Ice fishing

Jm1986

Founding Member
Founding Member
Joined
Aug 5, 2015
Posts
125
Likes
18
Points
118
Has anybody been out ice fishing? A lot of you may still have your boats out on the river. But I’m seeing lots of thick ice on bays of audubon and close to 12 inches on most of the lakes in central ND. How’s the fishing been on these lakes?
 


camper

Founding Member
Founding Member
Joined
Apr 24, 2015
Posts
2,015
Likes
838
Points
398
I've been on 5 different lakes in central and eastern ND. Ice has been anywhere from 7" to 11", but solid. The fishing has been pretty spotty, good on some, nothing on a couple. Did see lots of houses on Hobart and the lake directly to the west of Hobart, heard good things about both. We were going to go the last 2 days but the weather sucks. Good luck.
 

5575

Founding Member
Founding Member
Joined
Apr 24, 2015
Posts
3,730
Likes
599
Points
433
Went out yesterday afternoon for 3 hours, did pretty good. We threw back about 10 small ones. Ice was 10 inches.
20231230_212055.jpg
 


Slappy

★★★★★ Legendary Member
Joined
Mar 9, 2021
Posts
758
Likes
541
Points
253
Location
Bismarck
Don't boil. Make torsk.

Poach in 175 degree F water for 3-5 minutes, then apply salt and broil in clarified butter for 3-5 minutes. Finish with a sprinkle of paprika.
 

Sluggo

Founding Member
Founding Member
Joined
May 14, 2015
Posts
2,591
Likes
424
Points
333
Location
Bismarck
I’ve been ice fishing several times already. Nearly a foot of ice where I fished as I stayed away from the open water.
 


Jm1986

Founding Member
Founding Member
Thread starter
Joined
Aug 5, 2015
Posts
125
Likes
18
Points
118
Seems to be a lot of pressure ridges on pretty much every lake I’ve been too. Bite has been ok at best. Walleye seem to be very lethargic lately.
 

johnr

Founding Member
Founding Member
Joined
Apr 24, 2015
Posts
20,094
Likes
3,847
Points
813
Location
Dickinson
I put new line on 4 poles, that's the extent of my ice fishing this season
 

lunkerslayer

Founding Member
Founding Member
Joined
Apr 12, 2015
Posts
19,053
Likes
3,061
Points
858
Location
Cavalier, ND
I have been fishing 3 different times now, now that I know someone with forward facing sonar, it's been great especially with the milder temps for being able to fish without a shelter. We have been fishing the smaller feeder lakes this winter so far since ice thickness is thinner. One thing I find interesting is all the structure i found a decade ago in my days of looking at Google earth, it still doesn't help with making them little bastards bite but its been amazing to actually see fish before needing to punch holes. Those days of punching 100 plus holes are a thing of the past. Heck a guy can even post on nda when you are out on the ice when fishing slows down. 😉
 

Shockwave

Founding Member
Founding Member
Joined
Sep 20, 2015
Posts
918
Likes
322
Points
248
Location
Bismarck
We have been out 4 times now to 4 different places. The first place was non-stop perch action but they were all pretty small. The other three had small evening bite windows and nothing special. One of these days I'm gonna get lucky and land on a spot where I can catch a limit of 12 inch perch and a limit of walleyes.
 


Auggie

Founding Member
Founding Member
Joined
Apr 13, 2015
Posts
2,513
Likes
687
Points
383
Location
Dickinson, ND
I got 8 days in over Christmas break. Fishing was among Jamestown area, Devils Lake, and Dickinson. With the warm weather and living in the banana belt, I bought a Yamaha snowcat with a blown engine and am converting that into a snow dog.
 

guywhofishes

Founding Member
Founding Member
Joined
Apr 21, 2015
Posts
28,715
Likes
4,108
Points
958
Location
Faaargo, ND
I got 8 days in over Christmas break. Fishing was among Jamestown area, Devils Lake, and Dickinson. With the warm weather and living in the banana belt, I bought a Yamaha snowcat with a blown engine and am converting that into a snow dog.
That project would be a hoot.
 

luvcatchingbass

Founding Member
Founding Member
Joined
Dec 1, 2015
Posts
3,549
Likes
295
Points
333
Location
SE ND.
Been out once for a couple hours Dec 21st with a buddy around the VC area, we got 3 walleye 15-16in range 1 walleye 18.5in, some 6-7in perch and a 10in perch. Ice was about 8-10in thick but we saw open water south of us coming off a point and one house setup past it then later realized there was open water on the other side of them meaning they were fishing on a ice peninsula.
 

NodakBob

Honored Member
Joined
Feb 27, 2022
Posts
259
Likes
258
Points
147
Location
bismarck
Tried Froelich Dam last week, 6-12” of ice, and a third of the lake had new black ice that we didn’t venture on…caught one small perch was all
 


Recent Posts

Friends of NDA

Top Posters of the Month

  • This month: 191
  • This month: 158
  • This month: 147
  • This month: 137
  • This month: 117
  • This month: 95
  • This month: 93
  • This month: 93
  • This month: 88
  • This month: 80
Top Bottom