First day of ice fishing

I headed over to the backwaters today and found 2 spots with some good solid ice – Pontoon Slough on the dike road and the Wabasha marina.
Walked out on the ice in both spots with no problems. Got a nice mixture of perch, crappies and gills. Teardrop jigs tipped with a waxie worked best.
I checked out Wilcox, but the ice was not very firm yet. It may be ready by the weekend?
It was a great day to be out! Hope to go again tomorrow.

Good Fishing,
Mike

thanks for the up-date mike

have you heard anything about the ice around roch?? how’s foster and/or chester comin along?? i drove by the country club pits last friday and it was just about froze over except the hole in the middle that the geese were keeping open. with the warmer weather and high winds last weekend it probably opened up agian.

i checked out lake winona today and found it to be completely open yet. i’m planin on headin to some backwaters tomorrow to see if maybe some of the more sheltered area have ice on them. i don’t plan on walkin out anywhere until i see other people out though. i find it hard to swim very far in my big snow boots.

Chester is not ready yet. Foster is frozen, but not quite thick enough. I heard of a couple people that had been on Willow Creek, but have not been there myself. I would expect some of the areas around Rochester to be ready within a week as the weather seems to be cooperating with temps below freezing most of the day.
As always, play it safe. Use a spud to find the safe ice, try to stay on the trails and don’t go by yourself to any spots that don’t already have other people on the ice.

Good Fishing,
Mike