Open water Thanksgiving week????

[Born2Fish-Forced2Work]

I was planning on fishing the Lighthouse Gap and also trailering as far as Birchdale November 24-29. I know the Rainy is low and the current slow. Any predictions on whether or not I will have open water Thanksgiving week?<P>Just call me "Doug" for short...

[Scoot]

I'm not up there, so any local can correct me if I'm wrong, but rumor has it that most of the locals have pulled their boats and they're talking about potential ice in the river for the weekend. I'm skeptical of this, but that's what I was told. The lows have been getting down in the single digits and the water temp is in the mid-30's, so maybe it's not so far-fetched.<BR>Scoot

[fiskyknut]

Doug, you may want to bring your icefishing stuff instead of the boat! No one can say for sure, but last year I was walking out onto 4-mile bay right around turkey day. If the weather stays cold I'll say no, if it gets warm I'll say maybe! Keep an eye here, and also check Sandee's website for reports and conditions upriver.<P><A HREF="http://www.clementsonresort.com" TARGET=_blank>www.clementsonresort.com</A><P>fiskyknut

[Born2Fish-Forced2Work]

Thanks guys. This is kind of an every-other year ritual I started in 2001. Thanksgiving 2001 I stayed at Zippel Bay Resort and used a 16' resort boat to fish Zippel for pike in open water and walleyes out to the Morris Gap. The resort's bay had about a half inch of ice on it and I just slowly crunched through that. I had also brought my 12' boat to fish the Rainy from the Wheeler's Point landing. I don't remember which evening it was but at dusk all the locals pulled out and I fished about 2 more hours until I finally caught my one 18" keeper in the 30ish mph wind and sleet. The real kicker was I had not properly charged my trolling motor battery (no gas motor on the 12') and I was dead in the water at the Windsock. I had to oar like hell to get back to the landing. I took breathers holding tight against that thin island in the middle of the river. Took me over an hour to cover that distance. But I cleaned that walleye and had myself a spectacular dinner back at the cabin. I even managed to slow down in time driving back to Zippel Bay to *not* hit the 10 point buck that came out of the ditch in front of me.<P>I'll keep an eye here and also will check the Clementson Resort webpage. (I did read their Nov 4th update)<P>Thanks again...<p>[This message has been edited by Born2Fish-Forced2Work (edited 11-05-2003).]