Iowa City Ice Fishing Report

[JIvers]

http://www.iowadnr.gov/Fishing/TroutFishing.aspx

I was a little surprised to see the IDNR will be stocking trout there on March 31 too, but like you said they may figure most of the trout will be caught before June when the water really heats up. Or maybe it really is spring-fed?

I have heard the IDNR talk about holdover trout in Lake of the Hills in Davenport (I drove by it when I worked in Rock Island, but never fished it) that make it through the summer, but I wouldn't think they could make it in the Sand Lake unless there is some cooler water going in there.

My limited experience with the Sand Lake is that a lot of it is only a couple feet deep, with some smaller pockets of deeper water like you said.

There were some nice crappie in the Sand Lake when it was first opened to the public, but they got pounded hard(much like the nice bluegills in the Brown Deer Golf Course water hazard and Ewalt Park pond in Coralville), and the fishing quality dropped way off. I haven't been there in probably three years, and it is on the other side of town from me, so I probably won't make it back any time soon. There are better waters closer to me.

[kiowa]

I have only been out to Sand Lake three times with a handful potato chip sized bluegill for my efforts. Supposedly there are crappie and channel cat in there too. With the introduction of trout I thought I might invest some time out there for a change of pace from my usual quarry. (Ten minute drive versus the ~2 hour drive to a trout stream is bonus too)

[kiowa]

Pretty warm out there and breezy too, anyone been out to MacBride or your favorite farm pond today? I had plans to go out Sunday but I might go tomorrow instead if this weather keeps up.

[JIvers]

I'm up in SE Minnesota tending to some non-fishing business. (I am squeezing a little time on the ice in, too.) I'm pretty sure I am missing the last weekend of ice-fishing we will see in Johnson County this year.

I plan on swinging by Macbride on my way back Sunday, and will report back on what I find.

If we had the 12" or 16" of ice we normally have in mid-February we'd be alright for a little while yet, but the six to eight inches of re-frozen ice I found on Macbride this week is not going to last long with highs above freezing every day, even if I can still find good ice on Sunday.

[JIvers]

The countdown to ice-fishing in the Coralville-Iowa City area begins again--there was skim ice on the puddles this morning in Coralville.

I moved down to Iowa City from Minnesota in 2001, but my first few winters here I was usually busy, and did not get out on the ice as early as I could have, so I threw those years out. Here are my first ice fishing trips in and around Johnson County since December of 2005: I included both the first time I got out on small ponds, which freeze up quickly, and Lake Macbride, which being a good deal larger and deeper takes longer to freeze:

2005: I first ice-fished a pond on December 8

2006: I first ice-fished a pond on December 8; this was the year a heat wave hit in mid-December, taking out all the ice around Coralville until after New Years

2007: I first ice-fished a pond on December 6; Macbride on December 16

2008: I first ice-fished a pond on December 11; Macbride on December 17

2009: I first ice-fished a pond on December 11; Macbride on December 27

2010: I first ice-fished a small pond on December 7; Macbride on December 15

2011: I think I might have been able to get out on some small ponds around North Liberty on December 10, but what little ice we had went bad the next day. As it was, I first ice-fished a small pond near North Liberty on...January 15; Macbride on January 21

The first ice dates down here were pretty consistent until the winter of 2011-12; if we don't have another "winter" like last year, I'll hopefully be out on some small ponds here on December 6. *Knocks on wood.*

[JIvers]

My first Coralville area ice report for the year:

The small ponds around Iowa City capped on Sunday after the wind died down. Knowing the forecast for the end of the week I didn't get excited, but seeing the neighborhood kids were throwing rocks on one small pond near my house, and the rocks were not breaking the ice, I checked it out this morning.

I found over half an inch of good hard clear ice. Two or three more days like the last two and I would possibly be ice-fishing southeast Iowa before December 1. Too bad no more ice will probably form after tonight, and it will all probably be gone by Saturday.

