Iowa City Ice Fishing Report

[JIvers]

And...short by about a half inch in the Iowa City area.

I checked my go-to early ice pond this afternoon. The best ice-fishing is about sixty feet out from shore in an easy spot to locate, so good fishing can be had with a minimum of travel over sketchy ice.

I found about 2.5" at most very near shore. There was a little bit of cracking when I stepped on it, so I decided it was best to leave that one go until we get another cold snap. Another .5" of ice, or if I lost sixty lbs, or if I were just younger and braver, and I would be out there now.

No one had tried that pond, but one other public pond in the area had five holes drilled a good distance off-shore. I have never fished this one so I don't know what sort of depth they were over, but near shore, again, I found about maybe 2.5" of ice. It was good clear stuff, but the margin of error was just too thin for me to try the deeper water.

None of the holes off-shore were any bigger than 8" at most, so whoever was out there got off safely. Hopefully they got some fish for their risk, but I'm going to beg off ice-fishing in Johnson County for now. With highs in the forties forecast for the next few days, and some possibility of rain, it'll probably be more than a week before I get out here.

Now to decide where my roadtrip tomorrow is taking me...

[JIvers]

I like this forecast for the next few days.

So long as we don't get too much snow on Sunday we should be set for ice around here.

[aanderud]

I think you made the good call to stay off when it's only 2.5 at shore. Just not a lot of margin there -- you know darn well it's not going to be thicker in the middle than it is on shore!

I lived in CR for 5 years, and every year was different -- some years we'd have 19 inches of ice by early Jan, other years it was 5 inches. LOL. Good luck getting out there soon!

[Capt. H (Ret.)]

I've ice fished in the Iowa City area and you will never need a hole bigger than 8 inches!!!

[JIvers]

I've ice fished in the Iowa City area and you will never need a hole bigger than 8 inches!!!

Some years ago I actually had to help a couple guys widen their hole on Macbride with my spud bar because they had a 36" or so flathead hit a chub on a tip-up. I forget exactly how big it was, but that thing would not have fit through an 8" hole. BTW, that's the only fish I've ever seen anyone take on a tip-up out there.

There also used to be someone who used a 10" auger on Macbride who would drill four 10" holes side-by-side under the powerlines. Maybe they saw the guys catch a big flathead through the ice and figured they'd play it safe. You had to really watch for them after a warm spell, because sometimes the four 10" holes would melt together in to a 12" by 48" trench. NOT something you wanted to step in yourself, much less if you had a small kid with you.

[JIvers]

And, again about .5" short this morning.

Same pond, same place. The ice held me up near shore, but there was less than three inches of clear new ice in the shallows. I really wanted to get out, and ventured eight or ten yards out from shore, about to where the deep water began. But, every blow of the spud bar led to a crack running back three or four feet to where I was standing, and I decided putting a 5" hole in that ice and sitting next to it was a bad idea.

Unlike last Friday, the temps are supposed to stay well below freezing today and tonight, and I think I will be able to get out on my first-ice pond tomorrow morning.

Some ponds around Coralville that were more sheltered from the wind this past week probably have better ice, but I didn't check any of them today.

[JIvers]

The extra day of highs around fourteen degrees was just enough, alright.

This morning I had 3.5" to 4" of good clear ice at shore, and out over deep water I found about 2.75", which is just enough for me if I am wearing picks and a life vest. Game On!

The actual fishing once I drilled two holes was, well, not good. All I caught were a couple of largemouth of no great size, and those were pretty much the only fish I marked. I just missed the deepest water in this pond by a few feet (and didn't want to go back to my truck to get my auger), but I was right next to some brush, so I am a little surprised I didn't pick up a few bluegill or a crappie or two.

This pond is usually money on early ice, but I didn't start fishing until just after sunrise, and we are just coming out of a cold front, so I can write one bad trip off. I think I'll do better this afternoon.

[JIvers]

With the Vikings imploding today, I decided it would be a good afternoon to try some ice-fishing.

I tried a small public pond near my house that I had not fished in the winter before, but could not find more than 6.5' of water. I did catch a few decent bluegill in a couple open water scouting trips there, but nothing great, and this pond seems to be too shallow to hold good fish.

So, I loaded everything up and hit one of my regular ponds here in the Iowa City area. I've been there several times already this winter, and had not done well. Today, things finally clicked there.

I had a twenty minute or so window before sunset where the bluegill were hitting waxies as fast as I could drop one down the hole. They preferred that over the spike on a small teardrop jig that usually outdoes the waxie around here. Before 4:00 PM or so I didn't get a bite, and it seemed to be pretty much done by 4:30.

The best two fish I caught were the 9" bulls below: I kept seven or eight others in the 8" range as well.

The ice was probably five or six inches thick, which should be enough to keep it in good shape even with the snow on top of it. Now I need things to thicken up enough on Macbride to get after some walleye there...

[JIvers]

I've done very little fishing around Coralville lately, but did get out on some of the local ponds this past weekend. I found close to two feet of ice, and low water to boot, with the deepest water almost three feet below normal for the winter. Combined with the snow cover I expected a short bite at sunrise and sunset, and for once I was right.

