The unseasonably warm weather we’re having is likely going to put an end to the ice fishing season in most of Iowa.
DNR spokesman Mick Klemesrud says it hasn’t been a great season up to this point either. “We had a lot of places, including on the Iowa Great Lakes, like on Big Spirit Lake, where we had open water. There’s a pocket of open water, it seemed like it would just never freeze over,” Klemesrud says. “And now that we’ve got these warmer temperatures and these high winds, it’s starting to chew up a lot of the existing ice and making some pretty tenuous situations up there.”
He says continued days of above freezing temperatures make more and more ice disappear. “Southern Iowa is going to be, the ice fishing season is probably going to be over by this weekend if the forecast holds. And in places like central Iowa, Big Creek Lake had an open pocket on it that didn’t freeze all winter and so that’s going to expand and chew up some ice and work Twin Lakes, same thing. Three Mile and 12 Mile (Lake) had open water on them and it’s just kind of the same scenario,” he says.
There are a few areas in north Iowa where the ice is still nice for fishing. “Clear Lake’s got good ice, there’s parts of Spirit Lake that have good ice, you just have to kind of avoid those open water areas,” Klemesrud says. He says you should do a little research on ice conditions before you head out. “There’s a lot of good resources online. There’s a lot of good social media networks out there where people post how they did fishing, what they’re catching, where they’re going, that sort of thing,” he says.
Klemesrud says you should remember the safety guidelines wherever you go to ice fish. “Check the ice often, don’t go alone, give yourself a big buffer around any open water. Bring a throwable flotation device and about 50 feet of rope, the worst case should happen,” Kelmesrud says. Klemesrud says they had reports of nine Off Highway Vehicles or ATVs breaking through the ice. Seven were at the Iowa Great Lakes and two were at Lake Rathbun. He says they were lucky there were no injuries reported.