Friend of mine went to vet school and became good friends with a guy from Iowa. They both ended up in the dfw area after school and I ended up becoming friends with the guy from Iowa. Iowa guy was doing an ice fishing trip every year with his cousin that still lives in Iowa and I got invited 4 years ago. I jumped at the chance because I like fishing and always wanted to try ice fishing, but knew nothing about it. Fortunately Iowa guys cousin has all the gear and ice fishes quite a bit. In 2023 we went to South Dakota(waubay area). Had a blast. Caught my first walleye and yellow perch. Then in 2024 we went to Canada and ice fished lake of the woods. Caught two 28" walleyes in our group. Lots of big crappie, a few yellow perch and lots of eating size walleye. 2025 ice fishing trip didn't happen. Picked it back up this year. I know, not a lot of details, but I'm working my way to this year's trip.
We decide to go to ice fishing at lake Okoboji in Northern Iowa near where the two Iowa guys grew up and one guy now lives on the lake(canal off the lake). And when I say we decided I really mean they decided because I have no idea where good ice fishing is. I am flying from Beaumont to DFW to meet one of the Iowa guys and then flying to Sioux Falls, SD this past Saturday. Friday night the guy that lives in Iowa texts us and says we're going to the Missouri River and fishing out of his new to him boat. I wake up Saturday morning and see the text, having no idea what this means. So we land and find out we need to rent a vehicle because the other part of our group is headed to Chamberlain, SD about an hour ahead of us. It was gonna be tight with 5 dudes in a truck and they were going to get the boat in the water and do a little fishing. So this when we found out the guy that currently lives in Iowa is brining a friend and his brother. Ive been on another trip with them so its fun to have a couple more people along. Me and Iowa/Dfw guy try to rent a car from enterprise and hertz. They have no available vehicles. Avis/budget have one vehicle, a lincoln navigator. OK, cool we're riding in style. I think it was $100 a day and we need it through Wednesday. There goes $500, but we roll with it(hell we're on vacation) and head toward Chamberlain, SD about two hours East of Sioux Falls. There is the slight smell of marijuana everytime we get in the vehicle. Get there in time to fish for about three hours. End up with 7 sauger/saugeye(one was mine) and 1 catfish. Sauger are very similar to a walleye, a cousin is what I heard people say. Saugeye is a hybrid sauger and walleye. I can't tell the difference, but they all count the same to your daily limit so its not a big deal. There is a public heated cleaning station near the boat ramp. With a fish grinder you throw the heads and guts in(minus catfish), water hoses, and plastic cutting tables. Didn't get any pics the first day. Wasn't thinking about posting this at the time. Should have done a live thread and posted daily updates. We go eat dinner at a local pizza place that was really good. Had lots of busch light out of "towers" and go back to our hotel for more beer and cards. We get up at the Crack of 730 on Saturday, eat breakfast at the hotel then go to the boat ramp. At 900 there was a 50 minute wait to launch the boat. Probably 15 boats in front of us. It was 60 degrees in mid February so everyone was out. We start fishing and catch one or two here or there. Relatively slow, but we're catching a few. I catch a small mouth bass. We move to another area and started catching sauger/saugeye, ended up with 12 keepers between the five of us. I caught 2 that were just under 15 inches. 15 inches is the low end of the slot. Still had a great time. We see there is a bunch of boats waiting to take out so we keep fishing hoping it will get better. It doesn't, so at 430 we get in line. Only takes 35 minutes this time.
We have a 3.5 hour drive. So we throw the fish on ice, hit a drive through and start heading East to Okoboji. Get in around 930 clean fish and unload. Monday we get up and check with a guy at a local store to find out where good ice is. Do some scouting and find a bunch of ice and a bunch of open water. Debated taking the boat out again, but settle on ice fishing. We end up at a spot near the Iowa guys house that has thick ice, about 16 inches as we found out. Caught a couple crappie, a couple yellow perch, 2 big blue gills and a walleye. Not a bad day for how long we were out. We used a combination of live scope and these things called a vexilar to help locating fish. This day it was relatively warm again so no ice tent. Tuesday we are going ice fishing in the same area as the day before. It is going to be really windy so we bring this sled that has a tent attached. To get us and the gear out there we take Iowa buddies Ford Maverick and four wheeler. There are some questions about taking the truck out there, but you need 12 inches of ice to drive a vehicle and every hole we drilled was 16 inches of ice. Plus a Maverick is a smaller truck. I'm a little nervous but end up driving the truck out on the ice. We fish for about an hour or so. Iowa guy and his brother take the truck and four wheeler to scout while myself and Iowa/dfw guy are in the ice tent fishing. Then we get a call from one of the guys scouting. Truck broke through the ice! We come out of the tent and sure enough the truck has broken through the ice, but hasn't gone under the water. Everyone gets out safely. They start making calls to companies that make these kind of recoveries. One is in the middle of a recovery and can't make it that day. Another one says they can come but will be 2 hours. So the Iowa guy decides let's try and get it out. They go to get some equipment. DNR and park ranger get a call from someone and show up. We end up drilling a hole and putting a crow bar under the ice and using that as a winch point for the four wheeler. It actually moves it, but just cracks some more ice. Then the crow bar bends and the winch line starts cutting into the ice. That stops us. A recovery company shows up, but can't do anything that day. The truck is sinking about an inch an hour and this starts around 1. Around 430 it really starts moving down. We are there when it goes under. Buddy from Iowa makes an insurance claim and it should all be taken care of. Overall great trip. Had a lot of fun and saw a few things I've never seen before.
