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I'll start it.....

 

I heard that water was flowing over the dam. Is Pike Bay flowing as well?

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No open water in Pike Bay.

The dam has been flowing almost all winter! There is now an open channel down the center of the Pike river past the dam as far as just past the Hatchery!

Saw a couple fish surfacing in the open water the past couple of evenings (suckers??). Have had geese, golden eyes, and a couple of swans in the open water all week.

Cliff

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I was out fishing today by my place.  About 2' of soft ice......had some lookers, no takers. Shorelines are getting pretty soft. Were snowmobiles running back and forth from Black Bay toward Wakemup/Head O Lakes Bays last wknd.  My kids were at The Landing Saturday afternoon and 3 sleds were parked out front.

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Saw a set of 4 wheeler tracks on Pike Bay this afternoon. It looked like they were sinking into the top ice about 2 or 3 inches!

Cliff

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I was up over the weekend and my shoreline was getting pretty sketchy.  Had a pocket of open water down the shore about a 100 yards. Where I could see the bottom in two to three feet of water.  Walked out about a hundred yards and popped four holes Saturday afternoon. There was 17- 18.5"s of ice in those four holes. Looking at the forecast I can't see the ice sticking around too much longer.  The holes I popped had 5-6" of pretty mushy cloudy stuff on top and about 12"s of pretty solid stuff underneath it. 

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Hey guys,

 

Just an FYI.  It sounds like the shifting ice sheet did some extensive damage to docks and shoreline on the south facing shore of Birch Point?  Letters went out from the barge services notifying everyone. 

 

Can anyone confirm?

 

I have not personally been up to see but depending on how bad it is we might not have a dock in time for opener.  If you have a south facing dock it might be worth noting.

 

Thanks!

Jon

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Cook, MN facebook page has a picture and info on it.  I don't know how to post a link, but here's the post-minus the photo.

 

The combination of record mild temperatures in late February and more seasonable temperatures in early March, has prompted dramatic ice movement on Lake Vermilion....

The south shore of Birch Point, which faces Big Bay, has seen some of the most extensive damage, as the ice has twisted lift docks, damaged boat houses, downed trees, and rearranged sizeable chunks of shoreline.

Only a handful of docks along the heavily-developed lakeshore have so far escaped damage from the ice. Many docks have been damaged beyond repair.

The pressure of expanding ice is typically relieved out in the lake, where large pressure ridges often form. But those ridges didn’t form as usual this year, and that left the shorelines vulnerable to the immense power of expanding ice.

Lake property owners are likely to be shocked when they arrive back at their cabins and lake homes later this year. And the cost of repairs could be especially painful since, in many cases, the damage is likely not covered by insurance.

“It will depend on their individual policies,” said Donna Mosher, with the Tower-Soudan Agency, which serves many Lake Vermilion property owners. She said standard insurance policies typically don’t cover ice movement, which can be a frequent source of property damage in areas where thick ice builds up in winter. Many property owners on Vermilion and other larger area lakes have turned to lift-out docks to minimize their risk of damage, but this year’s unusual conditions are leaving many of those docks damaged or destroyed as well.

Some property owners do obtain insurance that includes a specific schedule or rider to cover more expensive docks, according to Mosher, but that’s usually the exception rather than the rule. “I’ve had to tell people ‘no’ already,” said Mosher. “It’s unfortunate.”

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Another guy went through on Hubert yesterday near brainerd. That's the third guy ( all on different lakes) that went through this week! In that area! Please don't go out! If you do don't be to cautious. The crow wing county sheriff highly recommended not going on any lake ice no matter what type of transportation. Stay home and watch the ice melt. I know This is the vermilion area but it was a open thread. Sorry.

Edited by AlwaysFishing23
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I herd some lakes in the BWCA were still in good shape as of Monday but I'm sure that changed by now.

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I looked at cook, mn page didn't see the story.  both webpage   cookmn.com and the facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/CookMn/

and

the cook group   https://www.facebook.com/groups/396154887224760/

Not on Timberjay site either.  

 

You can post a link by just copy/and paste the url from the bar in your browser into your post. 

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Del,  it's on Cook, MN facebook....March 23.  Timberjay, you need a subscription to view entire story.

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I also heard that there has been a lot of ice damage on the South shore of Birch Point.

Saw a few pictures that Sherry, (Manic Docks) took last week.

Cliff

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17 hours ago, CigarGuy said:

Del,  it's on Cook, MN facebook....March 23.  Timberjay, you need a subscription to view entire story.

 

OK, maybe I didn't go back far enough.  I do subscribe to Timberjay.   They had the story?

