Ice reports

[Horseshoe_Don]

Did an ice check this morning.   Along shore there is 4",  main bay 3", but there are isolated areas with about 2" or less.   Should be ready by this weekend for walking if you know the lake and its soft spots otherwise I would stay off yet.

 

Don

[Rick G]

Thank you Don for keeping us updated on the current ice conditions. This has been a big help and a deciding factor in where I will be fishing today :-)

[sartellangler05]

Not a report from here, but was up on North Long yesterday 371 bay. Didn't expect much, as I never have any luck on this part of the lake, only the main body. Ice was solid 6-7" with a couple wheelers out. As far as the fishing, I mainly targeted walleye and northern in about 18' water. Rattlin flyer with minnow head kept the hammer handles busy. Was good to get out finally. Might take a vaca day and head out again tomorrow.

[Huntin&Fishin]

Few guys out on Grand and pearl tonight.

[Rick G]

Made it out with Andrea today, 3-3.5 in of ice. Lots of crappies. Found them loosly schooled up over 26-34 ft of water. Moving from hole to hole picking off a few fish here and there proved to be the thing to do.

[Weathertite]

At least someone finally made it out. Nice fish Rick , looks like a lot of fun. Stay safe and fish well and please keep us updated . Happy Holidays

[kfancody]

Good to be back. Merry x mass all! Nice fish Brian you have likely caught those fish before at this point hahah. How is ice on rice? Was going to head up to red lake tomarrow but it sounds like the snow will make a long trip even longer

[smurfy]

last nite on the way to moms for xmas eve we drove past horseshoe. there where about 8-9 portables out by that dog island. one what appeared to be a sperhouse along the shore going back towards the channel that goes to long. a couple guys fishing by schuellers! also from what I could see a couple smaller houses beyond the meth hole towards krons bay. could see a couple houses out on becker. my bet they where spearhouses.

[Horseshoe_Don]

as of this morning Horseshoe had a minimum of 4"

 

Don 

[Tom Sawyer]

Teamed up with Patty last night on the chain to see if the big girls were still where Rick and I left them. The approaching storm system turned the fish on as expected. Our Vexilars were lit up like Christmas trees once we found the area that was holding fish, non stop, all evening.

Of coarse Patty caught the biggest at just over 12 1/2, but numbers of very respectable crappies were caught and released. Hope the lake doesn't flood and turn into a big nightmare with this snowfall. North winds today are going to really pile it up.

 

[Rick G]

Lol, im heading back to that spot this afternoon  

Good to hear you two got into some fish!

[Weathertite]

Wishing you the best of luck Rick , Let us know how you did and some pictures would be nice again since apparently I have to live out my ice fishing thru you for a few more days. Stay safe and have fun !!!!   Mike

[Rick G]

Thanks, Mike..... will try to get some picture worthy fish

[Pannie snatcher]

New to the forum deal. I have been paying close attention to the ice reports. Looking to get back to the cabin on cedar island soon and do some hard water fishing. Just wondering if anyone has ice reports 

[IceHawk]

Pannie First off welcome to the site ice varies in the area I would say 3-5 inches norm right now but some areas have less.

[Pannie snatcher]

55 minutes ago, IceHawk said:

Pannie First off welcome to the site ice varies in the area I would say 3-5 inches norm right now but some areas have less.

Thanks for the response do you know of any safe access to cedar. Our cabin is on the channel and am afraid we won't be able to access there 

[IceHawk]

• Most people access onto cedar island from Hwy 22 there is a spot  in the little bay before  mud where they walk or drive on. Theis acres is a private area that people go on its located off cedar island lake road..

[Team Bobberdown]

Went out to mayhew lake to check ice. Me and my brave wife found 3.8 to 4 inches of ice in various areas. We fished for a little bit only got one bite. Didn't do much moving around Just hung out with the wife and checked ice thickness.

[Pannie snatcher]

2 hours ago, IceHawk said:

• Most people access onto cedar island from Hwy 22 there is a spot  in the little bay before  mud where they walk or drive on. Theis acres is a private area that people go on its located off cedar island lake road..

Thanks for the info hope I can contribute in the future we are new to the lake as of this last summer 

[PiNkSiNkO]

I haven't posted much before mostly because I fish all over the place and my local area (Hutchinson) isn't very active on this site.  Since I do fish the "St. Cloud" area quite a bit and this forum is full of activity and tons of great anglers (most of which are posting in this thread) I'v decided to start sharing more my info and hopefully I'll get the opportunity to run into some of you on the ice sometime.  

So far I've made it out four times this season.  Two times locally around Hutchinson resulting in a handful of small eyes.  Although I enjoy catching walleyes, I'm really more of a bluegill and crappie guy when it comes to ice fishing.  

So...Thursday I left at 5am for a day trip up to the Alex area to fish one of my favorite lakes for big gills and crappies.  I found 4-5" of great ice and very few others to compete with.  Unfortunately, 200 holes (my new nills electric drill auger is incredible) and 5 hours later I failed to find fish in any of my typical spots.  Of course I hooked a few tiny crappie and dink perch, but never even marked a respectable sized fish.  After that I spent the remainder of daylight driving to a bunch of other lakes to check ice thickness and angling activity.  I must of driven around the wrong parts of the chain because I didn't see any signs of ice fishing activity :).

