Slush question?

[thenest]

We'll be coming up on Wednesday and was wondering if slush on Red was still an issue. I haven't read anything on this subject for a while. There's 8 of us and we are going out of Kelly P.

Thanks

Can't wait to get there. It's about a 9 hr drive, but very worth it. My dad's first trip up.

[Threedogs]

If Kelly doesn't know I don't know who would !

[bturck]

thenest: hope you have a good trip and a safe drive. we are also headed up Wed morning lot shorter drive for us . wife and i will also be going out with Kelly P. overnight sleeper. perhaps we will crossn paths or lines. good luck.

[kelly-p]

It sounds like most of the lake is freezing up pretty good but here on the North, NE side the slush is still very, very bad. I was able to find a small area where the slush had frozen up that we were able to get the houses up on top of but so far no matter what direction a person tries to go from there you run right into slush within 100 to 200 feet. Almost everywhere you drill a hole it floods and turns to slush. There is just way too much snow and not enough ice. In my lifetime on this lake there was only one year, I believe in the mid "80's" when conditions were this bad and I think this year is worse.

It is really hard understand how we can can have all of this bitter cold and very little ice. The water seems warmer then other years if that can make any sense. 30 some degrees below 0 last night and only had to redrill 2 holes in the houses. Maybe all of this snow is that good of an insulator.

Beacon's was able to get a little better road out by getting on top of some frozen slush alongside their old road but making a road is almost impossible with this deep of snow.

[CAMAN]

Kelly, have you ever tried flooding the snow? Get a water pump and wet the snow down in areas. It should kill the insulation value of the snow and start hardening up the slush. I've never heard of it being done but just an idea I had floating around in my head. Probably wouldn't be the smoothest to drive on but it's gotta be better than what you've got now.

[LABS4ME]

I just red an article that said the temperature at the soil line when it is -10 degrees and 15" of snow is 26 degrees... I'd bet the lake water at 34 degrees is holding the ice/snow line temp under all that snow at roughly freezing. Tough making ice or freezing slush. Yuck! I remember slush like that on a lake in Ontario 30 years ago. -30 degrees and slush so deep the snowmobile tracks were freezing solid...

Good Luck!

Ken

[kelly-p]

This cold spell should have frozen some slush up. It froze everything else up. 0 degrees and 5 MPH winds will be t shirt weather. There are some signs of improvement. Even with all the drifting the past 24 hours Beacon's new road didn't sink and looks good.

[thenest]

Sounds great Kelly. Thanks. My brother has a big diesel and was a little concerned. I wasn't sure if I should bring my hip waders. LOL We won't be doing any venturing out. Just get out to your sleepers for 2 days of fishing. See you Wednesday afternoon. I'll be leaving NE Iowa at 4:30 AM. Can't wait to get the lines wet.

[Hoyt4]

I would bring some rubbers boots for around the houses on the north side. Slush just keeps coming up when fish area it's all flooded out. Even in a sleeper bring the boots to get back and forth the trucks and house.

[kelly-p]

Quote:

I wasn't sure if I should bring my hip waders.

It has been way too cold for hip waders. We have been able to get the road and houses up on top of areas of frozen slush so the driving and fishing is dry. The last few nights have really improved things with the slush in the immediate area around us. It is still very tough going but we were able to spread the houses out a little bit today and stay dry.

[bturck]

great news Kelly, i'm sure you are glad to see some good things happening after all your work. leaving in an hour will give you a call when we get to Red