ice house NDGF
By Doug Leier
Whether you go by the calendar or conditions on the ground, winter in North Dakota is always a season of transition. Officially, the books say it starts Dec. 21 and wraps up March 21. For me, winter started with a true cold and snow snap just before Thanksgiving. For some, it didn’t truly feel like winter until those late February storms rolled in. That late-season blanket of white has a way of quickly erasing memories of those unseasonably warm December days that felt more like October or April. Personally, I’d acclimated quite well to the milder weather, but the return of the winter reflex – warming up the pickup and double-checking for sandbags, shovels and survival gear – is just part of living in the 701.
While it might be a little easier to settle in for a Sunday nap this time of year, our fish populations don’t have the luxury of just “hibernating” during the cold. They simply change their routine, and seasoned ice anglers have learned to adapt right along with them.
During these months, anglers typically target our coolwater species like yellow perch, walleye, and northern pike. These fish stay active even under two feet of ice and snow. On the flip side, warmwater species – largemouth and smallmouth bass, white bass and catfish – slow way down. As Randy Hiltner, former Game and Fish Department district fisheries supervisor in Devils Lake, put it: “Their internal furnaces aren’t running on high right now. Their metabolism drops, and they just don’t need to feed as much. In Devils Lake, white bass likely aren’t wasting energy
chasing minnows when they can just sit back and pick from the scud buffet the lake is known for.”
Biologists can see this period of lethargy by looking at fish scales, which read a lot like the growth rings on a tree. In winter, those rings are packed tight, showing how little the fish grew during the lean months.
Fish are adapted to their own optimums. In the heat of summer, trout get stressed while bass thrive. Iin winter, it’s the opposite. We don’t know everything about what happens under that ice, but we do know these warmwater species are doing as little as possible to keep their stress levels low.
Still, every winter we hear about an angler pulling up a white bass or a largemouth. Most likely, the bait just happened to land right in front of them, and they bit out of natural reaction rather than hunger. It also helps to remember that while most ice anglers fish near the bottom, these warmwater species might be suspended somewhere else in the water column.
As the calendar turns toward March and April, I’ll be moving into my spring pattern, and you can bet the fish and fowl will be doing the same. Stay safe and enjoy North Dakota’s great outdoors.
Comments