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What are the conditions like for letting out Ice Houses?


Agronomist_at_IA

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It would be best to check with the road you plan on going out of as each road will have different conditions and different thoughts of what "Safe" ice is. It is making ice fast which is good and bad as an ice sheet that freezes down too fast makes brittle ice that cracks up more then it flexes when traffic is on it. Also we will be going from -20 tonight to a forecasted +30 next Tuesday so we could blow some pressure ridges next week and it is almost impossible to bridge a pressure ridge when there is less then 16 inches of ice.

 

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I did a little research on brittle ice? Kellie is correct  fast ice making makes brittle ice> My question is you all ready have  lets say 10 inches of ice made. Then it get cold cold and you make lets say 3 inches. In theory  just that 3 inches would be brittle as the other 10 were made slowly and is all ready set. It was tough researching as the scientist theories were using words  way out of my vocabulary LOL

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All I know of brittle ice is what the old timers told me. It chips and cracks easier. Some pressure ridges have blown the past 24 hours and any others that are going to develop should do it by mid afternoon tomorrow so that should give the roads another piece of the puzzle as they decide what they are going to do. I would guess that the ridges will form in the whiter and weaker ice caused by freezing up during the high wind.

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Absolute chaos out of a corner access yesterday.  I was told that 3 trucks and 1 house went in.  I had workers for the access driving 20+ mph past me so that they could get houses move out to deeper water for customers.  They had to put up a bridge over the pressure break but did a horrible job marking a route to it so people where knocking on doors of ice houses trying to find their way off the ice.  Then one of the same workers moving the house ask me not to set up in a spot because they were moving houses out that way.  He had the nerve to tell me that their customers pay good money to stay in them. I was 50 yards away from them and had to work my way through a maze of pressure breaks to get out to 12 fow.   Will not ever go out of a place that sounds like JR's Corner Access again.

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tfin - our group had a very similar experience with a certain corner access a few years ago. Paid their access fee and spent some time carefully moving our group of 4 trucks/houses to virgin ice...away from everyone. Only to have them come blazing paths right out to us with plows down.  They were irrate with us. How dare we put down on an "obvious" spot where they wanted to put their rentals on. It was a ridiculous situation without any level of common sense logic. Needless to say, we haven't gone back to The Corner. We have always had better luck east of there anyway. 

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I was told that I was in someone's spot one time.  I laughed and asked when they bought the lake from the state.  I then enlightened them about the law that prohibits harassing hunters and fishermen.  I don't care who they are, they have no right to ever ask or tell you to move.

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I was put in a spot like that once. I spent the next 2.5hrs drilling holes. I drilled until I ran out of gas to drill with. Could hardly walk the next day. But it was worth it to see the reaction. 

 

I no longer fish URL due entirely to the actions, attitudes, and behaviors of others. I actually had a guy try to collect a road fee because we ventured away from one resort and into "his" area. We were on snowmobiles and not using the road. 

 

To me, if you want to see the worst of the worst in behavior and attitude of your fellow fisherman, go to URL or West Rush. 

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With the fishing reports I'm hearing from red, I won't be making the trip .   thus I won't have to worry about the zoo!

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I Have not fished Upper Red before, I was thinking the going to red Lake for New years weekend not real a positive to be hearing this.  Giving it's first ice rush jeechers!  That being said. Bringing the wife out to spend a fun weekend of fishing and may have others come join.

 

Where to go? I have a 8x16 IC wheel house, towing with 1/2 ton truck?  Wife wants fish!

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57 minutes ago, jigginjim said:

I Have not fished Upper Red before, I was thinking the going to red Lake for New years weekend not real a positive to be hearing this.  Giving it's first ice rush jeechers!  That being said. Bringing the wife out to spend a fun weekend of fishing and may have others come join.

 

Where to go? I have a 8x16 IC wheel house, towing with 1/2 ton truck?  Wife wants fish!

You ever try Big Stone?

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13 hours ago, jigginjim said:

I Have not fished Upper Red before, I was thinking the going to red Lake for New years weekend not real a positive to be hearing this.  Giving it's first ice rush jeechers!  That being said. Bringing the wife out to spend a fun weekend of fishing and may have others come join.

 

Where to go? I have a 8x16 IC wheel house, towing with 1/2 ton truck?  Wife wants fish!

The south side I know that they are letting half tons out now with your castle. The nice thing about red is there is not a lot of structure so I have always had luck / better fishing by getting as far away from other people as possible. I personally like morts dock because it is a smaller road and does not have all the amenities that jr's and Rodgers have. Thus less people go out of there. 

 

As for the people that have had bad experiences with the road operators on red. They have a hard job. When it snows an inch and gets blown in and shuts down the road everyone wants to be plowed out now. If you pay someone to use there access and you wonder out on another operators road then don't expect to be plowed out for free. It cost them a lot of money to operate the roads. They want to get paid for people using them. 

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You will have to check with the roads. I "think" that Rogers is letting out tandems pulled by a 1/2 ton or smaller vehicle.

  The roads need to keep the weight down so that heavy vehicles do not crack up the ice so bad that it is dangerous for the next people traveling there. Many times a heavy vehicle will make it across iffy ice but cracks it up so bad that a smaller lighter vehicle following those tracks will break through. 

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BART, I have fished Big Stone during the open water, but not ice fishing that may change now with the IC.

 

Having fished several lakes where many roads are plowed by different operators, I do know the they want to be paid for people driving them. That is never an issue, I'm not into the idea of tell me where I can or can't set up my house. The best places I have fished is where the resort operator points to the spot for first timers. Put the customers on fish, they will more likely be back and they tell friends how well they did being in even more fisherman.

.

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On this side of the lake Westwinds is letting out LESS then 1/2 tons. Hillman's are letting out any vehicles that are NOT diesels and only single axel houses. Hillman's is only letting people out to 2 miles where everything turns to slush beyond that. Slush is a bad sign with this small amount of snow out there. Remember that slush depresses the ice and the good black ice melts off from the bottom of the ice sheet and is replaced with white, weak slush ice on the top. Everybody is saying 16 to 9 inches of ice. Sometimes the difference between 16 and 9 is as little as 6 feet. One person set up a portable 3 days ago with the holes 3 feet apart. One hole was 13 1/2 inches of ice and the other hole was 7 inches.

  Things will change daily so check with the road you plan on going out from. This storm coming X-Mass day could really change things. A possible 12 inches of snow with winds from the east gusting as high as 35 mph on Sunday and then NW winds up to 25 mph from the NW on Monday.

 

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Its crazy. I set up old Minnesota 10 by 16. One hole 13 inches, one hole 14 1/2 and the other corner just over 16.  Weird to say the least. Then there are slush pockets in the middle of flat open area with no broken ice in sight. Whats with that? I'll be doing a no snow dance every day for the next three days.

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  • 10 months later...
On December 17, 2016 at 12:14 PM, kelly-p said:

It would be best to check with the road you plan on going out of as each road will have different conditions and different thoughts of what "Safe" ice is. It is making ice fast which is good and bad as an ice sheet that freezes down too fast makes brittle ice that cracks up more then it flexes when traffic is on it. Also we will be going from -20 tonight to a forecasted +30 next Tuesday so we could blow some pressure ridges next week and it is almost impossible to bridge a pressure ridge when there is less then 16 inches of ice.

 

Man you nailed it Kelly. Got out fishing was good. Was about -30*F then went to 14*F . A little after 8AM the Breaker Happened. Here is a pick of a guy to the North of us. We were on 16in of ice. First time I was ever on the ice when the breaker happened........bout crapped my pants.

 

image.jpeg

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