Area ice reports

[bturck]

Cliff iwent to the Northland site looking for the Moxi Minnow. I could not find it under the spoon tab. Any other ideas? Nice eyes also, good start. Bill

[Jim Almquist]

Cliff iwent to the Northland site looking for the Moxi Minnow. I could not find it under the spoon tab. Any other ideas? Nice eyes also, good start. Bill

If you do a search for Northland moxi you will see a link to there site where they have all the different versions

[Finnish Flash]

Cliff,

When I cleaned these fish, they had absolutly nothing in there belly's....(Which are going on the fry pan for my Sunday Dinner!!!!) So if these are like any others swimming around out there, they should be very hungry and very aggressive in the next few weeks. Enjoyed getting out fishing again...Thanks Cliff!!

Darin

[VCCIceCrew]

Welcome! How's VCC these days? I heard Shawn Bina was provost now. I always liked and respected him as an instructor. Thanks for the reports!

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Cliff iwent to the Northland site looking for the Moxi Minnow. I could not find it under the spoon tab. Any other ideas? Nice eyes also, good start. Bill

The Northland lures should be available at almost all tackle shops by now.

I really like the real life "fish photo" finish on them! I expect to catch a lot of fish with them this winter! Very similar to the Angel Eye spoons but they have the "Photo finish"!

Cliff

[Steve Foss]

Tomorrow we will be out on Vermilion where we went and checked the ice today. Hopefully we can land us some fish. We will keep you guys posted on what happens and how the ice is coming along there.

A welcome from me, too. Good to have you here.

Looking forward to your ice and fishing reports. Good luck tomorrow. I'm betting you'll have fresh Vermilion walleye for supper.

[bturck]

jimalm: Thanks found it. They do look good, gonna have to give these a try. Thanks again. Bill

[Steve Foss]

I had six inches of solid ice everywhere I drilled on Birch today. The slush has all locked up, so top few inches is milky (but hard) and bottom few inches is solid and clear. About an inch of light fluff on top. Definitely making ice now. Very easy walking.

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Very slow bite this morning, more like NO bite for me! Moved 3 times and finally got some walleyes to bite in 28 feet of water. They started biting at around 1:45pm and I iced 5 and kept 4 by 2:40pm!

Wouldn't you know it though, not one fish on the Northland jig! All were caught using small white or pink Demon jigs.

Cliff

[side_laker]

Steve

Thanks for the update on Birch. were you fishing Kamers. how did you do. I am looking forward to getting up there and get some early gators.

[Steve Foss]

Steve

Thanks for the update on Birch. were you fishing Kamers. how did you do. I am looking forward to getting up there and get some early gators.

I and the two guys I was fishing alongside didn't do well. You can read about it here.

Hey Cliff, how was the ice?

[VCCIceCrew]

Well today was a decent day out on vermilion, now only if them walleyes could have bit. were about 200 yards out. About 6 inch's of ice its looking pretty good. Did not see anyone else out there from our place on big bay.

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Steve,

The ice where I went today is the same as it was out of McKinley. Around 6" of milky,but solid ice everywhere I tried.

Not surprised that the gators did not co-operate this morning either. The walleye bite for me this am was non existent! Better at mid-day though.

Cliff

[Cliff Wagenbach]

VCCIceCrew,

Sorry to hear that the walleyes did not cooperate for you! You were probably not far enough out from shore if you went straight out from the McKinley Landing. You have to get out at least past the points on either side of the landing to get into decent fish country.

Cliff

[VCCIceCrew]

Cliff,

Thats what i was thinking, but we were just playing it safe making sure the ice was good as we went out farther. but with this cold weather she should be plenty good.

[shamrock7]

"But with this cold weather she should be plenty good"

This is not a healthy assumption. It appears that the east end of Big Bay is looking pretty good but even that area should be checked carefully before venturing out. I saw the neighbor go out today, make it 50 yards off the dock, drill 1 hole and turn around and go back.

I just hate to see people out there if they have not personally checked the thickness.

