Pools 17-19

[SlabSultan]

Ive considered doing some backwater fishing on the mississippi this year, which would be pretty new to me. I moved to southern Iowa and was wondering if pools 17-19 see safe backwater ice some years. There is plenty of info on the more northern pools, but I never hear mention of the southernmost pools. Not looking for specifics, but looking to see if during good years there is safe ice that far south.

[matzilla]

Short answer is yes. You have to keep a close eye on river levels and tread carefully

[Stellahound]

I remember being very young probably 25-30 years ago and dad taking me out on pool 18. I would like to try it again this year and have been doing a little scouting of areas from google earth maps. Does anyone know if they icefish Lake Odessa?

[matzilla]

yeah people still ice fish odessa but not like it used to be. Depending on water levels they leave the tubes open to draw some current through so most of the old stomping grounds are now sketchy ice. On 18 there's boston bay and campbells slough (big river state forest), Delbar, some backwaterss south of oquaka that might get some decent ice year to year

[Kevin23]

On the hard freeze years, that area will have safe ice. On years like last and how this year is starting, you'll have to check daily and tread carefully. Quad ciites seems to be the cutoff for good ice on warm years, with clinton and north being even better. It's really amazing what an hour drive does to the ice. Start at clinton on thick hard ice and go an hour south to the QC and its iffy, then go an hour south to muscatine and its open water or unsafe. Pretty crazy. My advice is if you are not experienced with the backwater south of the QC, don't go alone and be very careful. The water fluctuations always have an impact on ice, but down there it seems to really shake things up.