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Ice Reports?


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Skim to real thin on protected bays and nothing really on the lake. Forecast for nice weather for sitting in the boat! It's going to be a while yet but hey it's not even Turkey weekend yet guys and girls. Forecast shows a cooling trend coming but we all know that can change. Once old man winter does rear his head this next time he will probably hang around for 4 or 5 months. It can turn real cold real quick up here and lock the lake up quite firm and fast when it does. Drag up a small boat and jig em up in the river. There are lots of Walleye in the river and they're biting and these next few days will probably be it for any boat fishing.

fiskyknut

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On a "ice" related note, I just hope that person in the Canada forum isn't really bringing wheelers up next week? I am fairly new to this forum and by no means a LOTW expert, but, even I know it's not safe. I hope he takes everyones advice.

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I have a question for some of you veterans of LOW. Our group has tried the last three years to get up there and so far we've only missed one early trip due to lack of ice. If and when it does cool off temp wise, what period of time will it take for the ice to thicken? I mean, when will the resorts start hauling the shacks out? Just wondering as I'm heading up there Dec 14th-18th and I'm starting to get nervous. I saw some single digit lows in the 10 day forecast and I'm hoping a few nights of that will get the action started. I realize mother nature will take her time if she wants but I thought maybe you'd know a better estimate. Down here in Southern MN we sure don't have lakes of that size!!!! Thanks for your help. P.S. I don't care how thick the ice is my ice picks will be around my neck!

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Not this year.... I just checked the Sportsman's webcam, and the river is wide open, not even any ice on the shore.. Maybe it's an early spring already.... LOL Kaz grin.gif

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Maybe this year will be different but it seems every year people talk like this. The bait shops don't usually have suckers yet when we're there. We had to drive all the way to lucky's from Warroad to get them one year. The guys at the bait shop ask why we want suckers. We look at them like they're nuts and say we're going spearing. They look at us the same way and say we're nuts for going out- the ice ain't thick enough. Then, we go out on the ice and there's a good 6 inches. We get the four wheeler out on it. Some of our crew didn't have licenses yet last year and we had to go to more than one place to get them. Some places refused to sell them to us because they said they didn't want us to go out there and get killed. Every year it's a similar story. One year, when we were getting set up to go out, a guy came up to our vehicle and started looking around in it. We asked what he was doing. He said he wanted to see if we had any good stuff he could take after we died from falling through the ice. People get very paranoid around there.

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Ya, and every year some sucker or 50 goes down too.

If your not paranoid on this lake, sooner or later it will humble you.

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I couldn't agree more with widetrack. LOW will humble you in the Spring, Summer, Winter, or Fall if you give it a chance. Late Fall and early Winter are particularly popular times to die on the lake. A little healthy dose of paranoia will keep you alive on that body of water.

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Couldn't agree more, I have had the living *$#! scared out of twice on that lake and I haven't had the courage to go back yet...

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What makes LOW so different from every other lake? 6" of ice on any other lake and it's buzzing with fishermen. How thick does the ice have to be before you'll go out on the bays?

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I'd also rather be safe than sorry.. I see the ten day forecast only has it above freezing one day after Saturday with some single digit temps inching closer. Maybe that will be the job done. If not I guess we'll just have to drink more beer!! How far out does the fishing mormally start??

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Fat Rap,

Once there is 6 inches of ice on LOW it will get hoppin'

They will walk out on 4 Mile Bay very soon and fishing will

be good there.

The thing about LOW is you dont walk out onto lake

fish. You must go too far. Your only walk out chances

are Long Point, Morris Point and Springsteel but it is

still out of range. You must figure for a wheeler or

Samuri and trailer before fishing starts.

Never say never but it is not a "walk out" type deal

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A few years ago fished out of Zippel on 2 inches of ice. Every other fisherman besides my brother and I were on 6 safe inches of ice and we wandered out near the open water and fished for an hour on the two inches. We drug out the two man portable and in an hour we had two inches of water on the ice and pulled back to the 6 inch stuff. We figured going from 16 FOW to 17 FOW would make a difference but it didn't. That three day run was strange in that all the walleye's (no saugers) were all caught a couple feet off the bottom and they nailed it.

Made a few trips up there beginning of December over the past 10 years, usually the best fishing. Shallow water bite all day long.

