Fishable Ice in Northern NE

[huntnfish]

Anyone know how the ice is up North. I am in GI, where we don't have much yet. I heard Merritt may have some ice, and was wondering about any of the other lakes up there.   Thanks.

[jigbounce]

I was on Boardmans Creek Wednesday, It had a solid 6 inches of clear ice.  I couldn't find many fish though, did catch 2 really nice bass and a couple dinker bass and bluegills near trees.  There is definitely fishable ice all around after this last cold spell.

[huntnfish]

I am not familiar with Boardman's Creek, where is it located?   
Is it public?

[jigbounce]

Sorry, its just a part of Merritt res. the southern most part of the lake.

[hardh2ofish]

Jigbounce do you ever go after the pike out to merrit?  Ive had a couple guys mark some spots for me on a map.  They hate the pike out there they tell me theres quite a few and as they like to walleye and crappie fish I hope theyre info is good.  I think theyd like to see some of those pike go.

[jigbounce]

Jigbounce do you ever go after the pike out to merrit?  Ive had a couple guys mark some spots for me on a map.  They hate the pike out there they tell me theres quite a few and as they like to walleye and crappie fish I hope theyre info is good.  I think theyd like to see some of those pike go.

I never have targeted the pike at merritt hardh2ofish and I too have heard there is getting to be alot of pike there.

[hardh2ofish]

A buddy and I went out to Merrit yesterday.  Set up a bunch of tip-ups and didnt  do any good.  pretty disappointed.  Drilled a bunch of holes to the lake side of the narrows on boardman creek and finally moved into the narrows and found nothin near the trees  moved out into the channel and finally found two nice perch and a decent gill and one walleye about 7" long.  Ran out of time and had to get home.  Oh yeah  never caught any pike either.  May try again later.

[jigbounce]

A buddy and I went out to Merrit yesterday.  Set up a bunch of tip-ups and didnt  do any good.  pretty disappointed.  Drilled a bunch of holes to the lake side of the narrows on boardman creek and finally moved into the narrows and found nothin near the trees  moved out into the channel and finally found two nice perch and a decent gill and one walleye about 7" long.  Ran out of time and had to get home.  Oh yeah  never caught any pike either.  May try again later.

how was the ice doing after the warm weather hardh2ofish?  and how deep was the water you tried?

[hardh2ofish]

The ice was still about 5 1/2-6" thick but the 60+ degree temps and the sunlight was putting on a good skim of water on top.  kinda had that squishy sound to it and probly shouldnt have been out on it, but I had a buddy and a rope close at hand and there were other ppl out there as well.  So we werent totally alone if we would have gotten into trouble.  Started off the point 30-40 yards or so on the edge of the flats in that bay.  over some of those brush piles  ddnt really mark any fish there.  was 14-20 feet or so.  In the narrows the channel was around 30-34' where we were at.  Had some good marks checkin thing out. wish we would have found them sooner.  The perch were about 11"  and a bucket of them would have been nice.  Next time I think Ill concentrate on the middle of the channel and go from the narrows to that big point on the beeds corner

[BojiHawk]

Ice in NE Nebraska:

Maskenthine Res - 6" or better.....4-5" near the trees but good ice as of Sat. afternoon.  Have no idea how well it weathered on Sunday.  I fished the shallow NW end near the trees in 6' of water mostly.  Good blue gill bite but they were small.  Worked well on tip ups.   Lost two gills on the same tip up in less than 30 minutes.  Treble was actually bent in so Pike were cruising in that shallower stuff.  Largemouth were biting also...mosly small.

Sunday got the boat out and fished Sante on the river.  Good walleye bite and good sizes.  Found them in 30' of water and had to use 1 oz. jigs to get them to the fish.  What was on your line was pretty inconsequential....onc e the jig got to the fish, they hit it.    But they were deep and hanging above snags.

[jigbounce]

Had some good marks checkin thing out. wish we would have found them sooner.  The perch were about 11"  and a bucket of them would have been nice.  Next time I think Ill concentrate on the middle of the channel and go from the narrows to that big point on the beeds corner

  Atleast that will keep you hungry for the action when you can get out there again! 

[jigbounce]

thanks for the report BojiHawk, do they still have an ice tournament on Maskenthine Res every year?  and where is Santee at?

[BojiHawk]

Santee is about as far west as you can get from the Louis and Clark Res (unless you are a real river rat...I go with a buddy of mine and never know where the heck we are...it's a myriad of small streams and deltas and stuff.  You would not want to go to far without a GPS or a guide..at least I wouldn't)

The Maskenthine Res does have a tournament I believe...I've never fished an ice tournament before.  Normally I'm kind of a "where's the hot bite?" and leave my destination open until I'm in the car.  LOL.  I'm also a northerns on tipups freak...love that kind of fishing.  Second is perch.  Third is walleye.  I had my first trifecta last year....never put all 3 on the ice in the same day for some odd reason.  And with only 2 poles allowed, Iowa is a tougher state to bag all three.  You don't really NEED a tip up for northerns, but when visibility is 30 feet underwater...pretty hard to get them coaxed into biting...at least the big smart ones.  We caught a lot of little muskys in Smiths bay last year...

Where are you located at??? 

[jigbounce]

I am in the mid western part of nebraska about 50 miles east of lake McConaughy.  I used to live in the eastern part of the state though and fished Maskenthine a couple times in the summers.

[hardh2ofish]

Fished today just up in SD,  6-7" if good ice.  Was on the mill pond here in town yesterday and there was a good 7".  Caught a nice 8 lb northern  was a pretty good day for no longer than I got to fish

[jigbounce]

what part of the state are you located at hardh2ofish? 

[hardh2ofish]

valentine    seems theres some pretty good ice yet around here.  I know some ppl headed for Big Alkali today.  will have to see how they do down there.  will report on the ice later.  Ive heard of ppl out to Merrit this last week as well.  dont know how thick on the ice there for sure

[R.J.]

I'm thinking we should get things solidified this week, shouldn't we?  Where's the hot bite going to be the week after Christmas?