SE MN - Area Ice

[shovelheadsd]

New here, Thought I would let you all know. Fished backwaters lastnight 12-11-06 and there was water on top, but still 5" to 6" of ice.

[Dan Thiem]

Thanks for the report! And welcome to FM!

[Rebeleye]

We fished the back corner of Chester Woods early Sunday morning (12-10-06). There was approx 6-7" throughout. A little more than I expected.

Anyway, that was Sunday. Who knows what the ice like now...

Crappy weather, it's only Tuesday, the Wild are losing.

Blah.

[muskylover9]

How's the ice on foster arends?

[Tyler Holm]

Ice was 5" in the backwaters in a few areas without current. Chester Woods had anywhere from 2-6". I'm going to go ahead and say Chester is not safe if you plan to walk much past the boat landing area. I'm nearly positive it will be unsafe by this weekend. Lots of areas with only 2-3" last night.

[Reservoir Dawg]

Its 1:36 PM theres no wind and it's still 29 degrees. Yoo Hoo, I think I hear ice forming.

Thanks Wx Guy did you talk to the weather gods

[Tyler Holm]

Foster had thin ice near the shoreline (1-2") but 4-5" in the area we fished on Sunday.

[Nellie30]

Anybody have a ice/fishing report from KR 7. I am going to try to get out there this Sat AM. Wondering how much ice is out there. Hope this rain or "wintery mix" we are expecting doesn't wreck what little ice we have...

[nate larson]

Just got back from Fosters...there was about 4.5 to 5 inches of ice straight out from the pier. There were a couple of other guys fishing out there as well. There was also somebody ice skating out in the middle of the lake.

I drove by K-7 yesterday and there were 3 cars in the parking lot. I didn't venture out there so I'm not sure how thick the ice is out there.

[AndrewF]

Anyone been out anywhere this past week? Chester?

Andrew

[nicspoons]

Was on a local body of water yesterday and the day before, still about 5 inches there but really gets thin around the edges. I've been pushin my luck all season so far, im done till it gets colder.

[Tyler Holm]

Andrew,

Welcome to FishingMinnesota & HotSpotOutdoors.com

I attempted to fish Chester this past Sunday morning while it was raining outside. I found 2' of open water around the boat ramp area (sometimes 3'). I stretched my legs out to the ice and put a little weight on it and it cracked and broke. I decided to go home and go back to bed. I think I could have jumped out to ice that would hold my body weight, but I opted not to. I heard somebody fished it Sunday evening and found 4-5" of soft honeycombed ice, with several bad spots.

[AndrewF]

Thanks- I'll just be patient, I think. I was thinking about checking out a few areas with a drysuit, a PFD and ice claws, but there's no point in swimming just for the hell of it.

I'm a skater, not a fisherman, but I really appreciate all of your collective input on the ice conditions. If you see some (Contact Us Please) flying by on really long nordic skates, that'll be me.

Andrew

[Tyler Holm]

According to the 10-day forecast, we've got a little artic blast coming through the area. Be patient with the ice as it's still in rough shape on many bodies of water around Rochester. For now, continue to use extreme caution on all ice in our area.

[Ron Burgundy]

How long do you guys think it will take to get a good 6 inches of ice in the Winona and Rochester area?

[smg04]

my GUESS, 5-6 days with the little bit of ice we alredy have, again just my GUESS

[Rebeleye]

Obviously some areas will be better than others. The one lake that spooks me all season long is the Manor. I won't go out there unless we get some darn cold weather for a long period of time.

Be safe everybody!

[Tyler Holm]

The south 1/3 of Foster Arends has 4-5" of ice. The middle section (that I checked) had 2-3" and the North side had 1.5-2.5"

If you plan on fishing Foster, your safest bet is the extreme south end. I saw guys on the North side and went to say hi, but he ice was too thin for my liking. 1 wack with the spud bar went through at every area I checked on the North end.

There's open water in front on the beach that extends 5-15' from shore. There's also some open water along the NE shoreline.

[penguin]

Went to Chester on Saturday. The ice is fine in the main finger, but once you get to the opening be careful! The whole main part is still open water and is being kept that way be the 1000+ geese in there. There are even patches of 1/4" ice mixed in with the good stuff (I checked...stupidly..Hey, look at that dark patch, I wonder how thick that is?). You could see these real easy as black spots about 5 feet around, but with this snow, you will find them by getting wet. I'll be staying off that lake for a while.

Fosters seemed fine Saturday also. 4-5 inches of good ice on the south side. Some guy was ice skating around the whole lake and stayed dry. Missed a nice one when my line broke and it squirmed out of my hand.

Buddy drove by Silver Creek Resevoir today (Sunday) and said it was packed.

[AndrewF]

Anyone know anything about the ice situation over there?

Andrew

[Rebeleye]

If you are referring to Silver Creek I heard there was about 9 inches.

We drove past it on Saturday afternoon and there were 20+ vehicles parked along side the ditch and highway.

For how much people say that lake isn't accessible to the public, people sure are fishing the pants off of it!

[crazyice]

I just hope that the people that are fishing it don't forget to let some of the nicer fish they catch go. It won't be worth fishing in a year or two if there is nothing to catch. Hopefully something is done about a parking lot as I am sure it isn't the safest to be parking so close to traffic.

[HappyAngler]

Say, I was just curious.... Are you guys talking about the resevoir in SE Rochester off county road 11? If not, do you know the name of this resevoir? Just curious.....

[AndrewF]

No, I was referring to Rice (Contact Us Please) park in Owatonna. For some reason when I typed the full title into the subject line, it got censored with one of those (contact us) things that this message board program does. maybe the words "state park" are considered obscene?

look- it did it again!!

Anyway- anyone ever head over to Rice lake in Owatonna?

Andrew

[Tyler Holm]

Willow Creek finally froze 100% of the lake last night. No geese left this morning. Yesterday there were 2 small open spots housing about 500 geese each. I saw 2 guys fishing yesterday afternoon.

This new ice on Willow won’t be safe for a few days yet, so if your going to venture out, play it safe. Draw and imaginary line from the point to the water outlet station (aerator), and don’t come within 50 feet of that imaginary line.

KR7 had 4-8” last night with the thinnest ice right around the aerator and towards the North along the dike.

[Crickschop04]

Anybody been on Foster since the snow???

[HappyAngler]

O.K. I still don't know the name of the body of water on county road 11. I'm just curious. Also, how the heck do I get a picture on my profile? I tried to copy it from "My documents", but that didn't work. Help??

[Spice1]

Quote:

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O.K. I still don't know the name of the body of water on county road 11. I'm just curious. Also, how the heck do I get a picture on my profile? I tried to copy it from "My documents", but that didn't work. Help??

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You have to use an image hosting site such as www.putfile.com, upload your image there then enter the website address where it asks for the URL in your profile.

[crazyice]

Silver Creek Reservoir

[mitch]

How is the ice on Fosters. I'm planning on being there on sunday.