ICE FISHING: Sport Flourishing

There may be a warm-up this week, but colder temperatures recently helped an Iowa sport return.

“It’s a lot different than going out in the summer time,” says Lake Mills angler, Andy Nelson, “a lot less people to deal with, you don’t have to sit and sweat the whole time.”

With winter’s return, ice fishing is flourishing again. 

The ice is thick on Clear Lake, 12 inches thick to be precise.

The DNR says central and southern Iowa could see thicker ice and better fishing this winter.  

However, the DNR does caution there may be open water in some places.

“Maybe where waterfowl have retained some open water on some of the lakes and also some of the larger bodies of water like the flood control reservoirs.”

Opportunities to ice fish are great during winter time with fish stocking as follows:

Moorland Lake near Ft. Dodge on January18th

Petocka Lake in Bondurant on January 26th

Ada Hayden Lake in Ames on February 2nd

The DNR will not stock the Ankeny DMACC pond this year due to a dredging project.