Lake Superior Ice Conditions Feb 2019

[evinrudespeed]

As of 2/17 still seeing anglers on the big lake outside of Lester and McQuade. I’m venturing out with a friend (my first time) tomorrow. Any up to date info on ice conditions or fishing tips would be helpful?

 

Thanks!

[Xplorer]

Fished off of Lester river/Brighton beach yesterday morning. Was out in 50' of water and had 12" of ice.  There is lots of rough ice near shore to get thru, and out on the lake there are slabs of ice under the surface ice in spots (I drilled one set of holes, read 59' on the vex, dropped down and the spoon only went down 3 feet and stopped.  Looked down and there was another slab of ice down there).

There were folks out a long ways when I left at 11. I'd say they were out to the 150' area. Lots of ice to fish.  No luck for me, had a couple schools of herring go thru but no hits. 

[LoonASea]

X,,,,, I was out there yesterday too,,,, Those shards of ice looked like a cemetery,,, And you had to pick your way thru to get out to fishable ice ,,, No fish for us either ,,, Had issues with my marcum to come home and find out my ducer somehow got disconnected ,,, Might try to get back out there but I have snowmobiling on my mind with the trails being so nice 

[Xplorer]

LAS,

Yea I about tore a knee up on the way out early.  Drove by your place Saturday (test driving a new Tundra) and saw the sled in the driveway. Figured you must have been out and about.

Might get a chance to get back out Thursday, but I may be picking up a new ride that day now

[Jarrid Houston]

I miss fishing..  Finally going to back on the ice though as we have trips lines up the next 2 weeks. 

[JBMasterAngler]

I’m really hoping to make it up there on Saturday. Might try a couple different spots, pending success rate.

[artjaco]

Looking at the latest images, the lake looks pretty iced over... are there any areas of thin ice / open water to be found? Not looking to fish, need to test some safety gear with a group. Any river mouths open or areas between Duluth and Tettegouche?

[Hunternitz]

I fished by the Lester area yesterday n today. I was in 75-78’ water. Had one school of coho’s chase my jig all the way to the bottom of the ice. I looked down the hole and was amazed by the fish just swarming around my jig and just nipping the tale. That was my very first time out there. Didn’t catch any, but seeing those fish made it all worth it. At Lester there is an Easier way out there if you go to the south side of the river. It’s an easier trail to follow out onto the lake. There must be some open water just north of there. There was a lot of mallards flying around and landing. ? 

[fishin4sum]

The mallards reside all winter long in an open pool of water at the EPA campus.

[BRULEDRIFTER]

How's the ice looking on Superior after yesterdays hurricane? 

[LoonASea]

A half dozen houses out of the Lester/Brighton area ,,, None out off 21st at 8:30 this am ,,, MODIS on friday show a lot of open water east of Silver Bay but the ice hasn't budged around Duluth 

[artjaco]

The wind took quite a bit off up the shore, but didn't seem to touch Duluth to Split Rock or so, https://coastwatch.glerl.noaa.gov/modis/modis.php?region=s&page=1&template=sub&image=a1.19056.1912.LakeSuperior.143.250m.jpg

[wizeguy]

Can a one man otter sled be pulled through rough ice near shore?

[LoonASea]

It sure can ,,,the lighter the sled the easier it will be 

MODIS yesterday sure made it look like the lake could be 96% ice covered 

Edited February 28, 2019 by LoonASea

[climbmda]

I am considering trying this for the first time, ever, tomorrow.  Can anyone (DM is fine) give me any essential pointers or advice?

[leech~~]

Be careful the roads aren't going to be to good in the morning. 

[JBMasterAngler]

Made it out there today. The highway leading into Duluth was murderers row...must have seen at least 10 cars in the ditch. 

 

Anyway, this was my first outing on north shore ice. And it was a very humbling experience! The wind didn’t do us any favors. Ice was in great shape. I couldn’t believe how strong the current is. I had to drill a hole 3 feet away for my vexilar, so that I could pickup my bait! Fished in 45 to 120 ft. Nothing! Everyone I talked to had same results. 

