The tip up bite on Pool 10 is the best that I think I’ve seen in many, many years. The question I have is why is it so good this year?? Are other pools going wild this year too? One thought on why it might be so good this year is the absence of shad in the backwaters I have been fishing. Other ideas??
Sounds like the bass are thick in alot places this year. Birdman i made it down to the ole honey hole today and there were 3 groups tip-up fishing. I saw at least 5 bass in the 15″ range caught and kept. You are right though I haven’t seen alot shad this year in the springs. I have to say i had a great year bass fishing and a horrible year panfishing. Any connection? 
dan
I think next year is going to be a tough year for bass in open water 
From all the pressure, thick ice, and anglers that keep their limit of bass as often as they can, a lot of huge bass are no longer in the system. I saw a 20″ 4+ lb largemouth get taken today, and the guy was a complete 
about it. He knew I did not want him to keep it so he taunted me, then proceeded to show me pictures of 7 bass from 18-20″ that he slaughtered last weekend. This is madness. These fish are 8-10 years old and people think there are an endless supply of them. Oh well, I guess it’s the american way. Sorry, I’m going to rant about this whenever possible in hopes to get people to realize the effect over harvest and keeping the big fish can have. Even your average bonehead that fishes at the dam everyday for eyes and saugers knows to release a 7 or 8 lb walleye..those fish are the same age range as these bass. So why is that same boneheaded angler feeling the need to keep these bass?
Relating a little more to the topic, I’ll agree, the tip up bite has been very good this year. The fish I’ve caught have all been extremely fat however. I don’t think they are feeding on shad, more small bluegills. Anywhere you find the gills there are just gobs of big fat pike. And the bass aren’t far behind. I suppose a half dead shiner is a lot easier to catch than a quick little gill, so they take the bait.
You are preaching to the choir here Cade. I would like to think that folks here on IDO feel as you do and respect the resource. I had similar conversations with guys on Pool 3 keeping large walleyes. I voice my opinion to them and usually get met with the same response that you got. But I think maybe these jerks will tell someone about their confrontation, and the other person will also tell them he should be throwing them back. 
If they hear it enough, MAYBE they will change. Chances are that these are people who don’t catch a lot of fish, and are going to prove their worthiness to their buddies by showing their bounty. 
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So why is that same boneheaded angler feeling the need to keep these bass?
Why? Because a lot of people are sick of other people shoving their views down other people’s throats!!
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He knew I did not want him to keep it so he taunted me, then proceeded to show me pictures of 7 bass from 18-20″ that he slaughtered last weekend
Refer to above 
In reality, people have been keeping bass every year for more years than you or I have been alive. Guess what? The bass population is getting better every year and this can be backed up by the many tourney anglers in the area.
The system can handle people harvesting bass through the ice and in open water.
Personally, I am sick of the high horse people are on when it comes to other people keeping fish legally, regardless of the species.
For the record, I like to fish for bass, walleye, and other species of fish the rive has to offer. But, I don’t see the river being in any danger by people keeping some for the pan.
If you were to come up and tell me I was wrong for keeping a 4+ pound bass, I may have really been wrong when I sent you running home with your tail between your legs.
Those few fish being kept are not going to take money out of your pockets in your upcoming tournies, there are more where those came from 
“I may have really been wrong when I sent you running home with your tail between your legs.” 
AmWatson, would you not agree that by taking females out of any species, breed, race, etc…..that at some point the numbers are going to decrease? I think what Cade and the others are saying is that if you want to eat some fish keep the smaller ones(which taste better) not the big females. I think the guys that are keeping the big ones and then having to taunte with pictures are trying to make up for shortcomings in other areas.
Remember the shad in there last yr.Brian? I don’t think we saw over a half dozen flags all season. Everyone I have talked to who run tip-ups are saying the same thing, that they are having a great year 
What the boys are doing with their legal limit is their own business 
Hit an area early last week that generally doesn’t see a ton of shad except the immediate spring areas. Hit 5 different locations with shad everywhere! They were swimming up into the holes ,that’s how thick they were.It seems every year is a little different with their location.
Are you carrying the polar tip-ups at the Anglers nook Brian?
I guess I’m not the only one that thought this was a great tip up year. And yes I caught my first large mouth on a tip up, 18” next a pocket of gills. The northerns have been not stop. I started using a single hook this year tied to the black tip up line with a shiner and thought I was on to something. Second part, every night I come home I here the same thing. You spend all this money and time and never bring anything home but pictures. I like steak with my beer.
Anybody who has ever fished with me knows that I RARELY take any fish home of any species. I fully understand the whole CPR concept and follow it religiously. But, I do so because I CHOOSE to do so. If Billy is icing a keeper bass and wants to take it home, it is because he CHOSE to do so. Neither of us are wrong, in fact we are both in our own right.
