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Author Topic: Southwest Iowa  (Read 9024 times)

Offline bert29

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Re: Southwest Iowa
« Reply #30 on: Jan 09, 2018, 07:25 AM »
Last I knew from others fishing in area the past few days, most ponds in area have anywhere from 6-10"
county and area lakes about same...8-10" seems to be ice thickness

be a good day to get out before approaching storm on Wed night into Thursday. snow totals are all over the place for Eastern Neb and Western Iowa. I've seen weather models on all 3 TV stations go from 2-18" of snow from the SW Iowa/Omaha up to Carroll area!
Then winds blow into 25-35mph range and temps drop from near 50 tomorrow to single digits by Friday/Saturday.
Gotta love the Mid-Western winters!

Offline bulzeye121

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Re: Southwest Iowa
« Reply #31 on: Jan 15, 2018, 08:19 PM »
Does anyone know if the pony creek ice tournament will happen this ice season?

Offline swiacamper

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Re: Southwest Iowa
« Reply #32 on: Jan 16, 2018, 02:18 PM »
That sounds like fun. I hope someone has information.

Offline crappeye

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Re: Southwest Iowa
« Reply #33 on: Jan 23, 2018, 08:35 PM »
Anyone been out since the rain?

Offline LuverneLunker

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Re: Southwest Iowa
« Reply #34 on: Jan 26, 2018, 09:09 AM »
I was out on Prairie Rose yesterday, main lake was fine (10-12" of good ice) but there was some open water near shore in areas. I walked on by the pumphouse and it was slushy but fine, others were coming in on the south side by the cabins and walking out as well. The place I'm worried about is Farm Creek as that watershed can be nasty for fast ice erosion after rain, anyone check there this week?

Offline yakker13

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Re: Southwest Iowa
« Reply #35 on: Jan 26, 2018, 09:35 AM »
Went out yesterday at a farm pond North of Red Oak found 5.5 inches close to shore and 3.5 out a ways of crappy ice.  Bite was slow with only seven bluegills.  But I did catch one monster bluegill that was 11 inches long and weighed 22.45 ounces or 1.4 lbs, my all time largest by far. Going to be a great year!





Wow!

Offline bheyer21

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Re: Southwest Iowa
« Reply #36 on: Jan 26, 2018, 10:36 AM »
anyone know if the ice around the edge is safe?

Offline spoofhoundicefisher

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Re: Southwest Iowa
« Reply #37 on: Jan 26, 2018, 09:26 PM »
was out tonite and the edges were open water.  put out a plank and 4 feet out there was still 9 inches of ice.  3 inches of really soft ice and the rest was pretty decent ice.  have to be very careful this time of year and don't forget your safety picks and take a buddie and let loved ones know where you are and when you are off the ice.  tight lines and be safe

Offline bheyer21

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Re: Southwest Iowa
« Reply #38 on: Jan 29, 2018, 09:18 AM »
what lake were you on?

Offline spoofhoundicefisher

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Re: Southwest Iowa
« Reply #39 on: Jan 29, 2018, 08:28 PM »
i was on farm ponds, but a buddie was out on mozingo lake and he said the same thing.  we r in nw missouri.

Offline crappeye

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Re: Southwest Iowa
« Reply #40 on: Jan 30, 2018, 07:37 PM »
Fished Anita today. 11 inches of ice by camp ground. Clear ice and clean water. Bite was very slow.

Offline OGCollard

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Re: Southwest Iowa
« Reply #41 on: Feb 01, 2018, 03:00 PM »
I know as of 1/26 Icaria was still 10-11 inches. Top 3 were pretty cludy but not so cloudy you could not see the fish! Bottom 7 inches clear.

Offline ClamGuy

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Re: Southwest Iowa
« Reply #42 on: Feb 03, 2018, 06:06 PM »
Anyone fished farm creek lately? Gonna head there tomorrow.

