Starting February at Hickory Grove Lake

The only crappie of the day, but a real nice one.

I was in need of some "therapy" today, as Friday was filled with teacher meetings, and then five hours of grad classes at night.  That was followed up with the same grad class in West Des Moines from 8am-5pm on Saturday.  Needless to say I was itching for some time on the ice.  So up and at them at 5:30am to meet up with David Bowles to hit Hickory Grove Lake.
With both of our snowmobiles on the trailer, two augers and all our gear, we were ready for the challenge that hickory Grove had for us.  Recent reports have all been very negative, with little fishing happening and no solid fishing reports.  We wanted the challenge, and took it.
We covered 6 different areas of the lakes, varying from 13- 30 feet of water.  Most had brushpiles present, while others were located near drop-offs. 

"Farm pond quality, in a public lake"

We did not "kill" the fish this day, but our hard work and perseverance led us to a good morning on the ice.  We ended up only catching about 15 fish in 4 hours of fishing, with a lot of time searching and drilling about 60-70 holes.  All areas that we fished had fish present, however we only caught fish in 3 of the 6 areas, with one area being best with about 8 bluegills being caught.  Again, we didn't catch a lot of fish, but eh fish that we did catch were nice quality panfish.  The lone crappie was at ten inches, and about 10 of the bluegills were 8-9.5 inches long, real nice quality for a public lake.
A great morning on the ice, I just hope the weather the stays cold, so my friends and I can enjoy a few more days on the ice.