If the longer range forecast on Accu Weather is correct, and it almost certainly isn't, we are looking at fishing first ice in Johnson County a couple weeks in to December. Good thing I haven't winterized the boat yet.

[JIvers]

The good news: the small ponds around here capped over last night.

The bad news: unless the forecast for the next week is totally wrong, that new skim ice is all we are going to get for a while in Johnson County.

On a related note, my boat still isn't winterized.

[JIvers]

I finally winterized my boat today, about six hours ahead of WINTER DEATH STORM 2012.

I've done a lot of off-line cursing and grumbling about the "winter" weather we've had in the last month, but the ice is finally going to be here in southeast Iowa soon. I expect to be hitting small ponds within five miles of my house the morning after Christmas.

Oddly enough, the timing of the cold front after the blizzard tonight is going to be about perfect for us. All the ponds and lakes around Coralville are completely open, so a foot of snow will not hurt a thing in terms of making new ice.

Farther north where a lot of water has an inch or two of skim ice, six or eight inches of snow dumped on top of that will wreak havoc with ice formation if the wind doesn't blow it all off. If they get light powder they will be all right, but heavy wet snow could cause problems within the storm zone in northern Iowa and far southern Minnesota.

[JIvers]

I went and checked my usual first ice pond in Johnson County, hoping that maybe I could get out on the ice tomorrow. Some small ponds capped Thursday night in spite of the wind, although I don't know about this one.

Anyhow, I found maybe an inch and a half of very good clear ice this morning. This pond was mostly exposed to the 35+ MPH wind Thursday night, so maybe that slowed ice formation down a bit, but whatever the reason it will not be thick enough for my taste tomorrow morning, so I will probably have to wait until Tuesday to get my fix.

[JIvers]

I finally got out on my usual first ice pond in Johnson County this morning. It is not the best ice-fishing pond, but it freezes up quickly and offers a mix of panfish numbers and size, with the fish usually easy to find early in the season.

I found about 5" of very good clear ice this AM, up from about an inch and a half five days ago. I would have been there a day or two earlier, but other stuff got my attention.

I caught several bluegill in the 7"-8" range; the one below was my first fish of the season:

I got a couple largemouth, neither real big, and some smaller bluegill as well. The bite was short and quick, starting at about sunrise and lasting maybe twenty minutes. With cold weather, clear skies, and ice as clear as glass it is about what I expected, although I usually do better at first ice. Tomorrow morning, I am going to hit another pond here that can be a little quirkier, but often kicks very nice bluegill with a few nice bass thrown in.

I was told some brave souls already got out on Macbride, although I did not see it for myself. I will wait a few more days before trying the lake.

[JIvers]

I've found the "hot", or at least warm, pond for the winter here. It's been kicking out very good numbers of decent bluegills with a nice largemouth here or there. No crappie that I know of in this pond, which is probably why it has nice bass in it. My old dependable pond has been a little off in both size and numbers of bluegill so far, but this one seems to have a improved over the last couple years.

The ice is still good around here after the warm spell, which I don't think will interrupt ice-fishing in any way.

I'll probably hit it a couple times a week for the remainder of the season, and hope word doesn't get out soon. I've seen several nice fisheries on public ponds around Coralville--the Sand Lake in Iowa City, Brown Deer Golf Course, M. A. Ewalt--get driven right in to the ground by over-fishing.

[JIvers]

I have been out a couple times this week on some of my usual ponds around Coralville and North Liberty--the bite is still just a little off from what I usually find this time of year.

I catch some decent bluegills every time I am out, but the bite is confined to right around sunrise and sundown, and I have to sort through more small fish than usual. It is a lot like a late ice bite. If I had the time to check some other ponds around here I would probably have better luck, but this winter I don't have that time.

