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Anybody venture out and give it a whirl in this weather. I might sneak out on Sunday morning for a few. Be careful out there.

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Nope. I hope this weather doesn't hinder our efforts on Monday. I would sure hate to see a repeat of the zumbro event.

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Hello,...kinda new to this forum,...been watching it for a long while now,..and decided it was time to make a post,...I was wondering if any one has been out to foster areends with all last weeks snow,...I would like to take my 5 yr old son out there some time within the next week, and as I have only ice fished for the past few years,"mostly on foster" I have never really ran into this much snow!!!! and with the second round of snow that is expected for the rest of the week, I was just wondering if there is any extra equipment,"a shovel" or precations I should be taking. Would not want to risk losing my best fishing partner or souring the event for him in any way "trudging through as much snow as he is tall" lol, thanx for any advice you guys can give me!!

One mor thing,...is there any change to bait or pressentation I should use with this much snow cover on the ice?

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Besides fosters you can try willow creek res. off the highway by the airport. I know the bite is good there. Can have some fun with your partner thats always a plus. Yes bring a shovel to get down to the ice. Alot of slush but ice ishould be alright. 9-12 inches at least. Jigging off the bottom works well with a waxie. You can shovel the snow the fish probally don't care you don't need to do anything special.

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Welcome Hooked and thanks for getting signed up.

Jason makes a good point. If ya want keep your little guy busy then take him to the places where you get a lot of action like Willow. When my kids were small I'd keep the trips short, bring some snacks, and I always let them "play" with the minnows. wink.gif

I went to Fosters last night from 4:30 till 6:30 while waiting for my daughter to get off work. Snowed like crazy!

There is a layer of snow about a foot deep on top of a crust about an inch or two thick, on top of water. Some old holes are not froze over and buried under the snow. I stepped in one last night and even my size 13 went in up to my knee. Lucky, I just got a wet foot is all.

I caught and released two trout and missed a few others. Minnows were working good about two feet up off the bottom over 17 f.o.w.

Ice thickness in the Southern area is around 10-12".

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Hooked, Welcome to HSO & FishingMinnesota.com

Late ice and early spring is my favorite time to fish Fosters and I'd consider the late ice season starting within a week or so. This snow won't affect the fishing all that much. You might find trout near the bottom, or right under the ice, but that's the case with or without snow. I'd say a minnow under a float a couple feet off the bottom would be a good bet.

Snow atop of ice makes water atop of ice which can be a situation. When you shovel off a fishing spot and drill a hole, you might find 3+" of water atop the ice. If the ice is safe, its nothing to be alarmed about, but it makes a mess.

If you have a flipover style shack and you find a bunch of slush/water atop the ice, I've found it works best to not even shovel the snow away but rather pack it down and fish on top of the snow.

Good Luck and let us know how it goes.

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Thanks for all the info and advice! I will Certainly post on how the trip went!!!! As for a wet foot, my lil guy learned all about the foot through a hole leason last year, lol, lucky for him and the trip, we were right there and his foot was in the water for less than a second, didn't even get wet! he does love playin with the minnows too! he actually can put his own minnow on the hook, he started that at about 3.5yrs old, and does a real good job at it too!! thanx again for all the info! best of luck to all of you!!! keep the lines tight and the rods bent!! grin.gif

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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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