 

Saw this on twitter this morning.... for what it is worth.  Link to a facebook.  page

(oops looks like embedding fb links doesn't work)  
Just checked ice. 18" seventy-five feet out from marina.
ice.jpg.0a5c5def1e1e4540a59abaff16238a1e.jpg
 
from Aronson boat works. 

 

 

Edited by delcecchi
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Looks like the link appeared after all.   It didn't at first but now is there.  strange.

 

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From the Cook facebook page (had to create a fake account to access it!):

 

Image may contain: bridge, snow, shoes, outdoor and nature

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My ice out prediction is:

Pike Bay -- April, 14

Big Bay -- April, 21

Cliff

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Cliff, We have 10-12feet open water in front of house, has not changed much last day or two. My guess for Pike Bay April11, Big Bay April 19.

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Pike bay is about 90% open today and Big bay is open south of Ely island. Nice warm weather is on the way so the ice should me going fast if we get some wind. I'm putting my boat in this weekend. ;)

 

"Ace" 

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Drove out and looked at the lake this morning.

Pike bay is about 1/2 open with many areas of open patches and other areas with floating mush ice on it.

There was a large open lead out from McKinley Park as far out as Ely Island and Birch Island!

Any kind of wind at all should open the entire lake within a week is my guess!

Cliff

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The one time we want want wind and nothing all week.....:angry:  Will be nice getting the lift in this weekend.

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • leech~~
      Nope not me.  May want to go nextdoor and ask around?  
    • smurfy
      Looks to me like Leech brought his chair home!!😅😆
    • Brianf.
      I'm not there, so I can't tell exactly what's going on but it looks like a large area of open water developed in the last day with all of the heavy snow on the east side of wake em up Narrows. These two photos are from my Ring Camera facing north towards Niles Point.  You can see what happened with all of snow that fell in the last three days, though the open water could have been wind driven. Hard to say. .  
    • SkunkedAgain
      Black Bay had great ice before but a few spots near rockpiles where there were spots of open water. It looks like the weight of the snow has created a little lake in the middle of the bay.  
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   Thanks to some cold spring weather, ice fishing continues strong for those still ice fishing.  The bite remains very good.  Most resorts have pulled their fish houses off for the year, however, some still have fish houses out and others are allowing ATV and side by sides.  Check social media or call ahead to your favorite resort for specifics. Reports this week for walleyes and saugers remain excellent.   A nice mix of jumbo perch, pike, eelpout, and an occasional crappie, tullibee or sturgeon being reported by anglers. Jigging one line and using a live minnow on the second line is the way to go.  Green, glow red, pink and gold were good colors this week.     Monster pike are on a tear!  Good number of pike, some reaching over 45 inches long, being caught using tip ups with live suckers or dead bait such as smelt and herring in 8 - 14' of water.   As always, work through a resort or outfitter for ice road conditions.  Safety first always. Fish houses are allowed on the ice through March 31st, the walleye / sauger season goes through April 14th and the pike season never ends. On the Rainy River...  The river is opened up along the Nelson Park boat ramp in Birchdale, the Frontier boat ramp and Vidas boat ramp.  This past week, much of the open water skimmed over with the single digit overnight temps.   Areas of the river have popped open again and with temps getting warmer, things are shaping up for the last stretch through the rest of the spring season, which continues through April 14th.   Very good numbers of walleyes are in the river.  Reports this week, even with fewer anglers, have been good.  When temps warm up and the sun shines, things will fire up again.   Jigs with brightly colored plastics or jigs with a frozen emerald shiner have been the desired bait on the river.  Don't overlook slow trolling crankbaits upstream as well.   Good reports of sturgeon being caught on the river as well.  Sturgeon put the feed bag on in the spring.  The bite has been very good.  Most are using a sturgeon rig with a circle hook loaded with crawlers or crawlers / frozen emerald shiners. Up at the NW Angle...  Ice fishing is winding down up at the Angle.  Walleyes, saugers, and a number of various species in the mix again this week.  The bite is still very good with good numbers of fish.  The one two punch of jigging one line and deadsticking the second line is working well.   Check with Angle resorts on transport options from Young's Bay.  Call ahead for ice road guidelines.  
    • CigarGuy
      With the drifting, kind of hard to tell for sure, but I'm guessing about a foot and still lightly snowing. Cook end!
    • PSU
      How much snow did you get on Vermilion? 
    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
      A friend who has a cabin between Alex and Fergus said the lake he's on refroze. He texted me a pic from March 12th when it was open and one from 23rd when it wasn't. 🤯
    • SkunkedAgain
      I don't think that there has been any ice melt in the past few weeks on Vermilion. Things looked like a record and then Mother Nature swept in again.   I'll give my revised guess of April 21st
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