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Detroit Lakes Area Ice Conditions


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Any size to the eyes? I live about 1/2 block from where you were fishing. Now I am jealous, I was sitting in the house all night while you were catching fish only a few steps away.

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  • Dahitman44

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Ok Here it IS me report. Now by no means am I to be trusted as safe or not safe lake ice but this is what I found and you can do what you wish with my info:

Pelican Lake 2-3" not to far from Millionare Point and close to river channel.

Lida Lake 1.5-4" according ot my customer who lives there. I saw a few portables.

Lizzie - Water open near river but saw 3 inches were I checked.

Prarie Lake. area by landing was open because of river but Guy fishing in permanet house in the middle of the lake near the rock piles.

Tamarack: Lots of activity from spear sites and noticed an ATV pulling a house. saw 4-6 inches were I drilled not to far off of access.

Nice girl working at the Dunn Villas store said she had sold a ton of minnows today, no word on were people were fishing.

HOpe this helps somebody. I heard Tom Symanski say -9 on wed for low. that will help

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Did you check any other spots on Pelican? I would think there would be better ice in other spots? That channel can't help.

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No due to some time constaints I had to split. My second job on Pelican was on Broadwater Bay and the lake infront of the private access had 2 feet of snow on it. I did not venture out there. SOrry

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I got a report from a buddy and said there is 3-6 inches on pelican. He was out lastnight and got 3 nice eye! I will be heading that way this weekend

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Measured from 6-9 inches on Middle Cormorant today. 9 was near shore and out further was 6. Saw snowmobile tracks across the lake too.

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unconfirmed reports of 6-8" as of Monday. I'm sure there was more ice being made the past few days though.

I saw a clown driving a ranger pickup out of the J&K access on my way home last night. I don't know how far he made it; I kept seeing him reverse and change direction... I didn't see any broken up ice this morning on my way to work, so either he turned around or made it out safe. I think it's a little early to be driving yet, to say the least....

I'd be real cautious around the ice near shore. Much of the North and Western shoreline has had open water at times. No one at work can figure out why this is happening, except there may be some groundwater intrusion in these areas. When you get out there, you'll see the bad ice, as it will most likely still be wet, as well as a ton of pressure ridges along the border.

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The ranger was on Little D.L. last night in front of the condos near the pavilion. A snowmobile went out on Sallie tonight.

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A snowmobile went out on Sallie tonight


Bob I was on my sled this afternoon for a little bit. There was also a wheeler out too. Ice was good where I was riding on the NE corner

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Deadhead, It was nict to meet you at the access Friday night. I thought I would let you know that I measured 8 good inches of ice in the places I fished. Fishing wasn't great, I caught 7 eyes but only had one big enough to keep about 17". Nice night to be out there temp was great.

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Thanks for the report Jay, nice meeting you. Were the other walleyes about 6-7" long? Those little runts are everywhere... did you catch any perch?

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ccording to Jon the Master Baiter at Quailty Bait there is 11" of ice under his house west of the pavilion on Little DL.

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I can confirm 11" inches of ice on Little DL form one side to the other side, seeing as how we got a bug up our shorts to park on the beech and walk across the lake pulling protable, augers, heaters, bait, rods, etc. 2mile round trip. 11" all the way to the other side.

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Lida:

7-9 inches...at least that is what my father said. I will be out on North Lida tomorrow....I will up date the ice report at that time.

Cliffy.

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A few Swings...and of course...a few misses to follow. We were marking fish...but no takers. We only tried for a few hours and never bothered moving...so we didnt feel to bad. I am going to try again on my next set of days off.

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I didn't mark anything on middle, but we were making a lot of noise in 16 feet of water. We were still attaching the lights and banging around during prime time. crazy.gif

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I was out on Melissa yesterday and there was 8-11 inches of good, clear ice everywhere I went. There was still a little snow on the ice also, so I don't think this warm spell or rain hurt the ice too much.

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Hunt is right. Good ice.

Big C went from 8 inches last weekend to 10 this weekend.

Minnow-man helped me move my house from Middle to Big.

Thanks, Minnow!!!

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I kind of like these ice conditions as they are now....keeps everyone and their "mom" from driving their trucks out all over the place. Makes for better fishing too smile.gif

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There was a vehicle out on the middle of Melissa on Saturday. I would have to guess that they were from the shallow end of the gene pool.

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The best part is then feeling obligated to help them after they go through. I just dont get some people, they must have some kind of special "flood" insurance for their vehicles!

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Finally made it out yesterday - hit Little DL. Walked out from shore about 1/4 mile - in the area of some of the other houses out there. Was still about 11inches where I drilled as reported a week or so ago. But the ice was sure noisy - lots of creeking and cracking going on all the time I was out there. I also saw the truck on Boyer when I went - not smart IMO, not yet anyway. Fished for about 2 hours - caught a few crappies, bunch of sunnies, and a couple small perch -- everything went back - all were on the small side - but it was nice to be out. The fish were active - but light biting - lost a lot of bait, but they'll only get bigger if we feed them, right??

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Quote:

Just saw an idot driving on Boyer.


there was a clown driving his blazer on Sallie last night, pulling behind a his 10' permanent at about 30 mph mad.gif. I grabbed my ice picks while i was in my house just in case. You could hear the ice buckling as he neared all the other houses. Of course he came rolling in right at prime time. You could hear a few 'comments' in the air when they pulled up. And the even had the graciousness to leave and not fish after all the disturbance. confused.gif

There was 11" of clear ice where I was, and a case could be made that that was enough for the blazer, but these guys need to drop their house during the day. When you get on a alake like Sallie, where the primetime bite can fall within a small window, this kind of stuff is not cool. All I ask for from these guys is a little courtesy to the anglers out there fishing.

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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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