The ice on ponds in Johnson County held up pretty well after the warm spell--I had seven or eight inches of good clear ice under me this morning, and the shoreline ice, at least on the north-facing sides where I have gone on, is fine as well. We will have to see what the warm spell this weekend does to the ice.

[JIvers]

I had some business to do in IC/Coralville this morning, and while I was out I drove past a few ponds to see how the ice weathered the fifty degree temps and heavy, followed by heavy snow and cold.

I did not get out and check any, but from the street they looked pretty good. I was worried the snow would fall on top of bad ice left from the warm spell and keep it from re-freezing, but it looks like the heavy wet snow that fell Wednesday morning flooded the ice, and the whole mess of snow, rotten ice, and liquid froze up last night. If so, small ponds should be good to this weekend in Johnson County.

The one thing to watch will be shorelines and other areas on the ice where snow might have drifted up yesterday. That could be enough insulation to keep the mush underneath from freezing at that spot. At shore that might mean nothing more than a wet and muddy boot, but it could cause problems over deep water.

[JIvers]

Twelve hours of rain and counting in Johnson County--looks like I'm off the ice for a few days again around here. Those ponds had about 8" of decent ice--white refrozen slush on top, clear ice on the bottom--before yesterday, but never mind that now.

The bluegill bite on my favorite ponds was just starting to pick back up after the last warm spell/severe cold snap, and now it will probably be a week or so again before I get out.

I'm pretty much writing off getting on the ice below the Coralville Tube this winter.

As for Macbride, I haven't been out there since early January, but I still plan on hitting it later this month. Some years I've gotten in to a good (good for Macbride in the winter, that is) late ice walleye bite out there, and the fishing couldn't be any worse on Macbride than it was at first ice. Maybe I'll even locate a crappie or two...

[JIvers]

Not that I put 100% faith in longer-term weather forecasts, but it looks like we have one more cold front coming in a week or so to the Midwest. If that prediction is close for this area, we should have another week or two of ice-fishing in southeast Iowa before March gets here.

[JIvers]

Yup, at least one more spell of ice-fishing small ponds around Coralville.

Between work and bouts of rain with fifty-degree weather I haven't been on the ice down here in a while, but after the cold weather of the last several days I had time to check my "go-to" pond in Johnson County this morning. I spudded my way out to the deep hole without problems, and am going to hit it tomorrow morning. I wanted to check it before the snow arrives tonight, as that would make things trickier if I didn't already know ice conditions.

Depending on how much snow we get, it actually looks like we might have a few more days of ice-fishing on small ponds this far south in Iowa, maybe even in to March...assuming the forecast temps for the next week are right.

As for Macbride, I think I am done with that lake for the winter. Hopefully there is a good walleye bite there this spring.

[JIvers]

I had about 6" of ice underneath me this morning on my "go-to" panfish pond in Johnson County. It looked clear, and in pretty good shape yesterday. We got about six or seven inches of white fluffy snow on top of it over the night, and so far it did not seem to be weighing the ice down much--there was only a tiny bit of water coming up through the holes.

As for fishing, I had a rather slow, but steady, bluegill bite after sunrise. Every five or ten minutes, a fish or two would move through and hit my bait. Had I been keeping fish of 7" or more, I would have had six or seven. As it was, I threw the first two or three back thinking I wouldn't get any more that size, and then I decided not to keep any this morning, as I have plenty of food to eat around here.

I hope to make it out Sunday and Monday, and after that I will have to see what more snow, and the weather in general, may do to the ice here. Maybe I'll still be ice-fishing by Iowa City March 1 this year, and maybe I won't.

[JIvers]

As of March 2, we still have good ice on small ponds just south of I-80 in Johnson County.

I was out last night and this morning, and found 6"-7" of good ice beneath a couple inches of water, slush, and snow over deeper water. The shoreline ice was a little mushy yesterday, but the ten-degree temps overnight firmed it up pretty good.

