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March 21, 2010

Reflections of an ice fishing season gone by

By John Cross Free Press Staff Writer

MANKATO — Spring officially arrived yesterday and with it, the ice fishing season in these parts is winding down.

Though plenty of ice remains on area lakes, the challenge is getting to it without getting one’s feet wet.

Under the strengthening gaze of the sun and with prolonged mild temperatures, most access sites now are dominated by open water.

The beauty of ice fishing at this time of the year is that it can done without much of the equipment one drags along in January.

No ice augers, no shelters, heaters or propane tanks — not even a flasher is needed if the bite is happening in the shallow water. Just a couple of rods, a pail, some bait, and you’re in business for late season panfish.

And after several months of carting all of that stuff around, there is something refreshingly simple about traveling light.

Of course, it’s always nice if the fish cooperate, too.

And on that note, it has been a curious ice fishing season for myself and other anglers as well.

As expected, the early bite early in the season was pretty good. But then we had those healthy snowfalls in late December and a fairly universal complaint heard in the fishing circles I frequent that the bites tailed off later in the winter.

Now, there are those for whom the season was pretty good and it might just be that my fishing friends and I are lousy anglers.

So if you’ve been eating fresh fish all winter, well, good for you.

But for the rest of us, it was a fish here, a fish there, and frequently, not a fish at all.

The main theory I have heard people come up with is that getting so much snow so early in the season may have depressed oxygen levels in some lakes, idling the fish and their feeding activities.

I’m no expert but it sounds plausible and if nothing else, provides a convenient excuse.

In the meantime, most of us have been waiting for the big thaw that gets the water running back into the lake, something that traditionally prompts the crappies and sunnies to put the feedbag on as they move into shallower water.

That time is at hand. However a recent foray to Madison Lake’s East Bay where a hot crappie bite usually gets going about now was about as productive as it was in January, which is to say, not so good.

We found a few fish in deeper water and a few fish in shallow water, but hardly anything resembling the consistent shallow water bites of previous years.

And all of the anglers picking up and moving from place to place suggested they were experiencing the same spotty success we experienced.

Maybe the bites on Madison and other area lakes will pick up in coming weeks. Last March, the fishing got better and better, right up until ice-out.

 It was so good that several of us foolishly pushed the safe limits, venturing out on the melting ice to catch crappies right up until the day before the lake opened up.

 The wake-up call came when one of us put a leg through the honey-combed ice on a Sunday morning. By Monday, the lake was virtually ice-free.

They say that hindsight is 20/20.

And looking back, great fishing or not, we were all pretty stupid to be out there.



John Cross is a Free Press staff writer. Contact him at 344-6376 or by e-mail at jcross@mankatofreepress.com

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John Cross