First Ice 2014: Version 2.0

[JIvers]

All the ponds I see each day around Cedar Rapids and Coralville were completely open as of this past Monday.

Things started icing over again last night, but there is more warmish weather forecast for the next few days.

If the current forecast for the rest of the month is right, we should be looking at our second round of first ice for this year by New Year's in southeast Iowa. Multiple first ice dates is one of the benefits of being this far south in the ice belt, I guess.

[JIvers]

First Ice 2:0 is here in Johnson County.

Lake Macbride still has a fair bit of open water, but most of the ponds are capped over.

Not all of the ponds around here are safe for fishing yet; the pond on Brown Deer Golf Course in Coralville has a large patch of open water in the middle, probably due to the geese that use that pond.

The smaller pond that kicked out a lot of bluegills in late November and early December before the warmup has 4" to 5" of good clear ice on it, so I will be fishing that later this afternoon.

By next weekend (January 10-11) I plan on checking out some of the promising Mississippi river backwaters I first hit last winter around Sabula. I think the main areas of the north and south arms on Macbride will be safe by then, too.