2011 Ice Bowl Nelson Lake

Mr. weather man said it was not going to be a nice day! This years ice bowl certainly lived up to its reputation the forecast called for temperatures in the 20's with winds to match in the 20 mph range from the southeast! Upon arrival at the dock at 7 AM I took one look at the lake and knew it was going to be a cold cold day on the water! the Ice Bowl is a different format where the fish are measured and released right away instead of weighed for a total of 6 fish between two anglers for most total length.

Matt met me there early and we launched the boat it was so cold it took 5 minutes for water to come out of the motor! I did a quick spin around the lake to check water temps and they were about what I figured they were in the high 50 degree range midlake. 

The wind was howling and the waves were growing by the minute people started to pull up to the dishcharge area and congregate around, I pulled the boat in and tied er up no small task in the howling wind and low water situation! everyone milled around for a bit and than it was time to draw some numbers and make some teams, after that was over several people decided to stay and fish the dishcharge area and I gave boat rides to the rest over to the east side usual places.

Fishing was tough to begin with for some and good for others Matt and I hit a school right away and than did not catch another fish for 2 hours! Geo and the boys over at the canal were rackin em up pretty good from the bank, with Geo landing a nice 5 pd fish! Jeff and Janine were having a tough time catching fish over on the east side while Paul and Jason were busy whackin em left and right just a hundred yards down the bank! (location location)!

With about 90 minutes left and no considerable fish to brag about Matt and I made the corporate descision to stop fighting the wind and slow down some since the fish were not overly aggresive and we anchored by a ledge and started pitching soft plastics to the fish! it turned out to be a wise descision as we hammered em pretty good and caught some nice ones.

Tourney results are as follows: 

1st place Marty Mantz and Jonathan Campbell 6 fish 110 inches

2nd place Matt Sullivan and Janine wetzel 6 fish 104.5 inches

3rd place Jason Bader and Chris Markham 6 fish 95.5 inches

Biggest bass was marty mantz with a 20.5 inch Bass a very close runner up was Geo Wentz with a 20.25 inch Bass! A total of 12 anglers fished and caught a lot of bass right around 70 fish! Full results and pictures can be found on the website!

Next tourney is the Nelson lake opener on May the 7th! unit 2 is currently down but is supposed to be back into operation on April 8th! so the lake will warm up considerably when it comes online, on the downside the creek is a runnin pretty good and will flood the lake with a lot of cold water sometime in the next week so plan accordingly! It was nice too see familiar faces out there and do a little fishin with the club! the weather has been horrible so far this year so hopefully it will change and well get some sunshine?????? haha. See ya on the water get out there and practice up! cause ya know I will be!