I went to the pond yesterday to do some ice fishing as the snow storm blew in - fished for about 3 hours.

I caught 6 crappie from 5-9" - my average size is 7-9" observed fishing the last 6 months.

This was the smallest. The larger fish are much more aggressive and look fairly healthy with thick shoulders.

I fed a couple of bullhead to the raccoons


A couple of my 175 fall stocked 6-8" LMB - I caught 4 in all, from 6-10", they're extremely aggressive, roaming with schools of bluegills still, but in fair body condition. They sure didn't have bulging stomachs.



The best part of the day was picking up a couple of my WE



I also bagged well over 20 bluegill from 4-6" which I returned to the pond.

Should I be removing bluegill from the pond or should I let nature run its course? I haven't removed any since August when I was running the cloverleaf trap and also catching them on rod and reel.

We've picked up another 2" dusting of snow in the last 24 hours, but it is forecast to rain again and be 40+ degrees toward the end of the week. It sure is nice not having to shovel snow off the pond! The ice thickness has increased to 6-8" of solid clear. My primary feeder creek is 90% iced over, as is the feeder creek coming from the upper pond. Flow through the pond has slowed to maybe 1-3 gpm

I'm extremely excited for the next year on this pond! The clarity after ice out is going to be a great time to survey the fish in the pond. I can't wait to see the hsb and lmb suface feed on young bullhead lol! It is going to be a fun year of hand feeding and running the cloverleaf

Mat Peirce
1.25 acre southeast Iowa pond
LMB, BG, YP, WE, HSB, RES, BCP