I went to my favorite little lake last Friday evening to fish for trout a bit and discovered that skim ice had formed in the protected areas. I didn’t catch any fish and had ice forming on both my rod and line. I was using some light cotton gloves on my hands which wiped a little water and ice off the line and kept me casting a little longer. I’ll have to check today to see if the ice is better or worse.
The only options open now are a warm water discharge which occasionally has produced some crappies and has open water all winter or the Missouri which seldom freezes but I’ve never caught anything there during the winter. I do get some good casting pratice and it’s much closer than the warm water discharge.
Cycler,
Thanks for the heads-up on Iowa’s cooler weather. Northeast Kansas still has open water everywhere, but for how much longer I’d rather not speculate. Hoping for a few more good trips before ice-up, followed by some good panfish meals.
Maybe you’ll enjoy a warming spell that lets you sneak in a few more outings before spring.
Joe
“Better small than not at all.”
Hey all you Northern Guys,
South Carolina will be open all winter. It will be a little cold, cool by your standards, but the fish are still here. Come on down! 8T 
Here in central Iowa, ponds froze over Thursday night, and geese were walking on top of the ice by Friday morning! Sunday’s temps in the upper 40’s/low 50’s didn’t even open them up! Nothing to do now but wait for the ice to get thick enough to walk on!
Up in Iowa’s NW corner, Spirit Lake and West Okoboji both had ice-anglers fishing on 3"-4" of ice this weekend!
Hey 8T I’d love to come down to South Carolina so I could fish open water all year long. I’d also be mightily tempted to head over to your east coast to see if I could score on some stripers, bluefish or redfish. So far the only fish I’ve got out of the salt are some hardtails and pinfish, species I believe are usually regarded as bait not sport.
FishnDave I went to my favorite little lake yesterday to see if it was completely frozen over or still had some open water. The good news is there was still some open water and the trout were still there. The bad news is I threw a black wooly bugger, my favorite epoxy minnow, a mickey finn and a chatruse and white crappie jig without catching a single one. There was a guy who, would you believe it, went out on the lake with his kayak and got his limit of trout on a small black popper. I think the size was a 6 or an 8; it was a little big for bluegill anyhow.
Really! That’s interesting!
A buddy of mine was fly-fishing one of the stocked ponds about 3 weeks ago, and said he had numerous trout hitting his indicator, but he didn’t have any topwater flies with him. He didn’t catch anything.
I always get the ‘special’ trout, that think an indicator is right up there with fine dining where I fish. I always keep a few stimulators and dry midges with me in case it becomes a regular thing, or I see fish rising with some kind of regularity.
To keep to case in point, with the restoration our club did on our local creek this fall, I think we will be able to retain enough waterflow to keep some of the water open throughout the winter.
“Note to self: Tie up some indicator flies!”
Someday I’ll have to try that technique. I’ve never used an indicator. Is that odd?
:idea: I wonder if he would have caught some fish if he had slid his indicator right down to the fly???