The ice finally disappeared from my half-acre lake north of Columbia, Mo., yesterday, for the first time since the first week in December. It was about 1/3 gone the day before, and yesterday's 80-plus-degree high finished the process.
Walking around last night, I was relieved to find no dead fish whatsoever. I saw several minnows and a couple of crayfish active in the shallows. In fact, I had watched crayfish crawling under the ice earlier in the week. I found that interesting.
Can hardly wait to start feeding fish. There was some kind of insect hatch going on around some flooded cedars, and fish were swirling after bugs on the surface--just a few hours after ice-out.
