(Area) Six to eight inches of ice are being reported at most water bodies in Southwest Iowa during the final week of the calendar year.
Thursday’s DNR Fishing report included a lot of activity and mixed results. “As we checked around and called around everyone was reporting about 6-8″ of ice and people getting out in a lot of places ice fishing. Success has been kind of mixed. Some places providing some good catch, some other places hit or miss. That’s kind of the nature of fishing and the nature of ice fishing.” Fisheries Biologist Bryan Hayes says, “A lot of activity at Prairie Rose. People are getting after the crappie and bluegill there. Anita, not as much activity there. It looks like we need to find where those fish are hanging out this winter, but typically Anita is a pretty good bet to do some ice fishing. Viking has some ice. That’s an hour south and typically it lags behind in ice formation, but people are getting out on Viking. There’s a crappie population in there and bluegill are a little better as a result of that draw down.”
Hayes adds private farm ponds are always popular as well. He stresses to check ice often as you venture out because ice is never 100% uniform.