Be careful out there. I do not want to go rescue anyone else this season, please.

[Darrell Larson]

No disrespect intended Randy, but if someone goes through the ice on the east end, by the time that your Rescue Squad arrives on site, you are probaly talking recovery instead of rescue. Unless maybe if they have flotation devices, they might make it, I would still bet on the "face of death"

People do not realize how fast cold water can take your life. Use a little common sense out there. Heard on the news this morning, 4 wheeler tracks on a lake down south of here, hole in the ice, no 4 wheeler tracks out, end result person found floating face down, not saying people are driving wheelers out on Vermilion, but if you go through walking and you have boots on, heavy clothing etc. well that's all I am going to say.

Thanks for what you do.

Darrell

[Steve Foss]

No disrespect intended Randy, but if someone goes through the ice on the east end, by the time that your Rescue Squad arrives on site, you are probaly talking recovery instead of rescue. Unless maybe if they have flotation devices, they might make it, I would still bet on the "face of death"

People do not realize how fast cold water can take your life. Use a little common sense out there. Heard on the news this morning, 4 wheeler tracks on a lake down south of here, hole in the ice, no 4 wheeler tracks out, end result person found floating face down, not saying people are driving wheelers out on Vermilion, but if you go through walking and you have boots on, heavy clothing etc. well that's all I am going to say.

Thanks for what you do.

Darrell

Rescue. Recovery. Rescue=alive. Recovery=dead.

Both suck for the victim and the team. Recovery sucks worse for both. I've been a family member of a recovered deceased victim, and I've been a volunteer firefighter going in to rescue/recover people and bodies.

It's a bad deal any way you look at it. No doubt we can all agree on that. Right?

[Steve Foss]

Anybody got an up to date ice thickness/condition report for Shag? I know folks have been fishing it for several days.

Thanks!

[Mike Stark]

4-6in of good clear ice.

[Steve Foss]

Cool. Sounds like another week on Birch, and then snowmobiles for 'eyes on Shags.

[Darrell Larson]

Yes sir, I can agree it's a bad deal for all concerned. Nuff said.

[shamrock7]

Darrell, I agree whole 100%. My point is if someone goes through, and we get called, we have to go out and risk our lives. Yes, by the time we get there, more than likely, it will be a recovery operation.

The main thing is that we all agree that it is a BAD deal either way.

[Mike Stark]

yea. shouldnt be long for sleds on shag.

[BayView_Lodge]

Well the deer think its ok out there anyhow, they have a pretty good trail between here and strawberry island. Theres no slush around here anywhere that I was riding and very little snow on the ice. -17 last night...

[iceranger792]

Sounds good enough to me

[hawgeye]

We found a lot of bad / inconsistent ice last weekend. headed up the echo trail and ice was very bad. big lake varied from 1-3" and some of teh other smaller lakes in area were much worse 1-2" of ice with 12" of wet snow on top. we hit vermilion on Friday and found more of the same. went out of the shamrock landing and ice varied from 1"-7". spots where the slush wasn't frozen had barely any ice, going through with one poke of the spud, should of went to stuntz bay. headed back to duluth with tail between legs

[splakeshaker]

I had a similar experience as Hawgeye in Ely..I found 2-4 inches in the places I went....About a week to early for me...oh well..This weekend should be much better all around...Except for the slushy lakes..They'll need some more time yet...Better safe than sorry...I also stopped at Lucky seven on Monday morning and someone said a couple kids fell through on Birch on Sunday evening..Never said where..Just be careful and don't push your luck..safer ice is coming soon.

[chaffmj]

I thought I saw sleds on Shag last Sunday, not that I am giving anyone the ok.

[shamrock7]

Just got back in from checking. Went out about 200 yards and checked several of the same spots I check on Saturday that were marginal. Everywhere I checked I found 7-8" in of solid ice. Some slush ice, some black ice. But no layers like the other day. Was pretty consistent so I would imagine that we are through the worst of it. Could easily still be some bad areas out there so one should still exercise extreme caution as you go out. Have a great winter season but be careful