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Anxious for ice fishing to start once I am done deer hunting.  Couldn't find any records of when Lake Vermilion ices-over (Big Bay freezes completely).  I am predicting ice-over the morning of November 14th.  Any other predictions?

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  • 2 weeks later...

Wife came down with covid-19 on November 7th while I was at the deer shack so my plans changed.  Stayed in the woods until November 13th when I vacated the shack so weekend crew wasn't exposed if I was asymptomatic.  Pike Bay looked to be completely frozen but Big Bay was completely open.  There was a little ice in McKinley Park bay.  Had to rush home to take care of the wife today so I didn't have a chance to check the lake ice.  Based on the weather there and the forecast I doubt if the lake froze yet.  My updated guess would be November 21 when temps are cold and wind is low.

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Wife is completely recovered.  She had some bad symptoms and got very emotional after 10 days alone.  My son and I have not had any symptoms 11 and 14 days after exposure to her so we are likely okay.  I am going to get tested today just to confirm I don't have it before going out shopping again.

 

Looks like Big Bay is still open.  Weather looks pretty good the next week to lock up Vermilion.  I'm guessing I will be out ice fishing by December 8.

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Saw a couple of guy's out icefishin on one of the smaller local lakes yesterday.

I walked out away's, good hard ice, not thick enough for me to venture out fishin yet.

Went by Frasier Bay, a little skim ice near shore, otherwise wide open as far as I could see.

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Looks like Big Bay froze on November 21.  Head of the Lakes Bay is still open so I guess Vermilion would still not be "iced over".  Thought Big Bay freezes before HotL Bay.  Maybe this year is an exception.

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Looking forward to some hard water fishing, will be up after Thanksgiving but not expecting enough ice 5"-6" for me to get out fishing yet. Can wait for another week or 2.

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Heard some people were out fishing at McKinley Park today.  HotL Bay is still open, so now I think it will be about November 29 before Vermilion ices-over.  I am hoping to make it out December 2.  Looked back at previous forum reports and came up with the ice-over dates below:

image.png.2cfdb49860a0f35328bc0e6e39e5f944.png

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JerkinLips, I normally don't post about hear say!! but I did hear from a reliable source that a couple of fishing people went through walking out from McKinley. For what that's worth, this was earlier this week.

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Darrell - thanks for the information.  I also heard some scary news about premature ice fishing on Vermilion.  A couple of guys fishing in Stuntz Bay on 2.5" of ice.  Another couple fishing in narrows close to open water.

 

Weather doesn't look great for making ice, and the snow cover will slow it down.  Will consider all information and use maximum safety IF I decide to try going out Wednesday.  It is a long winter so there is no rush to get out.

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From the White Eagle webcam, it looks like only the wings are iced up but the majority of Head O Lakes is open water still.

 

Therefore I likely won't be heading up there until the holidays.

Edited by SkunkedAgain
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Got up today. You're correct skunked. It frozen solid as far as I can see in front of me. Snowmobile tracks are running along our shoreline ?

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I would bet that the ice in front of your place is at least 6 inches thick. I think that this will be a good ice year in our bay, but will have to wait it out to see what the future holds for the rest of the lake!

 

I expect that you'll drill a hole or two to get some fishing in this weekend....

Edited by SkunkedAgain
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Cools down Sunday afternoon and the wind dies down at the same time so Head-OLakes Bay should freeze over Sunday night, 11/30.  A couple of cool days after that so next weekend may be possible for fishing (on foot).  I may wait until the following Monday 12/6 to go up.

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Must be good, got the binoculars out and there are holes drilled out in the middle of Partridge River where they were ice fishing. Neighbor said they accessed the lake from his road. Didn't get a fishing report from them.

IMG_20201128_155756792.jpg

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We went for an ice scouting trip yesterday afternoon.

 

First lake we went to had sign of people fishin earlier in the day, I took the spud walked out 20' from the landing, 2 hits and the spud was through. Wherever anybody walked there was water in their tracks.