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Dougger222, you have waaay biger kahuna's than I do... No way would you catch me on two inches of ice! Especially near open water. I get nervous on 6" of ice, anything thinner and I'm too worried about dying to have any fun fishing? I know good clear ice is pretty strong stuff, and a couple inches of solid good ice would "probably" support me, but if there's a "probably" involved... No Thanks!

I can't wait for ice fishing though, once we get enough Ice, I'll be there...

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Quote:

Dougger222, you have waaay biger kahuna's than I do... No way would you catch me on two inches of ice! Especially near open water. I get nervous on 6" of ice, anything thinner and I'm too worried about dying to have any fun fishing? I know good clear ice is pretty strong stuff, and a couple inches of solid good ice would "probably" support me, but if there's a "probably" involved... No Thanks!

I can't wait for ice fishing though, once we get enough Ice, I'll be there...


That reminds of me of a couple years ago. My brother and I (older mind you) decided after a big thanksgiving dinner it was time to get out the ice gear and try some fishing. We knocked on a friends door who lives on the point on Cedar Lake (Scott County) and he granted us permission to use his yard as an access point. From his property it was the closest to the deepest part of the lake, a staggering 14 FOW! We made it out to about 8 FOW and figured it was all we could go since open water wasn't to far off. We caught some fish on top of the two inches of ice and a couple days later the lake was open again. When my brother and I were youngsters I watched him drop into an old spear hole on Lake Marion.

Talking with my father in law tonight he told me the story of when he was ice fishing on a bay in a lake just North of the cities when there were boats on the other side of the lake, now that's crazy. He was pike fishing in 3-4 FOW with hip waders on top of an inch of ice. When he broke through he'd help himself up and keep at it. Since then he don't drink anymore and don't go on ice until it's 6in plus!

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Been on the big lake also during very late ice conditions. Out of Arnesons a few years back we had to drive the atv through a foot of honey combed slush. On the way back we dropped into the heave but luckily didn't do any damage to the machine.

Another year in April out of Zippel we took the atv and Excursion 4x4 out to 26 FOW and soon found my father, uncle, and I all without shirts on. 65 and sunny, we built a 7ft snow man bareback, those pics are priceless!!!

Early ice (8in max) did some damage out on Winnie. My 300 lb friend and I took off with the Polaris 700 and our two flip overs out of High Bank. We made a b-line to Center bar and didn't see the 4ft heave until it was too late. By the time I spotted it (my friend was on the rear rack looking back) I decided the only way to make it was to gun it. We went air borne as did the portables and my friend, sorry Robert. The atv, him and I made it out ok but my fishouse and equipment didn't fare so well. Portable cover torn, lantern broken, aqua vu broke but repairable, mr. heater broke, and everything in the tackle bag screwn about the fish house. The worse thing was the smell of the all food that was water logged in the fish house the rest of the day, wet crackers get stinky!

Drove a new truck and fish house out on 8 inches of ice once. A week later while on LOW I called my brother to see how the fishing was going in the cities and he informed me that a friend had to move the fish house to save it. For four days the heat was on full blast at metled the ice under the house to only a few inches. When I see the guy who pulled the house away from the bad ice I still thank him to this day. A 2,000lb shanty on top of 3 inches of ice is no good.

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Slab slayer, with the weather the way it is I think beer is going to be the most important part of our trip.. Should we bring boats??

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We all have done things that we later look back at as being not too smart. I've never fallen thru the ice, but I've had plenty of scares in the past,it reminds me of the old saying "The Good Lord looks out for children and fools" It's not wether or not you can get yourself back out after falling thru the ice. It's wether or not you can get to safety before hypothermia sets in. Be safe on the ice,you owe it to your family

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Last Winter my Uncle and I decided one last ice outing was needed. We drove to the lake we wanted to fish in Chicago county in the morning and found it was impossible to get onto. After talking to a friend we decided it was worth a shot. We took the 24ft extension ladder off the work truck and crawled over 12ft of water to get to "safe" ice which was really only 8in of the worse ice I've ever seen. It was not fun, although we did catch some bulls.

When ice fishing in dangerous condition always have on a pair of ice spikes and cleats, it could save your life.

Fishing with another person close by in dangerous ice conditions can also save your life.

I'm a roofing contractor by trade and joke to people that more than likely I'll either be seriously injured or killed in a car wreck.

Getting the ice fishing buzz, as soon as there's walkable ice an LOW it will be time to pack up the pick up!!!

Keep the reports comming...

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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
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    • 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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