Saturday was the coldest day so far on the lake. But with no wind it really wasn’t too bad out there. Not many portable fishermen showed as I expected.  Being New Years Eve the night before and cold weather didn’t help much.

The anglers in the rentals all had good fishing.  Many Walleye were under the slot and a few over the slot were C/R  Pictures were sent in of some “Keepers”.  A 36″ Northern was C/R and pictures sent in.  And one house did very well with the Perch with many in the 10-11″ range,

The cold weather did it’s thing to the exposed ice. The road banks in the thinner ice areas sank and flooded as I hoped. And cracks zig zagged across the roads from the banks dropping so it was good that we kept vehicle under 5000lbs to the rentals and privates that were out.  I spent the day in the Land Cruiser opening up spots for houses, and plowing side roads.  You can tell the weight of the snow is reaching the ice limits to hold it.  Everywhere a small crack went thru there was slush on either side of it for 10-20 feet. When opening up the NW Popes Road and ran into two cracks that were 1-2″ and open and flooded.  I got out to the Banana Reef where we had staked early with the Tullibee Road.  Today I’m going to spend more time around that area. It was much less stressful to be out there with the Land Cruiser than a heavier plow truck.

We’ll be checking ice depths on the roads late this afternoon to see how much they have made for ice and make decisions on what to allow for traffic Monday.  From all the phone calls we are getting alot of fishermen still do not realize the situation out there and how close to not being good at all it is. All it would take is one more big snowstorm.  Everyone is anxious to get out there and it shows. I don’t blame them, but because of that, some are “pushing it”.  As for us, I will do as I have for 50 years.

Keep a Tight Line!     Eddy