my tournament season was an unexpected one when a
buddy asked me to fish the North American Ice Fishing Circuit tournament at
Bitter Lake in South Dakota. The tournament circuit is the longest
tenured and the upper echelon of competitive ice fishing series in the United
States. We found ourselves fishing against 25 other teams from 10
different states across the United States. Chad and I found a pattern and
location we really liked and were able to over come a tough bite on tournament
day to win by over two pounds over the second place team. Our bag of 16
perch weighed in at 10.04 pounds and Chad was also able to catch the big fish
of the tournament, a 14" 1.92 pound perch.
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| 13" 1.5 pound yellow perch caught prefishing |
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| Chad and I with NAIFC tournament director Jack Baker |
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| Oldest daughter holding the trophy |
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| Our bag of 16 perch |
While a
lot of my time this winter was slotted fishing or preparing for tournaments, I
was able to get out and do some "fun fishing". This year I made
it a point to fish some different bodies of water, something I enjoy doing, and
I was able to find some real nice bodies of water which receive little or no
pressure and offer so good fishing opportunities.
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| Nick Meyer and my two man limit of Spirit Lake yellow perch 3-24-18 |
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| Two man limit of Spirit Lake yellow perch 3-24-18 |
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| 12.75" 1 pound 2.6 ounce yellow perch 12-22-17 |
I recall one
morning during the boring drive to Hickory Grove to prefish for the ISU
tournament that I started thinking about how many different counties I had
fished this winter. This sparked my interest to tabulate how many different
counties I had fished in this winter; something I had never tracked previously.
My final tally found me fishing 18 different counties this winter,
which is a stat I was somewhat surprised at. I look forward again to trying new
bodies of water in coming years and hopefully uncovering other hidden gems. Below are just a handful of some of the better panfish I was able to catch while fishing these new lakes.
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| 14" Black Crappie |
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| 13.5" Black Crappie |
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| 13.5" Black Crappie |
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| 11.75" White Crappie |
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| 12" White Crappie |
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| 14" Black Crappie |
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| 12.5" White Crappie |
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| 9.5" Bluegill |
It's also fun to tangle with something larger then panfish and while this year didn't yield the numbers I normally like to catch, it still didn't disappoint.
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| 17.5" Largemouth Bass |
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| 18.5" Largemouth Bass |
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| 17.25" Largemouth Bass |
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| 19" and 16" walleye |
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| 18.5" and 15" walleye |
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| Two 16" walleye and a nice mixed bag of yellow perch and bluegills |
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| 16.5" Walleye |
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| 15" Walleye |
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| 26" 7 pound channel catfish |
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| 27" 8 pound channel catfish |
It should come as no surprise to anyone in the state of Iowa; who pays attention to fishing, but Clear Lake was on fire for the yellow bass and walleyes the last month or two of the ice fishing season. The size of the yellow bass are quite impressive with many yellow bass reaching or surpassing trophy requirements (10") each trip. It is a fun time to search out the schools of aggressive yellows with a group of friends and we took full advantage of that the final month of the season.
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| First Annual Yellow Bass Beat Down on 3-10-18 was a success with hundreds caught and good times had |
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| Jeff Heinze and my haul from 3-16-18 |
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| My keepers on 3-23-18 (158 yellow bass and one 16.5" walleye) |
I was also able to catch a personal best through the ice this winter.
While prefishing for the NAIFC tournament at Bitter Lake South Dakota, I
was able to catch a 14.5" one pound thirteen ounce yellow perch.
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| 14.5" 1 pound 13 ounce yellow perch |
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| 14.5" 1 pound 13 ounce yellow perch |
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| 14.5" 1 pound 13 ounce yellow perch |
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| 14.5" 1 pound 13 ounce yellow perch |
I also caught two species of shiners this winter, which are new species for me through the ice.
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| Shiner caught on 5mm tungsten jig and a waxie |
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| Shiner caught on 5mm tungsten jig and maggots |
I would
like to take a moment to thank my sponsors Clam Outdoors and Sportsmen's Direct for their
continued support this winter. It is a pleasure and honor to be a part of
each of each of their respective teams and endorse their products.
With that said, that puts a wrap to another fun season. See you on the
ice next winter!
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| Northeast South Dakota Sunset |
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