As far as the tip up bite goes, if it is as good as people are saying, I better get out on the ice soon
I was wondering if this bite was just one local area or across the Mississippi. Sounds like tip ups are hot up and down the river.
Personally, I would much rather eat bluegills or crappies but…. if they don’t cooperate I don’t mind eating bass sometimes. Yesterday and today the panfish bite was just brutal! Yet, if you jigged a lil cecil or rembrandt close to the bottom you could find willing largemouth. I did take a few home but did release the largest 18 1/2 inches.
As far as numbers I can tell you that every time we put our camera down the hole we see usually, a few bluegills, a crappie once and a while, and all kinds of bass.
I agree with amwatson, I am a serious walleye guy. I wonder how many walleyes take a ride to the frying pan every year from pool 8,9 or 10? I bet its alot more than bass,and I get tired of hearing how someone killed a bass to eat. In the last few years the number of bass that has come into my boat while fishing walleyes has soared, while the walleye numbers have slightly dropped. I will also keep a couple bass to fry for the family this year, but I would not taunt anyone.I think the bass numbers are in great shape and its my opinion that these pools are getting more of a bass style habitat.
Hi Guys!
LaCrosse local here. New here also. First off nice group here. Next, I have been tip-up fishing pool 8 exclusively and have had a very good year so far. I always take my two boys out with me. We all fish in the shanty and also have 3 or 4 tip ups out. Been using 6″ shad with regular #2 hooks (was using #2 treble but noticed missing lots off bites). I landed new years day 2 northern 31″ and 36″. Both were released. I also hooked on to a 24″ bass. Big and fat! Released that too.
We usually keep a few nice gills or crappy but, we all practice catch and release. Not that I have a problem with keeping them. It’s just I like catching fish not cleaning them. A little lazy to I suppose. Hee, Hee.
Good luck everyone! 
Just curious….wha do some of you consider a good day of tip-up fishing? Is 2 flags with a 33 inch fish good? Or a few bass.
Here’s a situation. What do you think? A guy caught 2 muskies on a lake in Northern WI that is not known for being a musky lake. The first one was 53″. He kept it and took it home to mount. The second day, he caught a 51″ musky. He kept it and took it home to mount. When asked if he ate the fish he said he wouldn’t touch that crap. A musky in the 50 inch range can be anywhere from 45-55 years old. Is this responsible?
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Why? Because a lot of people are sick of other people shoving their views down other people’s throats!!
Why is it that I usually find trappers to have the most logical views with regards to the outdoors? I agree, Wats.
Tip-upping around here has been fair, and spearing has been pretty good this year.
A 50+ inch musky is 45-55 yrs old?????? That is a new one to me! As far as the dude keeping them for the wall, good for him. I hope he gets a lot of satisfaction when he looks at them and shows them off!
Tim
Can’t defend the age stat. Was told to me by a local baitshop owner/musky fisherman in the Hayward area. Could be wrong.
Could he have had as much satisfaction looking at a replica?
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Even your average bonehead that fishes at the dam everyday for eyes and saugers knows to release a 7 or 8 lb walleye…So why is that same boneheaded angler feeling the need to keep these bass?
Cade so in your opinion the “average” fisherman on pool 4 is a “Bonehead” please think before you type.
Ferny
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Could he have had as much satisfaction looking at a replica?
Can’t speak for others, but personally, I do not like the replica’s. For me, they just have ZERO appeal. The thought that anybody with the $$ can just call up the shop and order the exact same fish takes some of the ‘specialness’ out of them. Give a good old fashioned mount any day. I would much rather look at a blown up and framed picture of a released fish than a fiberglass model that is or isn’t similar to a fish that somebody did or didn’t catch….
Tim
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Could he have had as much satisfaction looking at a replica?
I think the only guy that can answer that is the guy keeping the fish.
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So why is that same boneheaded angler feeling the need to keep these bass?
Here is what I find interesting about this particular remark. The bass guys who religiously fish bass during the open water months, will also be seen fishing walleyes during the early spring and through the ice. These same people who will NOT keep a bass, have no problem keeping a limit of eyes and sauger
If anybody here wants to call me on that, meet me at Dresbach on any given evening and I can walk you through the crowd and point out all the bass guys that are keeping fish.
But, you won’t hear me telling you they are wrong, many are hypocrites, but not wrong in keeping fish
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The thought that anybody with the $$ can just call up the shop and order the exact same fish takes some of the ‘specialness’ out of them. Give a good old fashioned mount any day.
Not to take this thread too far off track but the same thing can be done and is done with skin mounts. Want a 32 inch walleye? Got $200? >>> Skin Mounts – Take Your Pick The bigger the fish, the more they cost. You can basically have any size walleye you want if your wallet is thick enough. A skin mount hanging on a wall does NOT necessarily = “Specialness”
you said it exactly wats, I am pretty good friends with some serious bassers. if they catch a walleye “by mistake”, 9 times out of 10 if it is above legal size they take it home for supper. to me, this is a double standard and I often tell them that.