No cars at the landing, and I didn't see any big open holes, so I figure they were lucky.

 

Went to lake #2 didn't even get out of the truck. Somebody had driven a wheeler around  to the west, and cleared a bit of snow to make a skating rink, open water straight out from the landing. Nobody skating, wonder why.

 

Went to lake #3 there was a half a dozen guy's fishin a half a mile out in the lake. I grabbed the spud, went out on the ice, chopped three different holes, the most it took was six hit's from the spud, and I was through. I'm thinkin 3"s of ice, and figured my guess was a little generous. I couldn't see where any of the guy's out fishin had even tried spudding, or drilling a hole, they just followed the other tracks out. Where they were fishin it was open last Sunday. I didn't see anybody catchin fish, and we were there at prime time. One group was spread out over a pretty good sized area, the other guys were standing in a group, with all kinds of junk around them. I have a word for those guy's, but can't post it here. LOL

 

I want to go fishin pretty badly, but there is a fine line out there that I'm not about to cross.

We got in the truck and left that lake too.

 

Didn't even stop at Vermillion, can't believe it could be any better.

The 3 lakes we looked at were all less than a 1000 acres in size, the one with the open water, right around 250 acres.

 

No body ever accused me of bein a genius, but I'm not about to risk my life to go fishin. LOL

 

Spearin opens on Tuesday, I'm chompin at the bit to go, supposed to get cold tonight, and tomorrow night, so maybe we'll make enough ice to go. At least where we spear you can touch the bottom if you go through. Our spearing lake is the one that took 2 hits. lol

 

Been there done that quite a few times over the year's, the older I get the less I want to get wet. LOL

 

The guy up at the baitshop told me he heard that Red lake had 7-9"s of ice, SURE.

 

Jim

 

Edited by jim curlee
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hey Jim, spearing opened Nov.15th if I remember correctly...  unless they changed up the dates again...  just sayin.....  

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16 minutes ago, Mike89 said:

hey Jim, spearing opened Nov.15th if I remember correctly...  unless they changed up the dates again...  just sayin.....  

Yep still the 15th.

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Was up this weekend, checked ice off North sides of Moccasin point and Breezy point. Both had 3-3.5" near shore but quickly dropped to 2-2.5" before you got 100' feet out. Not enough for me so retreated back to shore

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I guess I should read the regs once in awhile.

I had no clue they changed the spearing opener, it was December 1st for as long as I can remember.

Doesn't matter this year, still isn't enough ice to get out.

It was around 16 last night so we probably made ice, but I'm going to need a few more days of single digits before I get out.

Were booked for tomorrow, not sure yet if it's going to happen or not.

Jim

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1 hour ago, jim curlee said:

I guess I should read the regs once in awhile.

I had no clue they changed the spearing opener, it was December 1st for as long as I can remember.

Doesn't matter this year, still isn't enough ice to get out.

It was around 16 last night so we probably made ice, but I'm going to need a few more days of single digits before I get out.

Were booked for tomorrow, not sure yet if it's going to happen or not.

Jim

yea i dont really understand the rational for changing it from dec 1 to nov 15 either.........whats the rush. i dont remeber any year since they changed the date that there was safe enough ice..........could be wrong though. i remember more years when it was dec 1 with plenty of iffy ice and that was going to itasca county lakes!!!!!!

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Always a good reminder that the chart below assumes that the ice is the same thickness everywhere. As we all know, it is thinner and thicker in spots.

 

Thanks for the spudbar update jim curlee

 

image.png.69763386420c2b41dad70f1ba754a840.png

Edited by SkunkedAgain
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WebCams looks like ice over (today?)... there was a FB posting someone in an airplane on 11.28.20 posting pictures of the open water.  on the Lake Vermilion FB group.  We need that guy to do daily posts... flights... ;)

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Then it is official so I updated my list.  If anyone has any corrections or additions please let me know.  I will probably wait until December 6th to try going out.

 

image.png.11b9b47904309b0c303016517ff82128.png

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