Coralville Tube Ice Report

[JIvers]

I checked out the big eddy below the Coralville Tube this morning--plenty of ice. I went back this afternoon, and spudded my way out as near as I dared to the open water. I was fishing on about 4" of good ice.

I caught some walleye and saugeye, but they were on the small side. Those cigars were pretty aggressive, and would chase baits several feet off the bottom.

I started with a minnow on a deadstick down a second hole, but the little fish I caught on that were inhaling the minnow, and with air temps hovering right at zero I didn't have time to keep those fish out of water long enough to deal with them, so I stuck to jigging. No big fish, but it was still nice to be out and catch multiple walleye after a month of Macbride-style walleye ice fishing.

[kiowa]

eyehunter,

I made my way our there Sunday after I got a heads up from my parents who live near the tube that there was fishable ice. The small walleye where all over our baits like you said. It's still fun to have action though.

As we where sorting through the small ones I had a significant bite but the fish came up pretty quick to the hole, I was really suprised and caught off gaurd to see a nice walleye, which immedeately spit the hook. Some quick thinking on my friends part saved the day as we iced a 17 incher. Really fat and healthy, definately my proudest ice fishing moment!

[JIvers]

I was out at the Tube this morning, and again caught quite a few small walleye and saugeye. The fish were a little choosy about which bait and color they wanted, with preferences shifting quickly.

I did get a 15" walleye, and a 14.5" sauger. I've caught a lot of sauger on the Mississippi, and I'm pretty sure that's what it was, and not a saugeye, which are stocked in the res. and make their way downstream.

[JIvers]

Just an update on the ice on the west-side eddy at the Coralville Tube: I've been out there a couple times this week, and the warmer temps have eaten away at the ice on the very edges, even though it never got above freezing. Ice in areas with current will do that, although the flow is low coming out of the res., and scheduled to get lower over the next few days.

There was 4-5" of good ice underneath me, but some guys thought we had lost ice since Sunday in the places where people were fishing, due to current melting it from the bottom up. I cannot say for sure one way or the other.

Air temps may get above freezing today and tomorrow, so if you head out on the ice at the Tube, be careful. It may well be perfectly safe away from the edges this weekend, but again, ice on current is unpredictable. It may melt from the bottom up, and what was safe ice two days ago will look the same on top, but be down to an inch in thickness.

As for the fishing, it slowed down a little, but there are still small walleye and saugeye being caught, with decent-sized fish mixed in. Guys closer to shore were catching a few crappies as well.

[kiowa]

I made a quick trip out there last night, it seemed to me that it was a little thinner, from the bottom-up like 'eyehunter said. The thing I noticed was that there was A LOT more current, which may be erroding the ice. I would set my depth and put my bobber in the hole and it would streak over to the side closest to the channel every time.

I know that area is going to see a lot of action this weekend so err on the side of caution.

[JIvers]

I fished on the ice out at the Tube this morning, after checking it yesterday to be sure the ice was still safe. It is, but there is definitely less safe ice than there was three days ago. I am guessing we lost eight or ten feet of ice along the edge of the channel, and twenty or thirty feet on the south edge of the ice, in the last five days. I had 4 to 4.5" of good ice underneath me, but in a spot that probably had 6" last weekend. There were three boats out yesterday when I was there, and one this morning.

The good news is the ice handled the warm spell better than I thought it would, and the Corps is not planning, as of today, to raise the flow coming out of the res. With colder temps coming, that ice should be good for a while, so long as what we have doesn't get blanketed by snow.

The fishing has slowed. I got four or five small walleye/saugeye today, but they were far more skittish than a week ago. If this keeps up I may go back to fishing ponds.

If anyone reading this lost a flasher at the Tube, someone found it: there is a piece of cardboard on the handicapped dock with a phone number written on it to contact re. the lost flasher.

[JIvers]

This'll be my last update on ice at the Tube until the end of the week:

I was out there again this morning, and we lost a lot of ice off the edges since yesterday--I am guessing another ten feet. There are old holes that are now right at the open water. The COE is keeping the flow low, but I think the air temps haven't been cold enough to make up for what the current eats away. The wind was blowing right in to the ice this morning, and while there isn't enough open water to whip up the sort of whitecaps that can destroy ice on a lake, that probably won't help either.

The ice closer to shore, which is more crappie territory, should be fine, but the best walleye ice is gone, or no longer safe. I'm hoping the cold coming this week will firm things up again. since the Tube bite is probably the only walleye ice fishing I am going to get until late ice on Macbride. Hopefully the wind keeps snow from piling up on the ice.

As for the fishing this AM, there was a good walleye/saugeye bite from 7:00 to 7:30, and then they shut off totally.

[IowanSince02]

So is there anything to speak of there for shore fishing? I'm a little uneasy about being on the ice there. But I've heard that this is a good place for winter walleye and crappies.

[JIvers]

Just above the ice on the west side below the Tube there is a long stretch of slack water along the rip-rap. That water holds walleye as well, and doesn't freeze, so you can fish it easily from shore.

[JIvers]

The cold snap over the week froze things up nicely at the Tube--all the snow from Tuesday night turned to slush, blew up against the remaining ice, and then froze. Now there is plenty of white ice up to the edge of the current. Beyond that there was very thin clear ice that I was not going to check.

I caught some small walleye and saugeye out there, but only one decent fish, a 17". I may switch to shallower water this week, as that seems to produce bigger fish, while the deeper water produces lots of dinks.

[JIvers]

We have maybe a week of good ice left at the Tube for this winter...

Warmer temps coming, and the COE is planning to double the flow coming out of the res. in the next week. One or both of these forecasts could be wrong, but if they are close that will do it.