Friday I fished from 12-5 on another descent panfish lake south of St. Cloud.  Again I drilled tons of holes and covered lots of water and fortunately I finally encountered schools of active fish.  I had to weed through quite a few perch, but ended up catching quite a few suspended crappies and one nice bluegill.  If a particular fish was active it seemed like it would hit anything from wax worms, to plastics, to jigging raps.  

I'm in the Metro area for the weekend and planned on fishing both days but after checking a handful of lakes my spud bar never made it past two whacks so I decided venturing out by myself wasn't a good idea.

I might hit a lake on my way back to Hutchinson tomorrow, otherwise I plan on fishing a few nights this week and all of next weekend.  

I've had very spotty success on the chain but plan on fishing it a lot harder this year.  If anyone's ever looking for a fishing partner or an extra auger to swiss cheese the ice with I'm always game!!

Good luck and be safe!

 

[IceHawk]

Great post pinksinnko looking forward to more of your reports in the future

[Tom Sawyer]

More bad news for this ice season........................................

Winter Storm Watch

URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TWIN CITIES/CHANHASSEN MN
337 AM CST SUN DEC 27 2015

...HEAVY SNOW EXPECTED FOR CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN MINNESOTA AND
WEST CENTRAL WISCONSIN MONDAY AFTERNOON INTO TUESDAY...

.A WINTER STORM WATCH CONTINUES FOR MUCH OF CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN
MINNESOTA AND WEST CENTRAL WISCONSIN FROM MONDAY AFTERNOON INTO
TUESDAY MORNING...GENERALLY ALONG AND EAST OF A LINE FROM GRANITE
FALLS...TO ST. CLOUD...AND MORA. THIS INCLUDES THE TWIN CITIES
METRO AREA...SOUTH TO INTERSTATE 90 AND THE IOWA BORDER. SNOWFALL
ACCUMULATIONS OF 6 TO 10 INCHES ARE EXPECTED WITHIN THE WATCH AREA.


...WINTER STORM WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM MONDAY AFTERNOON
THROUGH LATE MONDAY NIGHT...

* TIMING...MONDAY AFTERNOON INTO DAYBREAK TUESDAY.

* MAIN IMPACT...SNOWFALL ACCUMULATIONS OF 6 TO 10 INCHES.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

A WINTER STORM WATCH MEANS THERE IS A POTENTIAL FOR SIGNIFICANT
SNOW...SLEET...OR ICE ACCUMULATIONS THAT MAY IMPACT TRAVEL.
CONTINUE TO MONITOR THE LATEST FORECASTS.

 

[IceHawk]

 Hope there wrong!!!!!!!

[Weathertite]

You and everyone else HOPES  they are wrong , the nice thing is that they usually are WRONG !!!

[Tom Sawyer]

Weather models as of now show the heaviest band south and then east of our area. They also are all over the place with amounts; from 2" - 13". Tuesday morning will tell the tale of the tape, but from the looks of the storm it will be a strong. They are predicting a couple feet today, in of all places, Texas.

Where is the Hate button???

 

[Tom Sawyer]

[Weathertite]

From my years of plowing snow I have learned they if they predict a lot you should expect little , if they predict little you should expect a lot.  Hope that hold true this time as well.  Mike

[Tom Sawyer]

A heavy snowfall on 4 - 5 inches, or less, of ice would really suck. Hoping your theory holds true Mike.

[mmp98]

First time poster long time Stalker.  

Just a little background, been in the sartell area bout 10 years, just started getting time to fish again bout 5 years ago.  I love shore fishing for smallies and cats. but thats cause I have no boat and thats all ive been able to get to bite from the spots i try. in the summer im the guy in the green shirt just up the road from sartell dam.  started getting into ice fishing pretty hard last year cause i was able to convince my oldest, who is 5,that ice fishing is awesome, and my wife is ok with me fishing all weekend if I can get one of the kids out of her hair!  

I usually fish grand with not a lot of success but im stubborn and will figure that lake out someday, didnt feel like driving that far today, so I decided to check little rock.

The ice is still a little thin for my liking according to most reports but when i got there this afternoon there was a good number of houses and atv tracks plus 2 snowmobiles on the lake so i took a walk. found 4-5 in each of the three holes i drilled. caught a ton of small pearch bout 6 that i could have kept, was really just scouting so i didnt.  was only in 5fow. all fish were caught on plastic.  sorry no pics, next time. sorry for the wordy report, and saying lake name I know most don't. if i ever actually get into some good fish i will be more vague:)

am planning on getting out on thursday afternoon with my neighbor dont know were yet so i will be checking site for ice conditions

[IceHawk]

Welcome to FM mmp98 Great report Nice to see a few more guys get involved  in the St Cloud forums. Grand is a bugger don't feel bad I lived on that lake for 4 years and pulled a lot of hair out  trying to figure that lake out.   Always found a few eyes but the consistincy to keep on a steady bite always through me for curve . Awesome Pike and Bass lake and a sleeper for eyes. Looking forward to more reports from you in the future