Well, let me be the first to post a Thief River Falls Ice fishing report...

Loaded my truck and headed down to the river after the vikings game expecting to see other people already down there, but to my surprise not a single ice fisherman? There weren't even any test holes drilled yet? WOW! Besides the house down the river a ways, it was just me.

By this time it was about 4:00pm, so I didn't have long before sunset, so I tried to put some bounce in my step and get a move on.

Eased out and drilled a hole close to shore...3.5" thick. mmmm, not so sure this is gonna be very safe, but like an idiot, I moved out a little more and drilled a few more holes...3.5"-4" thick. Slid out a little further and drilled a few holes into some nice looking black ice and found some ice measuring around 5" or so. It actually got thicker as I went out, which I'm sure would have eventually changed, but anyways I found decent ice over 8' feet of water and decided it was "good enough"! Unloaded my ice house, got it set up and was fishing before sunset.

I fished till about 6:00 with not much action. In fact, I didn't have any action what so ever...then finally I saw my dead stick slowly bend towards the ice. "I was so excited to see a fish was down there, I thought for sure I would mess up the hookset somehow". But like a true veteran, I picked up the rod and let her have it. Boom, nice fish on. After a short battle "only 8ft deep" I pulled in a nice 20" Walleye.

I continued to fish till about 7:00pm (propane was empty and the lantern was going dim) so I decided to pack it in and head for home.

Ended up with just the one fish, but had another couple of bites between 6:00 & 7:00 and had constant action on the Vexilar. I don't think a minute went by without something coming in and check out my bait.

Not the best ice fishing trip ever, actually it doesn't even rank "up there", but let me tell you it was nice just to get out on the ice again. Can't wait to get out again, this week maybe, next weekend for sure.

That's my first ice fishing report of the season, hopefully many more to come with better results.

Talk to you later...be safe.

Glad to see you made it out. I always hate the fact of being the only guy on the river when it's early ice. I didn't get much done around home, so I should have gone. I'm taking Wednesday off and may get my chance.

I did get out a couple more times this past week. Ended up catching a couple pike, a big rock bass and another walleye measuring about 14" (released). The walleye again came after dark, and also saw another angler land one after dark.

Ice average has been 5-6", pretty good most everywhere. I'll be back out again this weekend.

Talk to you later...Good luck if you get out.

Did you make it back out yet CatMan?? --i'm too much of a wuss to be on 5-6", but it won't be long until i venture out there.

Wuss, cautious whatever...there's nothing wrong with being careful. But the ice is coming along fairly well, average thickness has been an easy 5"+ everywhere I have drilled. I think it's time to get out there!

I have been out I think once since my last post. I haven't really been fishing the same areas as when I first started because they are getting a little too crowded for my liking. I would prefer to be away from the crowds catching nothing...but of course I did still catch some fish. ROCK BASS!

Yah I know most people could care less about catching Rock Bass, but hey they're fun to catch too and are pretty tasty out of this river. The fish I have been catching have been big fatties and are being found way back in the weeds. I still haven't put a bunch together yet, but last time out I caught a few anyways. I'm sure if I drilled a bunch of holes and moved around I would do pretty good, but what can I say, my nice warm ice house is just too comfy.

I'm gonna try and get down there again this week and do a little more searching. I might even try a little harder to actually find some fish next time...we'll see.

Good luck if you get out...see ya.

im hoping to get on the river for the first time in my life sometime this week. next week for sure. ive ice fished back home the entire turkey day break and im kinda goin through withdrawls at the moment...

There seemed to be a big group of fisherman around 8th street last weekend, and then everyone kind of dissappeared. There's a few houses left, but I would assume that there's not much going on now.

I'd heard there was quite a flurry of hungry fish. Is this true? I'm still trying to fill a couple deer tags so I haven't dusted off the auger yet.

Mathew, you better get that auger dusted off! It's just about time for the best ice fishing of the season...I bet your getting excited about trying out your new ice house huh?

As for a "flurry" of hungry fish I don't know, but I can tell you what I saw...here's how it works "on this river".

I was fishing next to a couple of guys on the river one evening, when I heard him say "yahoo, I got a walleye". Then he proceeded to call everybody he knew on his cell phone telling them they should come down and get in on the action. He had 1 walleye, that's it, but still other people came down and fished by him.

Anyways they fished a while, but nothing else was caught and everyone eventually took off for the night. It's just the way things work here in town. Someone hears of a fish being caught, which turns into another guy who calls his buddies and says he heard from someone that they are catching limits of fish or at least good numbers down at "this spot" and so on. Before you know it, there are house crowded everywhere in that area...watch and you'll see.

It's pretty easy to tell when it's a "dud" report early in the year, because no one sticks around very long. Everyone always wants to catch fish after fish, and no one wants to do any work to find those fish. That's why very seldom will you find me chasing the group!

Anyways after all that, fish are still being caught, at the same rate. Slow, but steady and if you drill a few holes and move around a bit, you will probably end up with a couple fish and every once in a while you'll strike gold. FYI, all my Walleye's this year through the ice have come after dark, don't know if it's the same for everyone else, but for me that's been the story.

Talk to you later, let me know when you plan on hitting the ice.

thanks for the much needed advice. i will prolly have to stick with the crowds since i do not know of any other spots lol. but def. keep your mouth shut if u get into a few thats for sure. i am not sure if i will like this fishing right in town secenario here. it seems like as u said its way to easy for everyone in town to come to one spot. idk ive always just fished lakes where u can get away if u wanted to. but im not picky i just wanna fish lol.

Ha Ha.. That's a pretty candid report, Lee. Not hard to believe though.

I've got two muzzle-loader tags to fill. Then I'll be hitting the ice hard. I hate mising the first ice bite, so I've gotta close the deal on a couple white-tails post haste!

Thanks for the invite. I'll call you as soon at the venison is in the freezer. It'll be good to explore the river together again. I'm really looking forward to the early ice bite on LOW!

Give me a call when your ready to go fishing Mathew.

Waterfoul Kid, As far as fishing here in town and chasing the groups, I don't have anything against those who do it, heck you probably catch more fish than I do, I just don't like being just another head in a herd if you know what I mean. You can still get away from the crowds even here in town, just try different locations that others aren't fishing.

I do my fair share of fishing here in town and you'll see me fishing just about anywhere and everywhere this winter. Sometimes it works great for me and sometimes it's painfully slow.

Good luck...

im not lookin for any body to tell me their hot spots or anything...but is there any crappies in the river? and if so could you let me kno the general location to try and find them, or is that giving out too much info? thanks in advance. again im not tryin to take somebodys secret spots on purpose, i like to work for my fish.

To be honest with you, I haven't heard of Crappies being caught in the river for a few years now. I do believe there are still Crappies in the river, but just not the numbers to target them successfully.

If I knew they could be caught in certain areas, I would have no problem telling you where to try, but I myself have never caught one ice fishing in this river. Back in the day, they used to catch Crappies around the 8th street bridge, but again I haven't heard anything for a good while now.

If I was going to specifically try for Crappies here in town, I would first start out fishing any structure you can find during the early season, move to deeper water from mid December through February. The deepest water you will find here in town or anywhere on the Thief and Red Lake River is about 17ft. This might be worth a try with the little current we have flowing in the rivers this year.

Hope this helps some.

thanks for the advice. maybe ill see ya out there sometime.

Anyone know of the Ice conditions behind the dam in Thief? More so around the Basswood Trailer court and Riverbend Trail area?