Ice fishing has started

[scrubby1]

Was out cruising around yesterday and saw about 8 portables on Leif Lake right across from Big C. 

[FMSmitty]

I was out on Lief today. 3 to 3 1/2 inches of ice. Several people fishing but it was very very slow and a very light bite. I pulled up a few baby perch but that was it. Good to get the short poles for awhile. If you head out there, make sure you have ice cleats. It was SLICK!

[Chill62]

Wasn't on Leif but had 4-5" of clear slick ice.  Started shallow worked to the deep hole of 15 feet had 3.75" in 14 fow and that's as far as I went out. We ended up with about 4 or 5 pike on tipups one on a jig and about 40-50 4-6" bluegills.  Nothing hot and furious but it was some action.  Went out on Friday afternoon.  Wind was starting to bite about 3 so set portable up to block wind.

[Lotharski]

Went out fishing last Friday and scouted out 4 ponds that I've never been on but been itching to try since the larger lakes don't have enough ice.  Most of these ponds had about 5" of ice.  Got skunked on the first two ponds, one small eye on the third pond and about 10 small crappies on the fourth pond.  Sure was nice to be out on the hard water even if we didn't keep anything!!

Also went out to Long Lake to check the ice thickness.  I was only about 3-1/2" about 20 yards out so we turned around.  On the way back west it was neat seeing a couple of boat trailers on the north access of Big C and people ice fishing across the road!!!

Also saw several people fishing on Silver but never checked the ice thickness.

[busse3775]

Any report of the ice conditions around the Detroit Lakes area? Not sure how the ice is after this warm weather. Looking for something I could access fairly easy Saturday morning before the Bison take on UNI!

[scrubby1]

I don't think there is much for ice anymore, but I could be wrong.

[dairyman]

Yep, your wrong................check out the "lake Place" on facebook.  It tells you were the lakes are that have walkable ice on them

[paceman]

Drove by Long Bridge yesterday afternoon and there were 6-10 portables out there. Some way out in the middle of Dead Shot, some right by the bridge and a few more over by the marina.

[scrubby1]

Went out yesterday and fished Ida for about an hour had about 4 to 5 inches of ice.  would have stayed longer but we brought the popup out and it was to windy for that house.  Only got 1 perch up, needed to go a little deeper I think.  Leif is still locked up and we saw people fishing longbridge in portables as well.  Really windy, should have fished longer but Saturday is only to days away.

 

two days away

[mrpike1973]

May I ask is lake Ida the one about 10 miles north of Alexandria or is this farther north? (different lake)

[scrubby1]

no the one in becker county by Detroit lakes.

 

[mrpike1973]

Thank you!

[perch_destroyer]

Dairyman you been out recently? It's good to be back on the site. Took some time off for a bit. Later, The Perch.

[Lotharski]

Fished Long Lake on Saturday.  Pretty much 5" of ice everywhere.  Hoping for some crappies but ended up with only 6 snakes in 22 fow.  Maybe needed to go deeper or stay longer.  Left at about 6:30 pm.  Talked to three other groups and not much there either.  Good to be out though.  Just got a camera and my 9 yo loved watching the pike hit the hook and he would set it.  

[bbfenatic]

Was out for a few hours Saturday late afternoon, picked up some nice gills early then 7 crappies about dusk in the 10-11" range...nice eaters.....16ft and gills wanted waxies....crappies hit on a pink frostee tipped with a minnow head.....keeping glowed up was the answer for me. Can't wait till we get more ice so we can be a little more adventurous and get to my hot spots on the bigger bodies of water.  Be Safe! 

[TylerS]

Headed to Ida. Fished the first break near the landing by other houses because I wasn't adventurous enough to drag my 2-year-old out to the sunken island. Fished for almost three hours and came home with a couple slough sharks and a decent perch. 

For the kids cussing up a storm behind me who left your spear holes wide open when you left, just remember that Santa is watching...

[Weathertite]

Not the language you want your 2 yr old to be learning for sure. And why on Gods green earth would you leave a spearing hole wide open ? Do some people just lack common sense or what !!!

[lawnbuilder]

Some people have no respect for others and are just stupid. One day karma will get them and when they accidentally step in the spear hole hopefully they can get out safely. 

[scrubby1]

Went out on ida yesterday still about 5 inches of ice, fishing was pretty slow and the ice gets thinner as you go out so fished like 13 feet of water. Wanted to fish 15 feet but didn't want to walk out any farther.

[bjamin]

Was out last Wednesday with the kids. We were able to find crappie in 18-22 ft, but they were moving a lot and they would only bite on a small jig.  Minnows worked best in the morning, but only wax worms worked in the afternoon.  Had a blast without a couple tip-ups out as well with quite a few small northern and a bonus 24" walleye.  Ice was 6-7", but we stopped at a smaller lake first that only had 3".  These last couple of cold days should sure help.

[Lotharski]

I took work off on Tuesday and fished a smaller lake SW of DL with a buddy that I've only been on one time.  Had >8" ice in all 40+ holes we drilled.  Finally located some fish on the flasher and set up camp.  One of the weirder icefishing experiences I've had.  We started out catching 14 lm bass of varying sizes.  Then caught a few small crappies that looked very light colored and had no spots.  Are these white crappies or juvenile black crappies?  Finally ended up with a couple of nice 12" black crappies and a few more bass.  Never caught that many bass icefishing before.

[paceman]

LM bass are a blast to catch Ice fishing. man they really fight on short ice rods. In fact my 2 biggest bass ever were caught ice fishing. Both over 6 pounds!

[Chill62]

I had some vacation time to use up between christmas and new years but haven't had a computer to post.

Fished north of Detroit Lakes a few days and fished that 14 fow area doing good for blue gills.  Buddies would be few feet away and they were getting into the bass, walleyes, and crappies not me!  We did get into a ton of Bass with my biggest one being 4.7#.  Ice conditions were good and we walked a ways away from the group that was too lazy to get away from the access and we had solid 6-8" but when I got near them the lake was flooding.

Fished a small lake south of DL and it had a lot more snow on it and I started out with 4.5" and as of Saturday only had 7" still.  It's not making it as fast as I was hoping because I'm getting tired of dragging my stuff all over the lake and don't have a four wheeler out there.  Fished 24-20 fow for gills and did really well between 2:30-5:30.  Had the camera down and it was cool to see how you went from nothing to 30 in two seconds.  Girlfriend was getting frustrated because they showed up around 2:30 but was almost 3:30 before they started to bite.  We would graph a ton of light marks on the graphs and when the camera was down we were seeing a ton of insects floating around down there.  Maybe it was food?

Fished Big Pine by Perham and I know this isn't in the DL area but I've never fished it before and maybe people could help with this.  I dropped camera from 25-12 fow and would see weeds randomly 2-5" in the sand no structure no weeds.  Fished a small point on the first break caught one northern small, a 15/16" walleye and a 4" walleye.  Walleyes were active but came through for 30 minutes.  Fished a sharp break the next day thinking they need structure caught a few bigger perch 5-8" and a few northerns nothing else and it was all way before dark!  How does a guy fish a lake that is pure sand with no weeds?  I'm not asking for spots!  Do you fish breaks? Curves in shorelines? Points in shorelines? Islands?  We had tip ups from 25-12 feet plus the house set up at 22 and we had no flags with a shiner set up right next to bottom.  Heck we didn't even get any trips!  Sorry very frustrated with lack of knowledge.  Even though there wasn't any structure a ton of fish houses were placed around us that was getting set up.  Any help would be greatly appreciated on this!