Safe Ice????

Last Ice Fishing Trip for Awhile?


Today might just be our last icefishing trip for sometime? We started out early today because the forecast was for another sunny, warm day. Our fishing partners for the day were Bill and Al from Chicago. Bill has a really cool fishing website called http://www.catchphotorelease.com/. Al is a Bass Pro Shops seminar speaker and avid tournament angler.




We started out with 4 inches of ice, but we could only get to the ice from one corner of the dock. The edges were not even frozen due to all the rain and warm temps. The water was stained and the fish were scattered, but moving around in about 6-10 feet of water. Action was not fast, but fairly consistent as we caught 30 nice bluegill, a bass, and a catfish in about one hour of fishing.

We could have caught fish all day long, but the sun was shining and the ice was melting and weakening pretty fast. We decided to get while the getting was still possible! We tried 3 other ponds for safe ice, but none of them were worth the risk. We headed down to East Peoria and showed the guys the new fishing park http://www.hookedonfishingpark.org/ and then headed over to the burger barge for lunch.