For some, keeping fish; whether for eating, mounting, or just throwing in the ditch, is an ethical (perhaps moral) issue. Our brief discussion here details the diversity of ethics and the range of acceptable behavior. In any culture, you’ll find this, and moreover between cultures you’ll find extreme variances.
For me, I only keep what I like to eat. I don’t like to keep the older females. I believe that in doing so I and others, if taken to extremes, can have a detrimental effect on a fishery. My ethical code requires me to catch, measure, photograph, and release trophy class fish. I find it rewarding to think that some other person, perhaps kid, can have the chance to catch the same one later. I believe it unethical to taunt other peoples beliefs about fishing or other topics. I think it is okay to ask questions and share insight. I believe that issues like this should be discussed from a basis of facts and that comments coming from pure emotion can lead to interesting outcomes.
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Cade so in your opinion the “average” fisherman on pool 4 is a “Bonehead” please think before you type.
Not to defend anyone but I don’t think he was referring to fishing up by the dam in pool 4. We all now a baby can do that with success. 
I don’t fish tip-ups on the hard water, but a couple of things lead me to believe the number of Pike in the 24″ to 34″ inch range in the river system is up & contibuting to the tip up success rate.
1. This past summer I hooked into a higher number of Pike, especially in the August wing damn days when they were heavily concentrated than what I have in prior years. Not being bias to the subject either….
2. Do my fair share of hard water jigging in areas where tip ups are out and have noticed the number of Pike laying on the ice is greater than in previous years.
3. When ya hook into a Peter Pike jigging for crappie for the 1st time in 25 years of fishing…..well numbers gotta be up becuase my skills as a fisherman aren’t aren’t that good.
As for this ongoing parking lot side discussion on what goes on ice and what goes back in the big water. Before I start, let it be known you can count the number of bass or walleye on one fingerless hand that I’m going to register tournament fishing this year – yet I release nearly every legal I catch with the exception being a bleeder or maybe a couple of eyes for the pan on occassion. Winning tournaments & money is not an my agenda. I want to see healthy populations of gamefish for my son and his son’s son to catch someday.
I was referring to the people on pool 8 that fish the dam every day from November to May and don’t give those fish a rest. Its a lot different down here than it is up there..the river freezes and people that don’t really know any better go and sit in 40 feet of water and pop 10″ saugers all day long..a lot of those guys have zebco 33’s and fish there because they can catch fish. I’m saying that even those guys that aren’t serious fisherman and may not know any better than to fish in those 40 ft holes, would still probably throw back a 7 or 8 lb walleye, unless they were mounting it. You are right, I do fish at the dam in the off season also, and I do keep some walleyes/saugers everynow and then. But just as I respect the bass, I also respect the walleyes. I have been doing so since I was in 5th grade when I caught a 7-1/2 lber on a tip up and chose to let it go. Anything over about 19″ for walleye and 17″ for sauger usually goes back. If the fish looks like it is carrying eggs then it is even more likely to go back. I wasn’t suggesting that people shouldn’t eat any bass whatsoever.. I thought I have been fairly clear about that. What I am saying is I am sick of people that don’t respect the big bass, calling them “green carp” and keeping limits of 4-5 lb fish. I agree, who am I to tell someone they can’t keep a fish? But I just try to point out whenever I get the chance that the fish being kept in that 18″ range are 5,6,7 years old, and this time of year they are stacked up and are easy to catch limits of. A perfect example of this is Lake Onalaska by the airport lights. I’ve talked to a few very good bass fisherman that have been fishing the lake for years and have caught 20-25 pound limits out there. One guy told me that several years ago 5 lbers were quite common and 6-7 lbers were not all that uncommon. He strongly beleives that the shanty towns by the airport lights with tip ups had a dramatic effect on the population of those 6-7 lb fish. I don’t know if this is completely true, but I have to respect the opinion of a guy who’s been to the All American multiple times..
Boy oh boy does this post open up a can of rotten worms or what.
IT TELLS YOU SOMETHING WHEN SOMEONE WHO USUALLY STAYS IN THE BACKGROUND AND POLITELY DEFERS TO OTHER POSTERS LIKE DOBBER FEELS SOMETHING IS IMPORTANT ENOUGH THAT HE NEEDS TO COMMENT .
I waited this long to comment for Cade to have time to explain his comments in more detail, because in the last 5 or 6 years we have found some great reasons to critisize some of the fishing that is done below the dams.. regarding depths , keeping mamouth fish full of eggs to eat,( not as a trophy of a lifetime) , and targeting sauger that are to small to even have enough meat to feed a goldfish.
