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Ice Reports? Twin Cities Metro Area Minnesota


popriveter

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I have been looking at iced-over lakes in the NW metro for a couple weeks now, but haven't been brave (or dumb) enough to venture out to check ice thickness yet. 

 

I imagine the little, shallow lakes have 2-3", but I'm just guessing. Has anyone been out to check any spots around the metro yet, or are we all too "wise"?

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I'm gonna drive around town till I find ice that won't kill me. Heard Nekomis is froze over. Too bad my boss wont go out and test the ice for me.

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Builders

welcome to fm.  yu must love yer boss. LOL 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I checked out a few small area lakes around the nw metro over the past couple days and found a wide variance in ice thickness. At the north beach on Silver Lake, the ice that was so thin I couldn’t step out to check it. It looked to have opened up with the recent warmup and had since refrozen, but definitely had <2”.

 

Just a couple miles away, Pike lake in New Brighton had 5”. The lower 3-4 inches are clear and solid while the the top 1-2 is cloudy, but not wet or mushy.


I caught some panfish there. Nothing impressive, but it was fish through ice so I count it a victory.

 

If the forecast is right, we should be walkable all over the metro by this time next week.

Edited by popriveter
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4 hours ago, Getanet said:

Stopped by Crystal Lake in Burnsville on Sunday and it was wide open. Could have launched a boat. 

Thanks for the info. I am surprised at how different the ice is on different lakes right now. Looks like it will stay sketchy through this weekend, but a good deep freeze next week should even it out a lot. The forecast calls for negative temps M-W.

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Metro Chain of Lakes

7-8” of solid ice where we fished

12/27/19 at 10pm

 

24”

 

E800CF4C-E522-42FA-AA26-CB7D8545283A.jpeg

6428C28E-09B9-4CAD-8C4F-6761C34169A0.jpeg

Edited by kcooley81
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On 12/29/2019 at 9:22 AM, kcooley81 said:

Metro Chain of Lakes

7-8” of solid ice where we fished

12/27/19 at 10pm

 

24”

 

E800CF4C-E522-42FA-AA26-CB7D8545283A.jpeg

6428C28E-09B9-4CAD-8C4F-6761C34169A0.jpeg

It looks like that is a polar bird  fish house with floor? How do you like it? I just got one off craigslist and have set it up in the yard but haven’t fished it yet. 
 

Also fished the chain Saturday and found 7-8inches everywhere I looked. Curious how the rain effected the ice though. May wait a day or two for it to firm up again.

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@Storm Yep it’s a polar bird with the floor. My younger bro bought it last year, it’s great.

 

May get out again on New Year’s Day, not sure yet.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Made it out on the chain of lakes yesterday. Roughly 12-13 inches of ice where I was and 3-4 inches of snow on top so the walk out pulling gear wasn't to bad yet but made a big difference compared to clear ice. Bluegills were up shallow still for me with occasional bass mixed in. 

 

Tried for walleyes last week on lake of isles with no luck besides crappies. Tried anywhere from 12 ft just off weed line to 20 down the breaks. Any recommendations for the minneapolis chain of lakes? Thinking I will try Bde Maka Ska next off some of the nearer to shore structure for evening bite. 

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Went out to Spring Lake on Wednesday evening. Lots of trucks out on upper prior and spring. Saw a 3/4 ton coming off prior. Probably 14” of ice on spring, left my truck in the parking lot and traveled by car from the winter access. We were targeting walleyes but no cigar. Picked up some perch along the way. 

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  • 11 months later...

Bumping this topic. What are people seeing around the Cities? Thinking about driveability cuz I want to shake down my ice camping system. Catching fish would be nice, though?

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • smurfy
      Looks to me like Leech brought his chair home!!😅😆
    • Brianf.
      I'm not there, so I can't tell exactly what's going on but it looks like a large area of open water developed in the last day with all of the heavy snow on the east side of wake em up Narrows. These two photos are from my Ring Camera facing north towards Niles Point.  You can see what happened with all of snow that fell in the last three days, though the open water could have been wind driven. Hard to say. .  
    • SkunkedAgain
      Black Bay had great ice before but a few spots near rockpiles where there were spots of open water. It looks like the weight of the snow has created a little lake in the middle of the bay.  
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   Thanks to some cold spring weather, ice fishing continues strong for those still ice fishing.  The bite remains very good.  Most resorts have pulled their fish houses off for the year, however, some still have fish houses out and others are allowing ATV and side by sides.  Check social media or call ahead to your favorite resort for specifics. Reports this week for walleyes and saugers remain excellent.   A nice mix of jumbo perch, pike, eelpout, and an occasional crappie, tullibee or sturgeon being reported by anglers. Jigging one line and using a live minnow on the second line is the way to go.  Green, glow red, pink and gold were good colors this week.     Monster pike are on a tear!  Good number of pike, some reaching over 45 inches long, being caught using tip ups with live suckers or dead bait such as smelt and herring in 8 - 14' of water.   As always, work through a resort or outfitter for ice road conditions.  Safety first always. Fish houses are allowed on the ice through March 31st, the walleye / sauger season goes through April 14th and the pike season never ends. On the Rainy River...  The river is opened up along the Nelson Park boat ramp in Birchdale, the Frontier boat ramp and Vidas boat ramp.  This past week, much of the open water skimmed over with the single digit overnight temps.   Areas of the river have popped open again and with temps getting warmer, things are shaping up for the last stretch through the rest of the spring season, which continues through April 14th.   Very good numbers of walleyes are in the river.  Reports this week, even with fewer anglers, have been good.  When temps warm up and the sun shines, things will fire up again.   Jigs with brightly colored plastics or jigs with a frozen emerald shiner have been the desired bait on the river.  Don't overlook slow trolling crankbaits upstream as well.   Good reports of sturgeon being caught on the river as well.  Sturgeon put the feed bag on in the spring.  The bite has been very good.  Most are using a sturgeon rig with a circle hook loaded with crawlers or crawlers / frozen emerald shiners. Up at the NW Angle...  Ice fishing is winding down up at the Angle.  Walleyes, saugers, and a number of various species in the mix again this week.  The bite is still very good with good numbers of fish.  The one two punch of jigging one line and deadsticking the second line is working well.   Check with Angle resorts on transport options from Young's Bay.  Call ahead for ice road guidelines.  
    • CigarGuy
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    • PSU
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    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
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    • SkunkedAgain
      I don't think that there has been any ice melt in the past few weeks on Vermilion. Things looked like a record and then Mother Nature swept in again.   I'll give my revised guess of April 21st
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