We decide to go to ice fishing at lake Okoboji in Northern Iowa near where the two Iowa guys grew up and one guy now lives on the lake(canal off the lake). And when I say we decided I really mean they decided because I have no idea where good ice fishing is. I am flying from Beaumont to DFW to meet one of the Iowa guys and then flying to Sioux Falls, SD this past Saturday. Friday night the guy that lives in Iowa texts us and says we're going to the Missouri River and fishing out of his new to him boat. I wake up Saturday morning and see the text, having no idea what this means. So we land and find out we need to rent a vehicle because the other part of our group is headed to Chamberlain, SD about an hour ahead of us. It was gonna be tight with 5 dudes in a truck and they were going to get the boat in the water and do a little fishing. So this when we found out the guy that currently lives in Iowa is brining a friend and his brother. Ive been on another trip with them so its fun to have a couple more people along. Me and Iowa/Dfw guy try to rent a car from enterprise and hertz. They have no available vehicles. Avis/budget have one vehicle, a lincoln navigator. OK, cool we're riding in style. I think it was $100 a day and we need it through Wednesday. There goes $500, but we roll with it(hell we're on vacation) and head toward Chamberlain, SD about two hours East of Sioux Falls. There is the slight smell of marijuana everytime we get in the vehicle. Get there in time to fish for about three hours. End up with 7 sauger/saugeye(one was mine) and 1 catfish. Sauger are very similar to a walleye, a cousin is what I heard people say. Saugeye is a hybrid sauger and walleye. I can't tell the difference, but they all count the same to your daily limit so its not a big deal. There is a public heated cleaning station near the boat ramp. With a fish grinder you throw the heads and guts in(minus catfish), water hoses, and plastic cutting tables. Didn't get any pics the first day. Wasn't thinking about posting this at the time. Should have done a live thread and posted daily updates. We go eat dinner at a local pizza place that was really good. Had lots of busch light out of "towers" and go back to our hotel for more beer and cards. We get up at the Crack of 730 on Saturday, eat breakfast at the hotel then go to the boat ramp. At 900 there was a 50 minute wait to launch the boat. Probably 15 boats in front of us. It was 60 degrees in mid February so everyone was out. We start fishing and catch one or two here or there. Relatively slow, but we're catching a few. I catch a small mouth bass. We move to another area and started catching sauger/saugeye, ended up with 12 keepers between the five of us. I caught 2 that were just under 15 inches. 15 inches is the low end of the slot. Still had a great time. We see there is a bunch of boats waiting to take out so we keep fishing hoping it will get better. It doesn't, so at 430 we get in line. Only takes 35 minutes this time.
We have a 3.5 hour drive. So we throw the fish on ice, hit a drive through and start heading East to Okoboji. Get in around 930 clean fish and unload. Monday we get up and check with a guy at a local store to find out where good ice is. Do some scouting and find a bunch of ice and a bunch of open water. Debated taking the boat out again, but settle on ice fishing. We end up at a spot near the Iowa guys house that has thick ice, about 16 inches as we found out. Caught a couple crappie, a couple yellow perch, 2 big blue gills and a walleye. Not a bad day for how long we were out. We used a combination of live scope and these things called a vexilar to help locating fish. This day it was relatively warm again so no ice tent. Tuesday we are going ice fishing in the same area as the day before. It is going to be really windy so we bring this sled that has a tent attached. To get us and the gear out there we take Iowa buddies Ford Maverick and four wheeler. There are some questions about taking the truck out there, but you need 12 inches of ice to drive a vehicle and every hole we drilled was 16 inches of ice. Plus a Maverick is a smaller truck. I'm a little nervous but end up driving the truck out on the ice. We fish for about an hour or so. Iowa guy and his brother take the truck and four wheeler to scout while myself and Iowa/dfw guy are in the ice tent fishing. Then we get a call from one of the guys scouting. Truck broke through the ice! We come out of the tent and sure enough the truck has broken through the ice, but hasn't gone under the water. Everyone gets out safely. They start making calls to companies that make these kind of recoveries. One is in the middle of a recovery and can't make it that day. Another one says they can come but will be 2 hours. So the Iowa guy decides let's try and get it out. They go to get some equipment. DNR and park ranger get a call from someone and show up. We end up drilling a hole and putting a crow bar under the ice and using that as a winch point for the four wheeler. It actually moves it, but just cracks some more ice. Then the crow bar bends and the winch line starts cutting into the ice. That stops us. A recovery company shows up, but can't do anything that day. The truck is sinking about an inch an hour and this starts around 1. Around 430 it really starts moving down. We are there when it goes under. Buddy from Iowa makes an insurance claim and it should all be taken care of. Overall great trip. Had a lot of fun and saw a few things I've never seen before.