Maybe Cade didn’t say it quite right. and he has the same affliction I have… saying exactly what he’s thinking
and not mincing words. Right ot wrong.. but there is no sense at all for either a bass over 3 1/2lbs or a walleye over 5 to be taken home and eaten. You can try to tell me all you want that they taste as good as the smaller ones, but the years after I was crushed by the wall and had to eat what I caught to feed myself and my family showed me that they taste worse the bigger they get. And to be perfectly frank I think largemouth taste terrible, ( yes even cold water bass) , and smallmouth not much better. If you see me eating or keeping either you can pretty much assume that they appeared to be mortally wounded.
But it is still and always will be my personal opinion that even though keeping fish of those sizes to eat just doesn’t make sense, every angler has the perfect right to take his or her legal limit whenever they want without ridicule. But you can throw all the “Science” you want at me and my answer will always be the same. I don’t care if large trophy fish are weaker spawners than smaller fish…. I would rather have three fertilized eggs that produce offspring from a true trophy fish from any species before I would take 1000 eggs from a smaller fish that hasn’t proven it has the genes to produce huge offspring or any offspring that will survive. Every part of my being tells me there are many reasons not just “Luck” that got them to that size, and that size equates to health, superior instincts, and surviveability. And yes I am aware that some “science” shows that the huge fish might not pass on as strong of traits as they did when they are younger, but I don’t want to find out that science is wrong.
Having all that said I have to repeat what I say several times a week to somebody while fishing. With the possible exception of large cats, bullheads, and trophy northern. “I have never seen more or bigger sized catches of every sport species on pools 4-14 on the MISSISSIPPI than I have in this last three years. My dad started me fishing at Goose Island 51 years ago in February. And I don’t think any number of daily limits of any species will put a serious dent in future populations with the possible exception of each species spawning period.
But unless your going to take it home and mount it as the trophy of a lifetime, have mortally injured it , or literally won’t have food to eat if you don’t take it home. (Don’t tell me there aren’t any folks that fit that last catergory cause I’ve been there, fishing the same hairjig for walleye and same $.89 dimpled spoon for northern for a month at a time and never using live bait because I couldn’t afford it, and even taking carp home to eat. Even hitchhiking down to the river because I couldn’t afford gas ) , then for pete’s sake leave the Pigs and put them back healthy.
Now I’m gonna really ruffle some feathers.
Here’s a few other suggestions I have:
Slots and reduced limits on all game species during their respective spawning periods.
No tournaments during spawning times for that species or tournaments with a maximum of three fish limits in the case of shared bags and four fish limits in the case of split bags After that goes on for a couple of years Catch, measure, witness ,photograph and release tourneys will start popping up everywhere. If for no other reason than to set a good example .
But Cade yah really cut me to the quick when yah made the Zebco 33 comment… not all fisherman have been blessed by God with the ability to pay for or even the desire to fish with anything else but an inexpensive dime store rod & reel and a sinker and a hook…
My heart has been saddened this last couple years on pool nine to see a familiar face missing.The Gentleman always made me smile. He jigged through the ice and on Clements Barge for as many years as I can remember with a pole that was one of the old solid metal rods and with an ancient baitcaster and rarely in all the years I fished around him did he ever have the least bit of trouble keepin up with or spanking all of us around him.
Cade you are kind of a role model to younger fisherman and older fisherman alike here, ( as I mentioned in a PM), for your zeal and love for fishing, particularly tournament bass. But my guess is that some of your older counterparts have convinced you that fishing with anything less than the best equipment is somehow just disgusting and somehow demeaning to the sport. If that isn’t what you meant , it was the way it came across, as did the “bonehead” comment even to a small extent after you explained it. Many anglers already think that serious tourney guys are a bunch of arrogant snobs. Unfortunately in some cases it is an accurate description, but I think and hope in your case it is just the way you express your competetiveness and love of fishing. In all fairness to you , someone who fishes, as hard and as often as you do and shares both the live experience and quality first hand reports deserves and has earned a little slack.. and I hope folks give it to you. God knows many of them have given me a lot of slack
And I’ve said it before , ” that too many of us , myself included often take ourselves, others, And fishing WAY TOO SERIOUSLY” A comment I’m sure some of you consider almost sacreligious.
WELL TIME TO GO OUT AND FREEZE MY BUT OFF FOR A FEW HOURS AND SEE IF THERE ARE ANY FISH THAT AREN’T FLOATING ICE CUBES TODAY
HAPPY HOOK-UP LAWRENCE
Does that meen I don’t have to be embarrased when I break out my pocket fisherman? 
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Does that meen I don’t have to be embarrased when I break out my pocket fisherman?
With guys your age Herb, we are just glad to see you & Bk out fishing still. 
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