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End of February Ice?


SCONASOTAN

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I am thinking of coming up to URL the last weekend of Feb. We'll probably go out of the south end at Mort's. We'll have our own perm. shack. What do you URL experts think the ice will be like at that time (typically)? Is the south shore ice any different than say up by Hillman's road? Has anybody had any luck in that area? I will also will be bringing a portable. I am coming up with my father-in-law and he is very sceptical as to what the ice may be like with this warm winter. Any help would be appreciated.

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Creators

In a typical year the ice is good through most of March. This year who knows! I have a trip planned for the second week in March so hopefully the ice holds up.

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On Garage Logic the other day they mentioned that a warm January is historicly (sp?) followed by a cold Febuary. Hope so. The ice should be good then. The south shore has a big advantage in that it is usually a shorter drive on the lake and in the spring the sunshine does not hit the shoreline as hard.

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thank you for the responses.

Kelly-P -- do you plow your own roads or do you plow for Hilman's or another outfitter?? If your own roads then how can I access them? I read these forums every day and you give straight forward posts and are very helpfull from what I have heard from others I know that go up to URL. Thanks for all your work wink.gif

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I help Hillman's plow THEIR road. I make no money off the road fees. Unless we hit a very hot bite somewhere Buddy has his houses in the first 4 miles and me and Pat Foster break out from there heading west or south of the main road bank with our houses. On an average day we all share keeping the main road open, Buddy takes care of the side roads in the first 4 miles and Pat and I take care of beyond 4 miles. It works good for all of us. Me and Pat have a good main road to use for a jumping off spot as we chase around the lake, Buddy has help plowing the main road and the people using Hillman's road end up with a lot of miles of road to fish from. Foster and I try a lot of places so at any time there are miles of "trails" or roads heading off from the main road. At one point last year Foster and I laughed that we had over 15 miles of "trails" off from the main road and couldn't find a decent bite. grin.gif In any case it takes a lot of people working together to keep any road open on URL.

It is something that I do not think that a lot of people think about when they rent a fishhouse. When those topics come up I see people talking about rates or how the house is or how they were treated. Without a V-Plow if the fish are biting 2 miles over that way you can not get your customers there. V-Plows are spendy to run, I know that when I come off the lake in the spring if I have spent $15,000 or less on gas and repairs for my V-Plow I am happy. smile.gif

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Kelly. Was wondering if you could e-mail me at [email protected] Need to know your availability along with renting a sleeper in March. Put upper red in subject line so it doesn't get deleted. We may need more than 1 sleeper mid week.. Doug

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Don't thank me, thank Patsy. She's the organized one, me, I just bounce off the walls. smile.gif

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Quote:

In any case it takes a lot of people working together to keep any road open on URL.

It is something that I do not think that a lot of people think about when they rent a fishhouse. When those topics come up I see people talking about rates...


It’s amazing what is behind those V-plows. Most of us see a banged up truck and a white knuckled driver banging into ice chunks and frozen drifts and that’s all. It takes an entire enterprise to keep a road open and rental houses going on that very unforgiving water. You have the flag ship or V-plow going at all hours off the day and night, and for every plow you must have a very good mechanic that is not objected to working on a shredded tranni at 3am and doesn’t mind getting burned by the hot slag coming from the welder that is welding on the front end all going as fast as they can to get that truck ready before the next one goes down. Let’s also not forget while tying to keep the constant drifting snow off the road they have to deal with pressure ridges and bridges. Twenty degrees in temperature change now means they have another four or five hours of work to keep the bridges intact and safe, but they have to plow the snow of the road. You need a couple more guys to work on bridges now, because the driver is plowing to get people out to the fish, the mechanic and welder are either still working or catching a nap on the creepers before the next disaster hits. So already you are up to four or five guys. Now you have to have somebody running the schedule for the rentals, answering the never ending stream of phone calls, cleaning the rentals in between groups of clients, taking them out to the house and make sure the fish house is in complete working order and that the previous group didn’t get unruly and trash it in the course of the night. Lets not forget you have to also keep the propane tanks full, pull guys out of the snow banks, answer questions about where to go and how to fish all while trying to keep up to the ever changing fishing conditions and looking for good spots to put your clients. All in a 24 hour window day after day after day keep in mind those guys that keep the roads open don’t have a day off from the first weeks in December until the ice thaws in the spring, and people ask me “Why did you go into lending and not stay up North and work on the lake?” crazy.gif

I really don’t mind that road fee one bit, if you ask me it’s a pretty good deal.

Thanks guys (and gals) for making Red Lake assessable and safe for us anglers and our families.

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There really are a lot of behind the scenes things that are happening which go un-noticed. It really takes a special someone to be doing all these things too. Not only to do what's been mentioned, but I'm sure there are plenty of bad days or days that where nothing seems to go right, and still, when talking to or meeting with clients, you try to put on a happy face and be friendly/cordial in order to maintain that client base and client relationship. And then there may be those who have children which require a level of attention such as dinner, homework, sporting events, concerts, or what have you. Balancing your time can be very difficult, I'm sure. That's why I say it takes a special someone to be doing this...not everyone can do or handle this, and not everyone should. Takes the right personality and mindset to do these things.

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You forgot one more behind the scenes guy that helps keep that "BIG" ball rolling and the drivers sane .................................................................................................................................. the bartender!!! grin.gif

Good Luck!

Ken

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • leech~~
      Nope not me.  May want to go nextdoor and ask around?  
    • 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
      With the drifting, kind of hard to tell for sure, but I'm guessing about a foot and still lightly snowing. Cook end!
    • PSU
      How much snow did you get on Vermilion? 
    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
      A friend who has a cabin between Alex and Fergus said the lake he's on refroze. He texted me a pic from March 12th when it was open and one from 23rd when it wasn't. 🤯
    • 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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