Okoboji Ice out and Info

Started by CraigP83, March 13, 2014, 09:19:05 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

CraigP83

Do we have many Okoboji anglers on this site? Planning a trip to my southern neighbors towards the end of next month. I've got a few questions

1) How much ice is still covering the lakes
2) Are both the East and West side good for bass? If I recall the West side is deep and clear, the East is shallower with less visibility.

CraigP83

No, NW Iowa fishermen here? If so how does the ice look? Should be getting close to being open water!

Mike Bush

Last report I heard was 24" of ice. That was 2 weeks ago. I think it might be getting close to leaving. Have no idea what the temps have been that far north of me. Our local lakes just opened up about 2 weeks ago.

kymer

I'm with Mike. Last I heard still quite a bit of ice there. Further north than I typically fish.

CraigP83

Found an Okoboji web cam. Looks like it's very close to being open, maybe by this weekend.

http://www.okoboji.com/web_cams/west

Mike Bush

Open now I believe...snow and cold up there again though. Might put a skim on it. Not a big deal.

CraigP83

Mike, are Alabama Rigs illegal in Iowa also? I skimmed the Iowa regulations and I got the impression you can use them but only have two hooks on it?

Mike Bush

You can purchase an extra line...which in turn is 3 hook for the A rig. They started the extra line thing last year I think. I got it for this season. I think the total for resident is about 27$ with that.

CraigP83

Fished down there Friday and Saturday. Saw lots of small male bass in the backwater channels of West Okoboji, biggest I caught was only 16'' though. Main lake water temps were still in the 40's, Channels were low to mid 50's. Saturday was much windier so we stuck to Upper Gar and Minnewashta. Water temps were as high as 55 in some areas but I couldn't find any bass, Fished Rip rap, bridges, docks, logs, channels, flats. Left early Sunday due to thunderstorms coming in.

All in all we didn't catch as many fish as we would have liked but it was still nice to get the boat out. If I was to fish it again with those temps I'm not even sure I would do anything differant, I think it was just plain tough out there