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Rice Lake


jb_bobber

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if you look at the map of rice you will essentially see two main basins and relatively steep slopes leading into them. in general.... the eyes will be on or near the break and the crappies will be schooled up and roaming outside in the 20ish range that lost cause mentioned.

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thinking of heading out there this weekend is the slush real bad like it was early last year? just wondering to know which boots to wear.

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yes the slush was real bad last weekend. I'm sure there will be more this weekend. There were some really nice cracks with slush pockets last sun. Be careful. Maybe bring the hip-boots grin

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anyone have any current info on the ice and slush? looking to take the wife on her first ice fishing outing, want to know what I might be getting into, or if its best to go to a different lake

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Ice is starting to build up. Some wheelers out on the ice with varying ice from 6 to 11 inches. We were out on Wed night when the snow storm hit and a lot of snow is on the lake now and slush was forming around our permanent house. Fish werent cooperating either!!

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pushbutton is right. Work that 17-20 foot range EARLY and you will find a good bite. It slows down after 9AM. Spread out and don't get sucked into the towns that have sprung up. It's a big lake! and if you have a wheeler or sled you can cover a lot of ground and find fish all day.

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I hate to say it, but minners is right. Was out on Saturday and the bite was tough, but the towns were tougher. Fished outside the box and did OK. Got back into the box, and it wasn't good. There are several areas that produce fish out here. If you get outside the box and fish these, you will do good.

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personally i love to see the cities on the ice on bigger lakes. while they are there for a reason, all this fish in the lake don't overwinter in the holes...yep, fish can actually swim ..... first off it does not allow for a lake to be fished out and secondly it allows for plenty of other good fishing spots!

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Be careful out there though are house is only on ten inches of ice and water was coming up the wholes once drilled. So be safe another five inches out there on Monday so be careful also a lot of slush around the ice communities. If you want to go off road have a shovel or good chains on wheeler but not enough ice for me yet for trucks and wheel houses. We moved our house via wheeler and sled and its a ice castle . The snowmobile was hocked up to our wheeler to get more headsteam going but we still got stuck three times. Good luck out there fishing is a little slow!!!

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Just got off the lake it was spotty we got are fish but had to move alot to stay on them. It was hard to move around even with a atv to much slush and snow hopw it gets cold or we will have problems soon. If anyone wants to get out for a few hours just send me a message and we will go from there

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  • Official Fishing Report Team - MN

Pulled both of my permanents home from Rice this afternoon frown I am going to wait and see what happens with this next sotrm and weahter. A little heads up if you got houses out there you may want to block them or check on them as the water and slush is starting to take over the area!

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Was out on Rice today. Drove my 3/4 ton truck out there no problem. I did stay on the plowed road until I pulled off to park it though. Off of the plowed road where I was fishing I had 16" of ice. about 10" of good clear ice with the rest being frozen slush. Didn't have an issue with wet slush at all though. Fishing was decent.

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Is it still mostly ATV / Sled travel out there or are trucks the norm now?

Long walk is my only other option besides driving.

Thanks for all the reports

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Was out on Rice today. Drove my 3/4 ton truck out there no problem. I did stay on the plowed road until I pulled off to park it though. Off of the plowed road where I was fishing I had 16" of ice. about 10" of good clear ice with the rest being frozen slush. Didn't have an issue with wet slush at all though. Fishing was decent.

You got balls! Most resorts on Mille Lacs are saying that their roads have 17" - 18" of good ice but they still aren't letting anything on them bigger than 1/2 ton.

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I just got back from Rice also and had an alright time, wasn't looking for eaters but just for something to occupy my time for a couple hours and that's about all it did. Marked fish at 18-20 all night and had to work real hard to get them to bite...

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Nels-bells, I only have an extended cab pick-up truck. Most people generalize 1/2 tons w/ most trucks that are single cab pick-ups. This number simply refers to the payload capacity of a truck. It has NOTHING to do with how much the truck actually weighs. I wouldn't hesitate driving my truck on 16" of ice as long as there is a plowed road.

Fished same spot tonight as last night and couldn't bit was VERY tough tonight. Reading a lot of fish but very very finicky...

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Anybody been out there lately for ice conditions? Driving on the road pretty well shut down for awhile?

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  • Official Fishing Report Team - MN

Its rough and they broke up alot of the rd. There are some slsuh pockets on the rd couple more of these cold days and things will be looking better.

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Went out yesterday. Got on the ice at 6:15 in the morn and got stuck at 6:20 on the way to the hot spot. We were following a nice looking path and all of the sudden the truck stopped going forward and sank down. I nearly filled my pants I was so scared I thought we were going down. We broke through the what must have been slush the day before and froze, right into more slush. The frame and under body of the truck were resting on the ice and snow with the wheels off the good ice. When we tried going didn't do anything except sling water everywhere.

Broke a 4" by 4" board and bent the heck out of a chisel trying to move it enough to get the tires on something solid with a come-a-long. People saw us trying to get it out and turned around to go to another access. 3 guys with trucks said they wouldn't go out there to help us, or lend a tow strap.

Luckily a 4 wheeler came by with a strap. He couldn't pull us out, but went and got his buddy with a truck that got us out. Spent an hour and a half trying to get it unstuck. When we did get to the spot and drill some holes the bite was slow, but still did well.

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I had intentions of driving out on Friday but when i got to the access my gut told me not to drive out there, so i went to Browns and walked out, managed a few crappies. What you experinced is what i was afraid of

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98 Monte, I'm glad to hear that you didn't go through. What access did you go out on that day? About what area of the lake did this occur? Thanks.

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Aside from the slush pockets..How much snow is on the lake? Can you drive a truck without the constant fear of getting stuck?

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Nels-bells, I only have an extended cab pick-up truck. Most people generalize 1/2 tons w/ most trucks that are single cab pick-ups. This number simply refers to the payload capacity of a truck. It has NOTHING to do with how much the truck actually weighs. I wouldn't hesitate driving my truck on 16" of ice as long as there is a plowed road.

Fished same spot tonight as last night and couldn't bit was VERY tough tonight. Reading a lot of fish but very very finicky...

I don't think most people generalize 1/2 ton, 3/4 ton, etc with whetehr it is an extended cap or single cap. They generalize it with F150 or Chevy 1500 = 1/2 ton. F250 or Chevy 2500 = 3/4 ton, and F350 or chevy 3500 = 1 ton. You are correct though in that it relates to pay load capacity. A 3/4 ton truck is going to way more than a 1/2 ton due to beefier springs, shocks, etc.

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