11 inches of ice. At least 4 inches of water on top of that. 12 inches of snow to cap ot all off. Even walking with snowshoes is difficult.
Very light bite. On a 1/32 tungsten, got a tiny crappie, decent perch, and a sturgeon. Yup. A sturgeon. Didn't pull her out of the hole. Reached down, unhooked her, and she swam away happily.
Disappointed to see the tournie cancelled as I still would had competed, but totally understand.
Tight lines! Be safe! God bless!
Dead Sea all around the lake. Lot of lookers no takers. 12 to 14 inches of snow making travel difficult. Instant slush spots where holes are drilled. Most likely not going to partake in the MAAC tournament next weekend. With the expected temps this week, I’d be surprised if it’s not canceled.
Fishing was slow this morning. 6 small crappies. Travel conditions was bad 12 of snow on top of 8 in of water. If there was no holes around no slush until you drilled a hole then water would come up instantly.
NAV165, actually it's the other way around, walleyes run up River to spawn, and I think fish are in and out between the river and lake quite a bit. The funny thing has always been, even when the pollution was really bad, fish usually LOOKED real good and healthy, but eating was another story. Used to be you could do real well catching walleye in the fall with jointed Rapalas along the shorelines. A guy and his son kept a bunch once thinking they looked great, but later admitted after they cooked them they ended up getting out the peanut butter & jelly! In 1982 when I was in high school I took a buddy out there (ice fishing) and we hammered the pannies... had a 1/2 pail of bluegills and crappies. I had kept telling him we shouldn't be keeping any 'cuz you can't eat 'em, but he didn't believe me. I tried to tell him, but when he and his family cooked them stunk up the whole house! Most of the fishing on Half moon is in winter; it can also be good in spring and fall (I actually know one very good spot for big walleye and crappie in fall, but when you try that spot ice fishing nothing!), but not worth a dam in summer and the water gets real green (zero transparency) unlike the river which stays brown and fairly transparent. I don't know where the white crappies came from but they look beautiful (although thinner than the blacks). Didnt used to see them in there (just the regular black crappies).
I remember catching through the ice and preparing a bunch of blue gills from Half Moon, probably 25 years ago, and they were terrible. I took a couple of bites of a couple of different and all of them tasted like mud. Recently, I fished there for a couple of years and occasionally would get a keeper walleye and they tasted fine now. I only fished it in the spring so the water was still cold, not sure if they migrate into Half Moon to spawn?
As for eating fish from Half moon, I see some people are saying they are great and some are saying they can notice an off-taste. People talk of soaking the fish fillets first in salt water, baking soda, milk, etc. I say if you have to do all that then what's the point; soaking in something takes away the natural juices and flavors. In this state of ours we have very plentiful waters and shouldn't have to eat fish from polluted or former polluted waters. The problem with Half moon is it's basically a big side slough of the river and doesn't get "flushed" like most flowages. The bottom is largely muck, where decades of pollutants have accumulated. If you remember what the river looked and smelled like up until about the early 80s, you probably would think twice before wanting to eat anything out of there. It was heavily polluted for many years, and, again, a lot of this stuff accumulates on the bottom in areas of no current like Half moon lake. Lake Wausau which was also very polluted at least gets constantly "flushed" with currents from not just the Wisconsin but the Rib and Eau Claire rivers. Also now that the Brokaw mill has been closed since 2012 there really isn't much pollution entering that water anymore either. I think Half moon has filled in somewhat too, there used to be deeper holes which aren't there anymore. There used to be spots of 15-18 fow and now I haven't found much over 12 feet; I even ran around with the boat and locator. In the 70s and days of heavy pollution this lake hardly got fished; you'd maybe see a couple people here and there just trying it for the thrill of catching huge fish, because there truly were some monsters in there. A 17-inch crappie was caught and picture and article was put in the Daily Herald about it in 1977. We used to catch walleyes in the early 80s and put them in a spring-fed pond, after about 6-months we'd catch some back and then eat them... "recycled fish" we called them, but they sure tasted good!
