Lake Monona

Made it out to one of my favorite walleye spots tonight. Saw a flip over, must have been skratty. Set up in about 11ft of water. Marked a fish at about 5:15 and it hung around for a while. Never bit. Not long after a much larger mark came in and was hot and heavy on my rattle spoon. Went from bottom all the way to 5' and ate. Ended up being a 19.5" walleye. Nothing after. Nothing new to report about the ice.

*edit* I just wanted to note that I released that walleye.  First walleye of the season gets an automatic pass, no matter what.  Also, 19.5" is just a bit big for Monona ​

Walked out from Tonyawatha landing this afternoon.  Agree w/SMHunter.  Very rough ice close in then it smooths out.  Maybe 3" of solid clear ice once you get out there a ways. Luckily just a dusting of snow on top so it will continue to grow. Looked like a pressure crack forming and running NW from the area.  

Wyldhaven has frozen over this year!  I did not walk out there yet.

Spudded my way out of the Schluter Beach around noon to check ice.  Not going to report an official thickness because I don't want to give a false sense of security.  It's all chunky ice from getting broken up and pushed into that shore.  Measured as much as 8" where the top 4-5" was foggy with nice clear ice underneath.  Other spots I measured just 4" of perfectly clear ice. It's by no means safe ice, but you can certainly get out on it.  Take your spud, take your time, wear your float suit, wear your spikes. Maybe also only work your way out over the shallow stuff to where you want to fish, then get onto the deeper parts.

Drove around the Monona side of the lake today to check areas. Schluter beach, tonyawatha boat landing, wyldehaven park, and wiicawak Bay. Surprised to see the whole lake ice iced over. I didn't notice any open spots. A lot of it is floe ice that froze up. Noticed a lot of shuvs and such. Didn't bother checking it. I'll probably go spud out of Schluter on Thursday-ish to see what's up. Anyone know how that kind of ice freezes in comparison to the really good stuff?

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Thought I might sneak out at Olin this morning for a bit, but with the snow was concerned it might be tough to get the boat out (putting in wouldn't have been a problem) if it got icy from all the water coming off the trailer. Looks like they plowed it nice at one pier area. So I went home and called it a year. Boats all ready for it's winter home now it's time to go through tons of videos and waypoints. 101 times out this season, same as last year!

With the coming snow, it might be better if it waited until after the snow to ice up

Monona Bay was indeed iced over Friday. About 1/2 inch where I was at. Colder weather is finally coming and I suspect there will be people out there as early as next weekend. WI River Rat...you caught as many or more musky on panfish gear than I caught on musky gear on Monona in 2023 LOL.

First day I saw Monona bay and the triangles froze over. I didn’t check any thickness.

Bored at work dreaming of the ice building. (So I can spend several hours catching four inch blue gills and never keeping any if they are eaters:)

Last years last wolf.  Notice the wet feet.  Rat was determined to land fish.  Knew I was going home after the catch.  I might of posted this pic last year but you can see where the wolf is hooked.  Everyone I land is hooked in this fashion.  Rat.