With cloudy, warmer weather yesterday, the bluegill bite was good before sunset, when it died down. Most fish were coming in about five feet off the bottom in ten feet of water, which is often the case in such conditions. The snow cover we have now makes a difference too, probably because it reduces light hitting the water and makes everything from the bottom of the bluegill food chain move up higher to get more light.

This morning, fishing the same two holes but with colder and clearer conditions, the fish were closer to the bottom, and the bite came to a screeching halt right at sunrise.

I now have enough bluegill filets in the fridge for a meal, and the weather forecast for Coralville suggests I will be able to fish this spot for a few more days yet. Last year I was done ice-fishing here by February 22.

[JIvers]

I may just go check the pond out one more time this afternoon, but I suspect yesterday was the end of this year's ice fishing for me in Johnson County.

I still had four or five inches of pretty good clear ice beneath a couple inches of white ice and snow over deeper water on this pond, but that was before the rain got here last night. Temps have stayed above freezing for almost twenty-four hours now, and with more rain coming this afternoon the shorelines will probably go bad quickly, and I don't feel like "walking the plank" to deeper water where ice may or may not still be good.

Anyhow, here are a couple of pictures from the last two days, including a bluegill that will probably be my last fish through the ice for this winter in the Coralville area. (Yeah, I'm probably going to check the ice out this afternoon. ) The bluegill bite was steady before sunset, at which point it slowed down both times out. Nothing great, but still fun to catch them.

For starting so late in December, this was actually not a terrible ice season in Johnson County. I was still on the ice March 8, while last year I was done ice fishing here by February 21.

[JIvers]

I may have spoken a little soon on the whole "done with ice fishing in Johnson County until December" thing: I plan on checking out the ponds here Thursday after work, and I expect I'll be able to get out on the ice one more time south of I-80 before the ice goes out.

[JIvers]

So much for ice fishing in Johnson County on March 21.

The public ponds I had in mind had mostly open water around the edges, with just a little bit of skim ice along the shore in sheltered spots. The ice over deeper water may or may not have been safe, but without a 20' plank I couldn't find out.

There were several private ponds I saw from the road here that looked to be completely iced over and solid-looking, but their shoreline ice may well have been too thin, too. Oh well--one more trip to southeast Minnesota this weekend, and the ice stuff gets put away until next November.

[JIvers]

Last night the temp dipped to around zero in Johnson County, and this morning several ponds near me in Coralville and North Liberty were completely iced over, save for where ducks and geese are keeping them open.

It will still be a couple weeks at least before I am ice-fishing this far south, unless the weather turns colder this week than the forecast says now, but we are still off to a good start.

I'm hoping I can beat my earliest first-ice date since I started keeping track; here are the first dates I hit the ice in the past:

2005: I first ice-fished a pond on December 8

2006: I first ice-fished a pond on December 8; this was the year a heat wave hit in mid-December, taking out all the ice around Coralville until after New Years

2007: I first ice-fished a pond on December 6; Macbride on December 16

2008: I first ice-fished a pond on December 11; Macbride on December 17

2009: I first ice-fished a pond on December 11; Macbride on December 27

2010: I first ice-fished a small pond on December 7; Macbride on December 15

2011: I think I might have been able to get out on some small ponds around North Liberty on December 10, but what little ice we had went bad the next day. As it was, I first ice-fished a small pond near North Liberty on...January 15; Macbride on January 21 mad

2012: First time out on a pond on December 27; there may have been a brief window before then where I did not get out.

[JIvers]

I'm going to check out my early ice ponds in Johnson County tomorrow afternoon. I think we may have just enough ice to get out with care in some places here, at least through the weekend. If not, it sounds like it will be a week or two before anywhere on I-80, much less south of it, has safe ice this winter.

[Silverback4812]

I'm going to punch some holes this weekend in some farm ponds as well in Iowa County. Fingers crossed. I am anxious.

[JIvers]

Welcome to HSO--let us know what you find.

I'll be posting my results tonight.