Hey Fisky

[Hammer-Smites]

I've been hitting LOW quite a bit over the past couple of winters and have really bcome addicted to this piece of water. What a fishery!!!<BR>I've never been up there for real early ice before and am going to give it a shot or two this year.<BR>I'm bringing my dad up to LOW for the first time. He used to fish tourneys 25 years ago or so and starting to get back into fishing after taking a few years off.<BR>We are planning on coming up December 11th-15th. What are the odds of having some decent ice to get out on 4-wheelers or snowmobiles? I know Mother Nature can do just about anything and you can ever tell, but typically is there enough ice to get out and about by this date?<BR>By the way, nice post you bumped up. I read it a couple years ago when I first started coming up and it proved vey helpful.

[fiskyknut]

I'd have to say most years we'll have plenty of ice for sleds and atv's no problem by the 11th. Like you said, mother nature! If it stays cold and we don't get any of this lakes famous 'wind events' that bust-up the early forming ice, this year could shape up to be an early ice year like last year. Water temps this year were up from averages thru mid october but have fallen bigtime since last week. The forecast thru next week looks cold, we've had daytime temps in the low 30's the past 5-6 days with the lows in the upper 20's, low 30's overnite. Forecast shows we'll see cooler temps yet thru this week coming, with the lows dipping to the teens come mid-week. Last year we had a very cold october, early november was average or a bit under, and then we got some way cold air around mid and late november. Last year I was walking onto some of my Pike spots during the 3rd week of november, and was walking onto 4-mile around the 26th. Folks were crossing to Pine via atv/sled around the very end of the month, and the first couple days of december. Resorts started moving stuff during that first December week bigtime. Some smaller vehicles and resort Samurais were crossing the bay to Pine as well. On the 7th we had sleds but piled in an f150 and drove out that weekend instead! I had been out there via sled prior and new we should be okay, 13 inches out to this spot but only 6 if you went the wrong way or too far! I also caught my biggest Walleye of the entire ice season on that day....Yippeeee!<P>So all we can do is hope we have cold weather thru november! It would be just plain great if we could see the ice season kick-off as early as we did last year thats for sure.<P>Keep an eye here and the ice condition reports will start to show up, hopefully before the end of the month!<P>I would also bet the fishing will most excellent during your visit, the early ice can be truly amazing some days up here. Caution, don't run out of minnows as the drive back to the baitstore would seem very long!<P>Regards....fiskyknut<P>

[Hammer-Smites]

Thanks Fisky. Your willingness to provide information is always appreciated.<BR>I'm really looking forward to getting dad up there. He used to fish walleyes hard in the mid 70's and won a lot of local (MN/WI) tournaments back then. There was one 2 day multi-species tourney that he and his partner won 3 or 4 years in a row. The last of those years, I was his partner when I was 14 years old.<BR>He basically got burned out and nearly quit fishing entirely, and has just kinda started getting the itch again over the past couple of years (mostly on soft water). My mom and his wife of 39 yrs just passed away a few months back, so I'm looking forward to spending some quality time with him this winter.<BR>We'll be staying in Baudette I think and running out on snowmobiles or wheelers. Drop me line at "[email protected]" if you're planning on being in the area during that weekend. I'll gladly buy you a cocktail (or two) for the info you've shared over past couple of years.<P>-Tim

[fiskyknut]

Tim, first off I'm very sorry to hear about the loss your Mom, cherish her memory, and stay tight with your Dad.<P>Odds are good I'll be around as I'm usually fishing over that way because the fishing is so good in December and January! I have a couple angling houses I fish out of and rent on occasion and I usually have them set-up out over that way once I can get them across no problem. Have a portable too, and once we have enough ice I'm on the water 4 or 5 days a week near Pine somewhere into the January timeframe. Weekends I'm always out there.<P>I'll get an email to you later today to touch bases and find out where your staying, what your setup is like, and what not.<P>Fisky