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Just to stir up the forum from its death I thought I'd throw up a new post. What's everybody's prediction of this season's Ice? I'm gunna guess good early ice and and just have hope that the ice stays at least good enough to ride wheeler on for the winter! As a snowmobiler I hope for a record amount of snow not seen in decades... might be better off tying to win off a lottery ticket though.

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  • 1 month later...

I'll venture a guess and say 1st weekend of December we'll have a good 4" to walk on. 

Then it will continue to freeze to at least 12" before it gets snowed on :cool:

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I'm going to predict that these warm winters with less snow are going to be occurring more frequently and that safe ice will be a thing of the past.  Open water fishing will be back sooner than you think next spring.

Billy G - go get that lottery ticket!

Edited by gimruis
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Haha I'll get right on that, some snow predicted tommrow night though, i think my theories might be coming true....

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  • 2 weeks later...

It's possible, definitely up North. I'm pretty big into weather and the latest models have us creeping back into the 50s...maybe low 60s for highs come mid month. It can very well change though! As a whole I think we'll have a great winter compared to the last few...finally a La nina pattern. Also plenty of cold building in Canada. I say first weeksfct.us_nc.thumb.png.ebca35d11db4b1588abffa1735d8fd5d.png of December...and very soon for places in Nw MN.

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It's all open...it's ready to go..But we won't see any big time cold for awhile..Still in better position then last year. I was open water fishing the first weekend of shotgun in a t-shirt last year. We'll be alright. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Looks like a stretch of warm weather for the next week or so. No safe ice in November for southern Minnesota this year.

Maybe safe ice for the weekend of December 9 in south central Minnesota if the temps are just a bit colder than currently predicted.

The weekend after that is looking good unless the predicted temps for December get warmer, or you get a bunch of snow up that way.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Alot of open water pockets on bigger lakes still, some people out on cannon on 3 inches about 60 yards or less from shore. 

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Thanks for the report--about what I figured, which is why I stayed down here in Iowa this weekend.

I am fairly optimistic about getting on the ice in southeast or south central Minnesota next weekend; whether I am on a lake around Faribault or Waseca, or one of my old backwater haunts on the Mississippi remains to be seen. Maybe Clear Lake, Iowa.

Whatever I do I will post my results.

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23 hours ago, geliason said:

Can't get on the lakes yet, but there are still fish in the river.

There's no reason to go on the frozen lake when you are catching fish like that in the open water of a river.

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Saw a bunch of houses on Union today. I didn’t know that lake had anything worth catching. Is it just an early ice lake?

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I may make it over to Elysian, Francis, or Tetonka this Saturday. Depends what I find on the Mississippi tomorrow afternoon.

From what I have heard the ice on the backwaters around Winona and La Crosse may actually be in better shape than that around Waseca and Faribault, which is kind of odd for early ice. Usually the south-central MN lakes freeze up just a bit quicker.

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I'm 4-5 hours South, but my cousin texted me yesterday and said guys are walking out from the North side of French.  He said there's still open water on the South side though.

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use caution on the lakes in southern mn  there is a lot of lakes that have one or 2 spots of open water.  with that said where ive fished there has been a solid 5-6 inches as of yesterday  clear, cedar.cannon,elysian, circle.  i would use a spud bar to check if your going where people havent gone yet.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Buddy saw 2 cars out on Roberts last night, a little brave among other words if you ask me! I bet there's some good ice being made now with these below zero days we've been having.

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I found a lot of 9” ice but am sitting on 7 1/2” now. Several vehicles on the ice including many 1/2 ton trucks. Way more brave than l am.

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Man people like to push their luck, or maby they just have lots of money laying around to get their cars and trucks out of the ice! What you reported for ice just goes to show like most people should be aware of is that if you have this much ice here and there it doesn't mean you have it everywhere

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What lake were you on there are some lakes like roberds nw corner point that geese kept open so that ice is a week or so behind the rest of the lake.

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On Roberds yesterday. A good 8-10 of clear ice. Still not driving thickness for me. Lots of marks on the flasher. 16.5 FOW and ended up with a 4 lb white bass (biggest ever for me) and a 16" walleye right at sundown. 

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I've never caught one before. Are they good to eat? Good fighters? Never been on that lake before, any advice on some good spots to check out? My wife and son have never been ice fishing before and this winter I told them we would check out a bunch of new lakes and I wanna put them on some good spots.

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We were out on sabre last weekend and didn't catch anything.  I think we were just out at the wrong time cause quite a few people started showing up when we were about to leave. Must be a good late bite there.

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I have not eaten white bass. I hear if you filet them but leave the belly meat off they are pretty good. I've found Roberts better on early ice for walleye, same with French. Better luck with crappies after that. Best idea is to go the the DNR website lake finder and download the lake maps.  Look for breaks, inside curves and points. Mark what you think will be good spots, then for 10. Bucks you can get the Navionics app for phone or iPad. 

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Thanks for the advice. I bought a southern mn lake map book from fleet farm a couple of months ago and flagged a bunch of lakes and was marking spots I wanted to try. I'm definitely gonna try those lakes you mentioned. I don't really care if I catch fish but I want them to. I want them to have as much fun fishing as I always have, even if you're not catching anything.

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • 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
    • leech~~
      As I get older it's really not just about sending bullets down range.  Some of it's just the workmanship of the gun and the wow factor. The other two guns I have really wanted which I'll never have now because of their price, is a 8mm Jap Nambu and 9mm German Luger.   Just thought they always looked cool!  
    • jim curlee
      I had a guy hit me with a lightly used 1969 BAR, he wanted $1650 with an older Leupold scope. More than I think they are worth, I made an offer, he declined end of story.   You know if you look at the old brochures, a grade II BAR sold for $250 in the late 60s, $1650 would be a good return on your investment.    Why would anybody want a 50 year old gun, they are heavy, have wood stocks, and blued metal.  I guess mainly to keep their gun safes glued to the floor. lol   You can probably buy a stainless rifle that you never have to clean, with a synthetic stock you never have to refinish, is as light as a feather, and for half as much money, perfect.   I'm too old for a youth gun, although I've shrunk enough that it would probably fit. lol   No Ruger 10/44s.   Jim      
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