Indiana > Ice Fishing Indiana

Is first ice in February technically mid ice season?

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CL_Outdoors:
This is something I've tried to research online with very limited success. Only article I found interesting was posted by KPCnews in 2016. Said "The up side of a short ice season is better fishing when it finally freezes over, and better fishing in the spring....It is simply a function of pressure"

Anyone have experience fishing "first ice" in february? Was it noticeably better/worse than first ice in january or earlier? Does "first ice" in february fall into the mid-ice category where fish have moved to mid-ice locations?

bigr:
From my 50+ yrs of ice fishing first ice in Feb is normally much worse than first ice in Dec. I think the entire water column by feb has gotten much colder compared to just the surface area. Also the fish may still be on their fall feed and still in the shallower water with weeds beds that will be gone by Feb.   

CL_Outdoors:

--- Quote from: bigr on Jan 18, 2023, 01:38 PM ---From my 50+ yrs of ice fishing first ice in Feb is normally much worse than first ice in Dec. I think the entire water column by feb has gotten much colder compared to just the surface area. Also the fish may still be on their fall feed and still in the shallower water with weeds beds that will be gone by Feb.

--- End quote ---

Thank Bigr. My thinking is that bc there hasnt been ice, and weeds are still receiving good sun, they will still be alive come february? Or am I not taking other things into account?

hardwater diehard:
Good question .. fish would normally move toward the basin(s) through the seasonal changes ...lack of O2 and decaying weeds being the primary factors . Since the weeds may still be greened up that may not be the case in a lot of locations ..O2 may be plentiful keeping the minnows/forage in the weeds with plenty of O2 for the predator fish . I would think its a mixed bag going forward ....with an educated guess as to where they be positioned.

bigr:
Just shorter days and colder water will cause alot of weed decay. Maybe not as much as when ice with snow is on it.

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