It’s 2:00 pm. and we are closed for the rest of the day for Christmas.

This morning we got rentals ready for tomorrow and Friday and checked ice conditions and thickness. The water that was on top is starting to go down, but not all from draining in cracks and ice holes.  The very top inch or so is starting to go soft and “honeycomb”. That is something you normally see in the spring during the melt, but not this time of year.

Fortunately colder weather is coming soon. Starting after Christmas, the temps will steadily keep falling with predicted sub-zero lows next week so we will be in good shape. And really no measurably snowfalls.

Ice thickness in areas we checked was as low as 13-14 inches out in the clear smooth ice with the top inch soft and in closer on the rougher white ice as much as 16-17 inches with the top two inches soft.  So we definitely lost some.  That means no vehicle traffic out in the ice areas of 13-14 inches for awhile yet.  it will be ATV’s, portables and ATV’s and wheelhouses only out there And no permanents pulled to the deeper reefs like previously planned this week.  Sorry but I’m going to wait till I see better ice.  In the areas of 16-17 inches we will be driving and pulling houses and allowing wheelhouses with half-tons thru the weekend.

Sorta hard to say Merry Christmas when the warm weather made us put the brakes on so to speak.  But on the flip side I remember many Christmas-New Years we weren’t even out there so i guess we are not that late this year.  This last bout with the warm weather just was a set-back.  Then there were years 30-35 years ago when I was the only guy going to Hennipen Island after Jack Maciosek quit the business. And I did for many….He told me “if you can’t get there by Christmas you might as well not go”.  Many years I made it, so that says something about how early we used to get out too. So maybe this was almost a “normal” one……lol!    Merry Christmas!!

Keep a Tight Line!!

Eddy