Anyone Been Out Ice Fishing

[marine_man]

Has anyone been out on the smaller lakes (meaning smaller than Ashtabula or Devils Lake)?

I got out for about an hour on a small lake in the Harvey Area, and for the short amount of time I was there did ok.

There was water on top of the ice... too bad it's this early in the season for that.. will make travel tough going this year.

marine_man

[durham1296]

My dad and I went out to the Jamestown Resevoir this weekend and didn't have alot of luck. We caught two small eyes right off the bat and then only three more fish the whole day. We marked alot but couldn't get them to bite and we tried just about eveything in the tackle box. We ended up taking home one decent eye. Getting around on the lake with a vehicle is pretty tough with all of the snow. We were going to go to ashtabula but there was too mcuh snow.

[marine_man]

Thanks for the report!

Was there a lot of slush on the ice, or was most of the trouble the snow depth?

What general area were you fishing?

marine_man

[durham1296]

There was no slush. We were fishing on the west side of the resevoir right off the first access. If you have a snowmobile, you won't have a problem getting around.

[marine_man]

Thanks for the info!

I made it out yesterday afternoon with my daughter on a small lake in SE ND.

Ice was 12-16" thick. The snow had drifted in along shore pretty good, making travel in a pickup possible, but with no one to push I didn't chance it and walked out.

Crappies were active, unfortunately I didn't have crappie minnows... but managed to pick one up on a small bluegill hook / plastic worm. Hopefully I'll get out there again next weekend and have some pictures to share.

marine_man

[StagTamer]

Has anyone been out on stump lake at all?

[tjhookem]

Went out sunday night.....14" of ice.....not much snow.....most people drove out on the ice.....short walleye bite right at dusk......

[marine_man]

What general area did you get out in?

marine_man

[marine_man]

Sounds like the weather's going to be pretty nice this weekend.. who's headed out?

I'm hoping to get out Sunday afternoon... hopefully the vikings get far enough ahead or behind by 2:00 to get out...

marine_man

[marine_man]

Dayton 1313- your post got moved to the Devils Lake Forum:

Anyone Been Out Fishing

marine_man

[tjhookem]

We fished in the trees on stump on sat. we caught about 5 or 6 small walleyes. only a foot of ice in the trees! good thing we didn't drive in there. we were in about 27' of water. fished outside.

hope this storm doesn't dump too much snow on the lakes!

[marine_man]

Agreed.. but it sure isn't looking good... Now they're talking 1/4" of ice before it switches to Snow.. should be great fun...

marine_man

[marine_man]

I made it out on Saturday to the same small lake in SE ND... my ride off the lake had to get going earlier than first planned, but did mark a lot of active fish with several bites. Unfortunately we had to leave just as they were starting to move through in bigger numbers.... hopefully I'll make it out there again in the near future...

marine_man

[iffwalleyes]

Huh I am sure I made a reply here on Mon. must have forgot to hit the submit button. I made it out late Sat. to the Jamestown Res. one of my favorite places to fish. I had not been able to get out there yet this year due to being busy. I brought the snowmobile along just incase. I think I probably could have gotten to most of the place I like to fish with my truck but since I was by myself I didn't want to chance it. I pulled up and there were like 4 fish house out there. Not the typical city you usually see. But I know the conditions are tough for most to get around. Lucky for me one of my favorite areas had no one near it. So I zipped down on the sled and set up and began fishing near 3:30pm-4pm. Just like is usually the case just at sundown I started to get some bites. First a 16" walleye came into the house. Then I have a few throw backs that didn't make the 14" min. and then one 15" in the pail. I fished till 7pm with no bites the last 1/2 hour. Still marked a few fish but as is usually the case on this lake after that sun is down for a 1/2 hour they pretty much will not bite. For what ever reason they hardly ever bite early in the day either. In all the years of fishing the Res. I can only remember like 5 times of having good fishing through the day and that was close to 8 or 9 years ago. It was a successful outting for me. No equipment got broken which as been a problem as of lately for me. All in all it was a pretty good day out there got a meal for the wife and I which was gone by the end of Sun. Nothing like fresh cold water walleyes.