There should still be plenty of good ice on Macbride and the local ponds, though.

[JIvers]

I got out on the ice at the Tube yesterday morning, and caught a few more small walleye and saugeye.

I was hoping to get out there this afternoon for one more time on the ice, but it looks like the COE turned up the flow coming out of the res. in a big way this morning, and that will break the ice up there very quickly. Hopefully no one goes for a cruise downriver on an ice floe--I've heard that has actually happened to people caught out there when the flow comes up.

I had a good three and a half weeks of ice-fishing at the big eddy, and can say I have caught over one hundred walleye and saugeye through the ice so far in SE Iowa this winter, although the average size left a little to be desired.

[kiowa]

I haven't seen macbride in a month thanks to the eddy freezing up, I enjoy ice fishing aroud here a lot more when that eddy is a option. hopefully macbride will still be fishable for a while...

[JIvers]

I went out to the Coralville Tube this morning to check the ice at the eddy. (I don't think I'd been there since the ice went out two years ago.)

I haven't heard anything about ice conditions there, and wasn't sure what I'd find. The ponds here have six or seven inches of good ice after the deep freeze last weekend, but they had a few inches of mush left from the forty-five degrees+ days we had before the cold snap, which would have slowed re-freezing down on those ponds.

Anyhow, at the eddy below the Coralville Tube there is decent ice right near shore out as far as the handicapped dock. I spudded my way out that far, saw a few fresh holes near shore, and found maybe four inches of good clear ice just past the dock. I was by myself, so I didn't go any further.

The ice does not go as far out to the edge of the current as I would like, and there is a tongue of open water sticking in to the edge of the ice there. As much as I am itching to get some walleye through the ice at the Tube, I am going to wait and see what happens weather-wise for another day or two. The ice along the rip-rap and dock is fine, so the crappie fishermen should be good to go.

[JIvers]

I never got a chance to go back and check the ice at the Tube before the warmup this past week, which surely destroyed what good ice was there in the eddy; maybe next week I will give it a look.

I'm itching to get some walleye through the ice this winter, and time is starting to run short.

[JIvers]

I drove out to the Coralville tube this morning to see if there was any safe ice at the big eddy on the west side. There is.

Two guys out there fishing, and where I checked the holes they had drilled I found about 3" of good clear ice. If the roads are decent this afternoon I may have to miss the first part of the Rose Bowl.

It's been a couple winters now since I was able to fish through the ice at the tube, and I'm looking forward to icing a few, or a bunch, of walleyes there.

As a plus, 3" of ice is easy to drill through with a hand auger, which is good because I don't have my power auger down here and the pond ice is getting thicker at a quick rate.

[JIvers]

Finally got out on the ice below the Coralville tube in the eddy on the west side this morning--the walleye fishing was as hot as the weather is going to be on Monday.

I might have had one bite right around sunrise, but that could have been my imagination. A shiner on a deadstick, various spoons and jigging Rapalas, all tipped with minnow heads--no dice. One other guy out there might have caught something, or he might have just been peeling line off his reel. Two hours of that was enough for me.

The good news is the ice is in good shape: I had about 5" beneath me, and I was over almost twenty feet of water fairly near the open channel. With the forecast calling for serious cold over the next few days the we should have a fair bit of time to wait for the walleye bite to turn on there.

[JIvers]

I struck out again at the ice below the Coraville Tube last Sunday morning. One guy lost something at the hole he thought might have been a walleye, but otherwise no one else caught anything while I was there.

I'm going to try it again tomorrow morning and hope the change in weather has turned on the walleye bite.

[JIvers]

Number of trips on the ice below the Coralville Tube in the last week: three.

Number of fish caught in those three trips: Zero. Nada. Zilch.

I don't know if I've just picked three bad mornings to go fishing or what the issue is, but nothing has worked for me: jigging spoons, jigging Rapalas, or the old reliable for picky walleye, a minnow on a deadstick.

On the plus side, the ice is in good shape, and barring an increase in water flow should be there for a few days. Too bad it won't do me any good, as I won't be heading back there for a while this winter, if I go back at all.

[JIvers]

I drove out to the Coralville tube this morning just to be sure there wasn't safe ice there.

I was actually surprised to find more ice on the eddy on the west side than I expected. A few people were fishing right by the handicapped docks on about four inches of ice, but beyond there it got very thin very quickly.

Supposedly some small walleye and crappie were being caught there, although I did not see it myself. I am going to wait until the next deep freeze makes it safe to hit the deeper water out by the current edge to try it myself.

[JIvers]

After the last cold snap, there is plenty of good ice below the Coralville tube in the eddy on the west side. The walleye are in there, too.

I caught a bunch of fish on jigging spoons, although most of them were cigar-sized walleye and saugeye. I have come away with some eaters, plus an occasional bonus crappie:

We are going to get another week or more of ice-making weather down here, so I hope to be catching more Iowa River walleye through the ice before spring gets here.

[JIvers]

Another good outing below the Coralville dam.

Lots of hot dog-sized walleyes, but enough decent fish to make it worthwhile, plus a bonus crappie. The walleye all came off the bottom, while the crappie suspend around the "bait balls" of shad that move around under the ice.

[JIvers]

Things got slower my next couple trips to the ice below the Coraville Tube. I took home a 15" walleye one day, and nothing the next. Fewer cigar-sized walleye too, although still enough to keep me from getting bored.

I wanted to get out there one more time this winter, but the Corps is cranking the flow coming out of the res. tomorrow to prepare for the spring runoff, and that will bust up the ice in the eddy on the west side real quickly.