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wondering how the lakes are coming along? A friend told me Rush was froze over? and that he saw a few brave soles out on a smaller lake,
It looked like this forum needed a post!!

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man this forum is shure dead huh minneman. Im guessing the mist of rain we had did a nice job on the ice around the dead c?

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The east end of Rush has good ice, people are fishing there already. The rest of Rush is frozen, but has "maybe" 3 inches of ice. Dead lake has 4 inches on most of the east end. Buchanan is also fishable.

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What tedfred said. Ottertail had some ice on the east end, and the NW corner was iced up on Saturday morning. By Sunday morning, it had all blown clear. It was kind of neat to see the swans lounging on the pack ice in front of Zorbaz. I have my doubts that the 'Tail will be safe by the weekend with the temps today. Cross your fingers!

West Battle was also wide open.

Silver was locked up, but ice was still not safe.

Some fishing was happening on West Lost, and South Turtle had about and inch and a half of ice, but several random open spots yet.

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Saw 4 guys fishing out in the middle of second silver on sun. Yesterday took a ride around Fergus lakes. One guy fishing on north side of road at ten mile lake. Everything else pretty much a skim of ice. Also heard about west lost.

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hey guys i see some lakes are freezing up. just wondering if anyone knows how much or if any ice is on walker lake? i heard maybe 3 inches last week end but not very far out. i am getting the shakes and they dont sell patches for my urge to ice fish so any info???

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I was down by the tail last weekend and you could have fished but you would have needed a boat!! It was wide open except for maybe 15-20 yds out...I hope there is enough ice this weekend to at least get out to the first break!!

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Otter Tail is wide open :-( Rush has a good 4-5 inches on the whole lake, people fishing there but haven't heard any reports. Little Pine is wide open, the wind keeps switching and opening up any place that freezes. Had a spot on Little Pine that was frozen last Saturday, but by Monday it was open again! Dang this Global Warming!!

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well it looks kinda spotty as far as which lakes have ice and which ones dont. i figured ottertail wouldnt have ice seeing how windy its been and is rite now as i speak. whats the chance by next weekend for ice or GOOD ICE on lakes around ottertail? i am about 3 1/2 hours to the south so i dont know really whats its been like up there other than not overly cold like it should be! i am hoping to come up that way next weekend if theres fishable ice but if not then i wait. fish dont taste that good to be out on unsafe ice if ya know what i mean.

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jt24 -

I fished Clitherall today. Most of the main body had open water. I had open water about 700 yards from me. I WONT be fishing it tomorrow. Ice was degrading fast and was buttery soft. What was a tad over four inches at 2 pm was about 3.5 when I quit at 6pm. At that time it was 41 degrees

I checked Ottertail this morning, and it had ice out at least a half mile (west end), but it was pretty foggy when I checked. Ice seemed to be about an inch thick. West Battle was wide open, as was Eagle.

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well that dont sound to promising. i guess the only thing we can hope for is cold temps and not much warming during the day. butterfly soft doesnt sound to safe! lol since you were out did ya catch anything or was it a waste of time? hope not

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jt24 -

Four guys fishing, 3 'eyes and one pike. A couple of 'eyes shook off in the hole, and my brother had a pike (I assume) that dang near spooled him. It got into the weeds, and shook free. He had a bowling ball size of weeds on his jig for his trouble, LOL. A good day all in all.

It is a bit cooler here now, and the water on the ice seems to have frozen. Hopefully the surface water has not sunk into the ice. If we can get a few days where is stays below freezing, we should have walkable ice again next weekend on the smaller lakes.


NOTE TO THOSE WHO WANT TO FISH SECOND SILVER - It looks like the land owner has posted his land. While the access to the lake can technically be had through the road right of way, it would be a nice gesture if the land owner is asked permission.(Which is not me, BTW) There was some slobby folks out there last winter who left a lot of crud on the ice.

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To Gissert-

For the two eyes and one northern have you went out to the sunken island/ point out in the middle or is that you fishing the first break right of the access. Maybe we aren't talking about the same lake but I think we may be. Also any of those big crappies yet?

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Ice conditions in the area have "deteriorated" in the last few days. Tried getting out on Big Pine on Saturday, there was about 1/2 inch of water on top of the ice!! very slippery! Couldn't get to the spot because of open water. Needless to say we got skunked. Waves on top of the ice are NOT good. Sunny and warm today is not doing any good either. The small fish houses that have gone out are now coming back to shore. It's dangerous! Otter Tail had a thin sheet of ice on Saturday morning, could be gone again by now. Some small lakes have 5-6 inches of ice.

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PRFISHER -

That was us by the access. I did not get a chance to check the ice there yesterday, but it was thinning quickly Saturday.

I live on South Turtle, and the ice looked better there yesterday than it did Saturday, but I had too many irons in the fire to check its condition. Still a lot of open spots in the middle.

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fishermatt

do you know how the conditions of the ice on walker are? its pretty small but the river running threw wont help the ice making thats for sure. with the way the weather is suppose to be this week sounds like not to good for coming up this weekend to do any fishing.

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I live right by Walker but haven't been by it lately. I'll try to get by there before dark tonight and report what I see.

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Hey guys, I'm thinking of coming up after Christmas, if there's ice. My first choice is Star, because my g/f has a cabin there. But, if there isn't any ice there, I'll have to find a lake that has some. Any recommendations? Also, if someone up there could give me conditions on Star, that would be great!!! Thanks a lot. Pray for ice.

Good Luck,
Rusty

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Walker lake looks pretty good. There's about 5 fish houses out there. Went by at sunset last night (without my gear) and saw some activity near the middle of the lake. Haven't heard of any fish being caught, but the lake appears fishable, and should continue to be. Otter Tail is at least 3/4 open as of Monday night. The ice that exists looks like broken chunks that blew together and froze. Not good for OT.

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JT24, Anytime. even though I live close to that lake I've never fished there before. Do you have a favorite depth/lure for early ice there?

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well i dont have any favorite lures that i use but around 20-22ft is a good depth for the crappies. usually nice sized ones to but only in the winter. last spring was the first and only time i ever caught crappies on open water. just a dozen or so by accident but i didnt complain. the opposite for sunfish though. cant catch a one in the winter but dang nice ones in the summer. not sure where to look i guess. so where from walker do you live?? hope i was of some help.

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fishermatt

thanks for the info. well now i dont know what to think. i would imagine that its only walkable ice unless theres five or more inches but thats hard to believe. well anyways now i have to decide if i am going to go this weekend or just wait. getting out rite after freeze up on good ice makes the fishing awesome on that lake. thanks again

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hey no problem. i would suggest trying late afternoon into the early evening or rite before day break up threw early morning. thats if there kinda slow but if theres a good bite then should be fairly decent most of the day but definitly better in the early mornings or early evenings!

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Thanks for the info JT24! I may try there on Friday if I can get out of work early enough. I'll let you know what happens. I'm from over by Dead Lake, which also has some nice crappies.

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hey fishermatt did ya get out on walker? i decided not to come up because of the uncertain ice thickness and i didnt feel like walking all the way out. well just curious on what ya found.

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Sorry Jt24, but I didn't get a chance. My wife gave me the "I was thinking" thing, which always means something other than fishing. Overall fishing in the area is poor. I've been on Big Pine twice, Little Pine twice, and Ottertail once and have yet to catch a walleye. Other people I've talked to are also doing poorly. Full moon is coming, maybe that'll get 'em snapping!

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Hey no problem. Fishing dont sound to good but hopefully it will pick up next week. I am planning on coming up the first weekend in January so lets hope there alittle more active then they are now.

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • leech~~
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