Wind!!!!

[CANOPY SAM]

Weatherman says 25-30 mph winds again today! I don't think I can recall such a windy fall and early winter in my short lifetime. The wind is already blowing snow around here pretty good.

I really feel for all you folks working to keep those ice roads open. It's gotta be frustrating. Good luck and be safe.

Sam

[kelly-p]

Yes this is looking ugly again. From trying to find safe ice to trying to find fish and trying to hold what few roads we have I don't think anyone working on the lake has much of a sense of humor left. From the start of the crappie boom until now we have had an amazing string of average or easy winters out on the lake. This year Mother Nature decided to give us a hard winter and humble us a little. Well,,,,,,she has done that.

[YiGGiN4SLoBS]

At least the temps are in the "ice making" range. Kelly-Jonny Are you guys starting to see thicker ice out further on the lake or is the snow still hampering that? We are coming up with a group of six the first week in feb. and are hoping the roads will be out close to 5 miles.... I know u cant predict mother nature, but do you think its going to be attainable by then?

Keep up the good work boys!

[kelly-p]

but do you think its going to be attainable by then?

That is really hard to say as there are so many variables. There is a lot of snow out there for making ice or for making new roads. Any main roads made now on this ice thickness will have to sit until they hump up before you can have heavy traffic on them or they will bust up. I was standing on Deans new road today when a guy pulled up in a diesel Megacab. The cracking he was doing to that road made me feel like curling up in the fetal position and crying like a baby. This situation could get worse quick if we get another big snowfall. How much weight can this ice hold before it sinks and floods???? I'm seeing steam coming up from areas sinking everyday out towards the middle of the lake. In the winter of 86-87 (I think) we got a big snowfall during the day in Feb. and by dark we were all running in a foot of water to the main roads that were humped up. Right now we are still sticking to the roads and areas where we were before the big storm.

There is still that layer of white ice on top. In my opinion white ice is worthless and shouldn't even be measured as "ice". Until we get to about 18 inches of good ice the ice sheet will still be moving around with big cracks appearing here and there.

No it is almost impossible to guess how this will play out but I feel that safety has to be more important then good fishing.

[Benjy]

We are thinking of coming up this weekend and dragging our snomobiles and portables along. Wondering if its worth the effort to drag all the gear out there - better fishing? How far out should we go after the roads end? Second question - are conditions safe out there for people and snomobiles? I assume if we take it a little slow we should be ok, until we can get a track established.

[Sabaskong]

We were out sunday with snowmobiles a couple out mile close to the res line and ran into two nasty slush pockets. Had to pin the sleds wide open to get through them. Be careful!!

[Benjy]

Thanks for the heads up. We would be pulling otter sleds and portable houses behind the snomobiles. Are you able to see the slush spots before you're stuck in the middle of it? If we are pulling sleds I'm nervous that we wouldn't be able to pin the throttle and get out of it. Did you get any fish out there?

[Sabaskong]

We could see some spots that were froze over but the bad one's we couldn't see and were under deep snow. Didn't fish out there.

[kelly-p]

Jon is out scouting with his snowmobile right now so we will know more tonight but it looks like most of the slush pockets are freezing up pretty good on this side of the lake. Most of the snowmobiles using the Baudette to Waskish trail are now cutting right across the lake from the Hournoff Grade to Waskish so they are going 8+ miles right across the NE side of the lake. Watching them with glasses I've not seen that much steam coming up from them hitting slush the past few days. The good thing is that groups of 20 to 30 snowmobiles spread out going across the lake freeze things down pretty good and expose any slush pockets. We do not seem to have as much of the flooding problem over here any more as is being reported from other areas of the lake perhaps due to the NE wind during the last storm pushing the snow across the lake away from us. Yesterday I saw Buddy working on his main road and it appeared that he was quite a ways out where he had been running into a lot of slush before. I'll check today and see how far out he is now and if that slush area has frozen up. None of the houses that we have set up in the last week have had any flooding issues but we are plowing out a 75 to 100 foot circle around them and making the driveways 50 feet wide. A couple of days ago we were able to make a 1/2 mile spur road wider into a 100 foot wide main road with out any problems.

[Random guy]

After tearing around the North shore area I found a few fish and not one bit of slush. Maybe I was lucky and missed it all but often times I tend to end up right in the middle of it. I did find several frozen slush fields so it looks like it is finaly freezing up.

[YiGGiN4SLoBS]

Good news indeed!! Keep the ice comin!

[Random guy]

I did also find three spots with less than 9" of ice and pretty sure where I fished is now slush fields as they were flooded ankle deep within minutes of drilling. Definitely a crazy year that’s for sure.

[CANOPY SAM]

So water was coming up fast, huh? Is this happening only in the low spots where slush was already sitting, or is it happening everywhere you drill?

I don't mind a little water on the ice. It's kind of fun watching a bobber floating on water ABOVE the hole!

[Random guy]

Only in spots with deeper snow have not yet flooded. Some spots have flooded and refroze and they appear to be fine, move over twenty feet and it floods. One thing I am noticing is the spots that have flooded and refroze are surrounded by a ring of slush that was not heavy enough to fully saturate the snow and freeze down. Basicaly the froze down spots often have a hidden moat around them...just have to hit them a little faster with the sled.

[steeplechaser2]

Jeeeez....Jonny may just have to open up a new college in limnology and the finer points of interpretting ice variations on large bodies of water....the required curriculum:

LIMN 101 Understanding the water cycle

LIMN 102 Understanding the ice cycle

LIMN 202 The Water around you

LIMN 203 The Ice Around You

LIMN 310 Finding fish in the Waters around You

LIMN 333 Finding fish in the waters around your ice house

LIMN 444 Chasing Toothy Beasts

LIMN 445 Chasing Slabs

LIMN 555 Plowing and the Art of the Last Minute/Second Escape!!!

[steeplechaser2]

LIMN 667 Pooh Bags Happen

LIMN 668 Dealing with Ice Heaves and other troubles

LIMN 700 Plow Truck Repairs

Sounds fun until the last few courses, huh! Any Takers??

[steeplechaser2]

I'm glad that I usually just show up, pay Jonny and Kelly, and fish...I don't even worry about the ice...unless I'm driving in 16" of water on the way off the lake in late March...I'll never forget that first trip with Kelly P....tons of crappies and almost a load in my pants driving 40mph off the lake in water....my boy and I still laugh about that every trip to URL!

[Random guy]

LIMN 101 Understanding the water cycle

LIMN 102 Understanding the ice cycle

LIMN 202 The Water around you

LIMN 203 The Ice Around You

LIMN 310 Finding fish in the Waters around You

LIMN 333 Finding fish in the waters around your ice house

LIMN 444 Chasing Toothy Beasts

LIMN 445 Chasing Slabs

LIMN 555 Plowing and the Art of the Last Minute/Second Escape!!!

LIMN 667 Pooh Bags Happen

LIMN 668 Dealing with Ice Heaves and other troubles

LIMN 700 Plow Truck Repairs

Thats just what goes through our heads before we start the trucks in the morning.

[Random guy]

LIMN 729 When Pooh Bags Break/Emergency Response.

[steeplechaser2]

LIMN 892 Toyotas and other lost treasure of URL

LIMN 893 Advanced retrieval techniques: phones, keys, glasses

[steeplechaser2]

By the way, Jon, did you treat your DAD to lunch after we left??? Hope life is good for you guys...we're scheming on trying to make a second trip!