Three times I went out: once in the morning, and twice in the late afternoon. I had a short flurry of action right after sunrise, and right after sunset. Outside of that window, pretty much nothing.

My best fish was this 10" crappie I caught right before sunrise:

I got a few decent bluegill as well, including these 8" fish that I caught at the same time:

The weather is finally going to warm up a bit, which I hope will trigger a better bite around here. I haven't been on Macbride in almost two months, but in a couple weeks I hope to be out there looking for walleye.

[JIvers]

It looks to me like the warm weather and heavy rain we got here around Coralville and Cedar Rapids this past week was just what we needed for late ice. It cleared pretty much all the snow off the ice and got a bunch of runoff in to ponds that needed some oxygen while leaving plenty of ice in most places.

I went to my most consistent ice-fishing pond yesterday morning, only to find this:

The white in the foreground is the snow on the bank sloping down to the water, and the dark ice in back is skim ice, probably twenty to thirty feet out from the bank. At most, that new ice was an inch thick, and not at all safe for walking. Beyond that was the old white ice, which I am sure would be perfectly safe if I could get to it. The pond itself had risen two feet since I fished it last weekend. This sounds bad, right?

Not really. All that new water will raise the oxygen levels, and the clear ice will let light in to get the weeds growing again in the shallows. We have another bout of cold weather settling in, and so long as we don't get too much snow tomorrow the skim ice around this pond will be in good shape by the end of the week. By then the water should start to clear a little bit, too. I expect good fishing there for the next couple weeks.

Yesterday, though, I had to find somewhere else to fish, so I went to another pond nearby that does not have near as much flow coming in to it as the one shown above. Sure enough, the ice on the second pond was fine everywhere except maybe up near the shallow end where the water flows in to it. Where I was, I had 16"-18" of good ice.

The bite was OK, with one 9" crappie and some 5"-7" bluegills coming up through the ice. The water was murky from the runoff, and I was not surprised that most fish came in a few feet off the bottom, and the bite improved as the sun rose. This pond produced some real nice bluegills a few years ago, but the 9" bulls of 2008 seem to be gone now. Given all that, plus the fact that this pond is still locked down under a foot and a half of ice, I was not too disappointed.

[JIvers]

We are looking at an ice season for the record books down here in southern Iowa everywhere in the Midwest this year.

I am considering another trip to Bellevue or Guttenberg to fish the ice below the locks and dams this weekend, but there is a chance of snow both days. I looked at the forecast, saw lows below zero and highs well below freezing for the next week, and decided that if I have to stay here this weekend I can always go to Guttenberg, Dubuque, or Bellevue the following weekend if the forecast is close. Then I realized that I may well be able to fish on the ice below a Mississippi River lock and dam in Iowa on the second weekend in March !

My mind is blown.

[JIvers]

Most of the last eleven years, I have been done ice-fishing around Iowa City by March 7. This year, I am going out today and expect to find over 20" of ice on a pond by Coralville.

Looking at the forecast for the next few days, it may be time to check out Macbride for the late ice walleye bite next week...

[JIvers]

Still lots of good ice in the Coralville area as of last night. The pond I fished had 8" or 10" of good ice beneath the surface mush, and the north-facing shoreline is still in good shape. Had I tried to get on from the west-facing bank I would have gotten my boots wet.

The fishing was OK, but given that this is a public pond that has not produced good panfish in a few years I was OK with that. I was just happy to still be ice-fishing in Johnson County, Iowa on March 13. I am still holding out hope to ice fish here on St. Patrick's Day, which I would have sworn would never happen had you asked me last fall.

Other small ponds here may not be in such good shape. Those that have a lot of water flowing in may already have bad ice around the edges. My favorite public pond here (favorite before this winter, anyway), had twenty feet or more of open water around the edges after the last thaw and rain. That re-froze quickly, but I suspect that newer ice, which was maybe 8" thick a week ago, is no longer safe, or gone altogether by now.

[JIvers]

Skim ice on a shallow march in Johnson County this morning.

In all seriousness we are probably at least three weeks out from having any safe ice to fish on as far south as Cedar Rapids or Iowa City.

[JIvers]

I drove by half a dozen ponds, all of which hold panfish and bass, this afternoon in the Cedar Rapids-Coralville corridor. They were mostly or entirely skimmed over.

Looking at the forecast for the next five days, if we don't get too much snow tomorrow afternoon, and it blows off the ice, I can't say for certain that we won't be able to ice-fish those ponds by Tuesday or Wednesday of next week.

[JIvers]

Skim ice over most of the water east of the causeway on Lake Macbride this morning. Open water to the west, of course.

There is also skim ice off the current on Coralville Res. below Mehaffey Bridge.

I did not check any ice on the ponds here, partly because I had other things to do and partly because I know it is not safe yet, but I am still hoping that some of those small ponds here in Johnson County just might be safe for walking in a few days. It will depend in part on how much snow we get tonight, and whether it stays on the new thin ice.