Offline LuverneLunker

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Re: Southwest Iowa
« Reply #43 on: Feb 04, 2018, 04:04 AM »
Fished Farm Creek yesterday for 4 hours. Ice is holding up on south end and was 8" thick. Water clarity was poor though, dirtiest I have ever seen it down there. Fishing was slow but better in 6-7 fow, all gills. Fished the channel also in 14 fow and anything you saw was suspended 4-6 feet down from surface. Personally I wouldn't venture into the north end as it looked like it had opened up and froze again in areas, be safe and use a spud if you do!

Offline ClamGuy

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Re: Southwest Iowa
« Reply #44 on: Feb 04, 2018, 07:31 AM »
Will do. Thanks for the report

Offline LuverneLunker

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Re: Southwest Iowa
« Reply #45 on: Feb 15, 2018, 04:52 PM »
Used my spud bar today on shoreline ice at Farm Creek and even though it was pretty slushy from the snow melt, it was still good. Main lake ice was around 9-10". Hoping to fish into March for the first time since 2014 around here but will have to wait and see what Mother Nature has to say about that...rain won't help and see a chance of that on Sunday night now. 

Offline ClamGuy

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Re: Southwest Iowa
« Reply #46 on: Feb 22, 2018, 07:21 PM »
Anyone been went out on pony creek or mile hill? Wondering if ice is still safe

Offline LarryClutch

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Re: Southwest Iowa
« Reply #47 on: Feb 23, 2018, 07:52 PM »
Was on a pond north of there 7 miles. Good 8 inches. Shore was Pry 4-5 inches.

Offline bert29

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Re: Southwest Iowa
« Reply #48 on: Feb 25, 2018, 08:44 AM »
Going out to Pony Creek this afternoon. Most likely last time on ice for me as temps in SW Iowa in 50's and 40's this week. Sun angle this time of year makes a huge difference on weakening ice (and also length of days increasing!), plus with run-off we had last warm spell weakened shoreline ice in some places. Be good to get out and enjoy nice day (after a week of ice storms and dreary weather!).I'll post later tonight how I did.

Offline LuverneLunker

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Re: Southwest Iowa
« Reply #49 on: Feb 25, 2018, 09:34 AM »
Looking forward to your follow up later bert29, thinking about making one last trip down to Pony as well tomorrow...this week will likely be the end of it south of I-80.

Offline bert29

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Re: Southwest Iowa
« Reply #50 on: Feb 25, 2018, 07:20 PM »
I did make it to Pony Creek this afternoon. Nice day to be on ice, with temps in low 40's and partly sunny--and not too windy!
Ice was good, probably 10-12", with a few weak spots on east side by road near shore, but most of lake still accessible. Quite a few people out, most fishing middle or south half of lake. I fished further up north in shallows...on west side. I was mainly fishing in 4-6ft of water on some flats. Did well. Fished from 2:30-5:45pm. Ended up catching about 8 yellow bass, 2 largemouth (1 20" fish...close to 4lbs!) 3 crappie 8-10", and about 15-20 bluegills--some decent sized ones. Another guy fished with me from 4:00-til we left ice. I used chubby darters, perch-colored slender spoons, and we used tungsten jigs--perch and glow color tipped with red wedgies and baited (some) with maggots.

Can't give you report on how other groups of people did (there were approx 12-15 others out) but they were all fishing in deeper water. At late ice, I like to move up on shallow flats--sometimes in only 2-3ft of water on certain bodies of water!

remember---even though you might drill through 10-12 inches of ice, at this late stage, it's usually honeycombed, with melting from snow and water above. 4 inches of early hard ice, better than 10" soft ice! Be safe! Even though getting closer to Spring, still too early for swimming!

Offline LuverneLunker

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Re: Southwest Iowa
« Reply #51 on: Feb 26, 2018, 05:14 AM »
Thanks bert29, nice report!

Offline Bfishn

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Re: Southwest Iowa
« Reply #52 on: Feb 26, 2018, 08:22 AM »
I agree, well done that is a very informative fishing report.

Offline ClamGuy

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Re: Southwest Iowa
« Reply #53 on: Feb 26, 2018, 09:56 PM »
Thanks for the thorough report. I think it's time to put away the ice gear and hit the river for the walleye and flatheads.

 



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