 

With that being said, I can’t wait to go back up there next week! 

[JBMasterAngler]

Venturing into the great unknown 

 

 

[leech~~]

I hope I can get up there before it's all done, but life seems so full of schedules right now!

[jwilli7122]

How long are we likely to have fishable ice?

[AlwaysFishing23]

15 hours ago, jwilli7122 said:

How long are we likely to have fishable ice?

 

Very hard to say for sure. Looking at the long range forecast there’s no major warmup in sight. Upper 30s but cloudy, as long as we don’t get any strong winds from the West, southwest or northwest we should be alright. For sure a week of “safe” ice after that it’s anyones guess. 

[jwilli7122]

Cool. Well, my South Dakota fishing trip just got canceled this weekend due to weather so maybe I’ll check it out this Friday and get out of town before the snow comes 

[JBMasterAngler]

I definitely wish the wind would go away. Sounds like it will be worse this weekend. I’m really hoping to get up there, as it will probably be the last chance this season.

[climbmda]

So...  Will the wet, heavy snow combined with strong winds put an end to it?  

 

I was hoping to get out on Sunday, but now I am not so sure.

[AlwaysFishing23]

If I had to guess I would say it should be alright. The winds tommarow are going to be fairly strong but it’s a north-north east wind. That’s good! The snow shouldn’t be to much of an issue either. Some flooding may happen but I can’t imagine it'll be much if at all.

[JBMasterAngler]

Really wish I would have made it up there today. Turns out the snow isn’t coming until 3. Not until 7 up there. Does anyone know when the ice breakers will get the shipping season started?

[AlwaysFishing23]

I felt the same way. I was planning on staying home and watching the snow fall then saw no snow till around noon. So ran to town ran my errends for the week came home and looked and they said not till after 3pm for my area. Darn if I would have known that I would have went fishing. They should start to carve a path out there in the next 2-3 weeks. But it’s only a 50ft wide path and with the amount of ice its not going to affect much. 2014 ice fishing out there the ships were running and most guys were still out fishing .

[Jim Almquist]

The Soo locks open March 24th so I would guess a couple of days before they will start cutting a path. With all of the ice the cutter may have to stay with the ships on their journey.

[JBMasterAngler]

I’m so mad I didn’t go up there yesterday. It didn’t start raining until 4:30. Snow didn’t start until almost 6. Sounds like the wind was brutal, but I can deal with that. Nice to know I’ll have at least one more chance to get up there.

[evinrudespeed]

Great conversation and advice crew!

 

So, when I went out on the big lake after I first posted this conversation I really went out there intimidated because it was such an unknown for me being my first time. At that time 2/18 we didn't have much luck at all (sounds like other anglers said the same)...went out of Lester River.

 

Determined to try again, I splured on some gear/lures at Marine General and went out again yesterday 3/9. We went out of Brighton Beach and were fishing by sunrise. From what I was hearing from forums and talking to others the Lakers were going deeper in 130-150 FOW.

 

We started in 60-80' for a couple hours and had only 2 chasers and a nibble. Then we worked our tail off...we definitely fish hunted and stayed mobile (didn't even pop our tent up). We fished in multple depths betweem 40-150 FOW. I threw my new tackle out all day...white tube jigs, rattle raps, white/pearl heavy jigs w/trailer hooks, swim jigs with plastics, +/- frozen smelt. I fished off bottom 5-20 feet, then changed it up by jigging in the middle of the water column. Unfortunately, we didn't see much and didn't land a single fish after 6 hours of hard core fishing (packed up cuz the wind picked up too much). 

 

Wish I had a better report, but I definitely feel like a rookie beat up by the old Gitche Gumee! I know the weather seems more stable and warmer this week, so I wonder if that changes things? I have off this Thursday, so I may take another (probably final) shot at those lakers/cohos again. I was thinking McQuade, but not sure? Any tips would be appreciated? Fish On!