[JIvers]

The 3" of snow we got last night will probably be enough to end any chance I might have had of getting out on the ice this week in southeast Iowa. That was a long shot anyway, so I'll just wait a couple more weeks to hit the ice here.

[JIvers]

The snow from last weekend blew off the ice off a lot of the ponds around Iowa City. My favorite early ice pond by Coralville had 3" of good clear ice on it tonight, so I will be hitting it first thing tomorrow morning. Yup, ice-fishing Johnson County, Iowa before Thanksgiving this year.

Tomorrow afternoon should be fine as well, and probably Saturday morning. Then warmer weather and possibly rain is coming, and that will put an end to the ice-fishing in the I-380 corridor will be done for a few days.

I will have a report with pictures tomorrow.

[JIvers]

Three inches of good ice this morning on the small pond near Coralville that always produces on early ice. I got out there right at first light this morning, drilled some holes, dropped bait down...and sat there for an hour and half staring at a blank screen. Never even marked a fish. Still, I can say I was ice-fishing south of I-80 in Johnson County on November 21.

I checked another pond in the area, and found sketchier ice due to the wind having kept a portion of it open longer. I was still able to spud my way to the edge of the best area for fishing, and will go back there this afternoon. This pond is usually more hit or miss for ice-fishing than the one I hit this morning, but I am going to try it anyway. Then the rain and warm temps tonight and tomorrow will put an end to ice-fishing down here for a little while.

[JIvers]

Whether it was going to a different pond or the front blowing in I don't know, but the fishing this afternoon went a little better. The ice where I drilled was a little over 3.5", just shy of 4".

As soon as I dropped my tranducer down I was marking fish, and as soon as I dropped a bait down they were hitting it. This was my first fish on the ice for this season:

This pond kicked out some very nice bluegills a few years ago, but the size of the gills has been variable since. I did end up keeping thirteen, including these two that show the range in size today:

A waxie on a bare hook was the ticket early on, and then the fish preferred a spike on a small pink jig. That is a common pattern here, but usually this pond produces best right at sunrise and sundown, more so than the other one I fished this morning. Tonight though, the bite quit as the light faded.

If we don't get too much freezing rain tonight I may go try and catch a few more fish in the morning. Then the warm temps and rain will put an end to ice-fishing here for a few days at least.

[JIvers]

We have first ice for the second time in a month down here--if the weather forecast for the rest of the month is close to right we will have first ice a third time down here.

I had 3.5" of good clear ice on a small pond by Coralville yesterday morning. It was the same pond I did well on two weeks ago. It was even better fishing there yesterday morning. My first fish was a 9" crappie, and after that I had a steady stream of bluegills in the 7-8" range.

Before the sun was over the trees the fish preferred a spike on a small pink teardrop jig, and as the light hit the ice they switched to hitting a waxie on a bare hook. This is a common pattern on ponds during the winter around here.

This pond has been up and down ever since I moved to the Iowa City area. Some years it mostly kicks out green sunfish, but I haven't seen one yet on either outing. Five or six years ago I was catching bluegills up to 9" in it, but that ended. A couple years ago all I caught there was 4" bluegill, but they seem to have grown up now.

The ice should be good for a day or two yet, but after this weekend it looks like I will have to burn some gasoline to get on the ice for a while.

[JIvers]

And this morning will do it for ice-fishing this close to Iowa City for a while.

The 3.5" of good ice from two days ago was 3" this morning, and starting to get a little mushy. I got on and off it safely, but any hope I had of hitting that pond again this afternoon or even tomorrow morning is gone.

The good news is I caught a bunch of bluegills again, and will be making them in to white chili tonight between watching football. Then it looks like a road trip north tomorrow morning.

[aanderud]

Wow that's amazing that you made it out ice fishing before thanksgiving that far south! Congrats. The 5 years I was in Cedar Rapids I was happy just to get out around Christmas!

We've got plenty around here now, I'm thinking it might be a record setting year for thickness. I generally don't need an extension in the metro area but we don't usually have 6+ inches before Dec 1 either.

[JIvers]

I had another great afternoon of ice-fishing on my current favorite pond in the Iowa City area.

The ice was good, with 4" to 5" of hard clear stuff. No problems getting out to the edge of the basin where I do well on this pond when the population is on an upswing.

As soon as I got there, the bluegills were biting about as fast as I could drop a waxie on a bare hook down to their level. That went on for about an hour, and then the bite slowed, and what sunfish did bite tended to prefer a spike on a small pink jig.

I kept about fifteen bluegill in the 7" to 8" range, and threw back quite a few more. No crappie or bass today, and no green sunfish, either. This pond seemed to be over run by greenies a few years ago, and I am glad to see them gone. Now if I start catching 9.5" bluegill in there again I will be really happy.

[JIvers]

The mid-winter slump seems to have hit around Johnson County on small ponds. My last couple trips out were much slower, with a short bite that ended by sunrise. That is typical after small ponds have been iced over for a month or more and oxygen levels drop. The bite window is usually a short period right before sunrise and right after sunset.