Ice fishing at Palo

Went out to the lake at palo to see how the fishing was at their fisherie and was not impressed not many fish the big fish was a crappie at 1.4 pounds and a perch that weighed 7 ounces and a nice bluegill at 8.6 ounces seen a few small perch and bluegill caught but nothing to speak of

The guy who out fished everone was one who did not have a tent or a fish finder or a auger all he did would walk around and fish in a open hole that someone else walked away from and drop it to the bottom and he was able to walk of the ice with 25 perch not to big but he was going to have them for supper and that was about it! I think the weather needs to settle down and the cold fronts turn to warm and the fish should start in again.
Coralville seems to be the hot spot right now with 11 inch crappies being taken on a regular basis but you must walk a distance and find structure so be carefull even thou the ice is thick you do have current so get back in the coves and try your luck

Are they stocking perch at Palo now, or is that an anomoly? Someone told me that they tried to stock it w/ perch years ago, but they wouldn’t reproduce, so it was a one-shot deal.

regarding perch stocking no not to my knowledge are they stocking but we have caught perch for the last four years but they were larger then what I saw to day and I would say that the catch today was from a hatch about 2 years ago and next year they should gain some size and should aproach 9-10 inches. We have caught perch that have exceeded 12 inches and were all caught in 25 to 30 ft of water up by the fence line. Have not tryed it this year but plan on it when we get a little warmer weather.

I’m not sure what the fenceline is – are you talking the line of stumps that blocks off the west end, or up underneath the powerlines?

Whatever they’re doing to keep the perch going, I hope it works out – it would be the cat’s meow to have a decent perch lake within driving distance.

If you come off the double boat ramp and head west you will see a row of trees coming down off that hill to your right and that is what I call the fence line if you would go back in the bay where they rent boats their is a road bed that runs to the east also another road bed that comes off that bay east of the beach that runs north an south if you fish these areas they are all good producers. The perch are coming and I do think it will be a good producer in a few years with good numbers and size another fish that is going wild is the white bass/stripers but I am starting to have some concern that between the perch and the stripers may have a drastic impact on the blue gills and crappie as the lake is not big enough to support the pan fish that I like to fish for! Then you throw in the bass and catfish and walleye and there has to be a big food supply to keep up with the demand.

I don’t know how many predator species that lake will support, since it really doesn’t have that much diversity of cover like the larger lakes. I know that shad are the primary baitfish species in the lake, and that they have on several occasions overrun smaller lakes; the question is, can they keep up with 5 or more predator species in a single lake?

With MacBride and Coralville so close, it seems like crappie fishermen are pretty well cared for. I’d like a place where I could take the kids and bobber fish for ‘gills with regular success, and perch are just too darned tasty to not have closeby. I guess I’d make a lousy fisheries management specialist: “I want it all, and I want it TODAY!!!”