Mississippi Pool 12 Ice

[FishNightmare]

Anyone been walking on any ice anywhere yet? Had about 3-4 inches on the ponds before that rain. Have not checked it since. There has got to be some backwaters frozen over enough to walk on. Has anyone walked on anything since after the rain? Crappies were biting before it started to ice up in the marinas, but I went back this past weekend to and kicked a whole in the ice and nothing. The flasher would have nothing then all of a sudden light up like a school of a hundred or so were swimming through and not a bite. They would swim off, but come back fifteen minutes later and nothing again.

Tried the tailwaters near Dubuque too and nothing. Little tiny suagers and walleys, not even enough though to keep you interested.

You would think if the fish were there in the fall so late they would stay into the first few weeks of ice up, but they are all gone. Anyone else notice the fish really moving out of areas they were getting them in a few weeks ago? Also I wondered if they just don't want a different presentaion though. Was using full minnow on bare hook. Might need them ice jigs just to entice them with a waxie or small plastic.

Any information anyone else can give on movement (shallow or deeper, presentaion, ect. would be much appriciated. Help figure out if I really need to switch things up now even though the ice is not here. The marinas around here are about 16 ft. deep for the most part and maybe 30 in the middle.

[JIvers]

No word on ice around Dubuque since the rain, but I can't imagine it's any good that far south.

The schools of fish you saw moving through beneath the ice but not biting may have been shad or shiners.

As for the tailwaters, the flow came up quite a bit in the last week, and that will move fish around as they adjust to the stronger current. The fish will be somewhere in the tailwater area all winter, though.

Presentation definitely makes a big difference from day to day, or hour to hour; check my Bellevue report from a month ago. The colors and styles that worked one day will not necessarily work the next for walleye and sauger, even when water levels stay the same.

After a good cold spell dragging plastics or minnows and floating jigs on a three-way rig often works very well for me. I like vertical jigging, but that often works better earlier in the fall than it does once winter sets in.