Today quite a few fishermen were out and from what reports I heard this evening it was a slower bite than yesterday. There were some bright spots with numerous 26″ on over Walleyes in three of the rentals. The barometer rose and sun came out and it was nice out there but the barometer high I think was the culprit for most.

The ice stayed put with a few cracks out towards the Graveyard but none that gave us problems.  Tonite when the sun went down it was starting to rumble a little, but nothing abnormal for sure.

Most everyone was careful and kept the speeds down on the ice except for a couple of careless fishermen here with a wheelhouse.  (Always seems to be at least one that thinks he knows more than the resorter.) He was asked once today to slow down on the ice, then tonight drove through our access without stopping and checking in on his way back from town. (Apparently doesn’t know what a stop sign is and can’t read either…) Then drove through an area where numerous fishermen were in shallow water at a high rate of speed to get to his house.  I received three phone calls from other customers complaining about it.  Pretty Stupid is all I can say………Just because they drive like that on Red Lake doesn’t mean that it is going to happen here……..

Keep a Tight Line!

Eddy

It was a good day out on the ice today.  Started out with 2-3 inches of fresh snow.  Just enough to bank houses and cover the ice a little so it will cool off gradually as the colder weather comes over the next few days.  And protect it from the sun when it does come out.

Plus the fishing has been pretty good the last 36hrs. Lots of fishermen stopped on their way off  (Thank You!) and let us know how they did and very few had a slow day.  Perch activity was good with reports of 10″ plus Perch.  Walleyes were active, mainly overnight last night and early morning and then again at dusk today.  Didn’t hear of any Pike caught or speared, but there were quite a few spear fishermen SW of Spider Island in along the point and middle Twin.

The ice is stable with no cracking and I really don’t expect it to for a couple of more days when it gets colder.  Ice depths are still the same with 16″ average in the first mile and half and then a pretty consistent 14″ out in the “smooth” ice.  We re-staked the roads today and I made the first runs to the Tundra and Banana reefs to establish roads but we will not be allowing vehicle traffic out to those areas for a day or so yet.  It will be ATV, portables, ATV and wheelhouses only out there. In closer we are letting vehicles up to 1/2 ton and 1/2 ton trucks with wheelhouses out on most of the roads and we will provide a map as to where you can travel when you arrive.

I found out tonight from some of our customers arriving for the weekend I was a “topic” on some of the internet fishing sites this past week. Earlier this week when things were warm we drilled holes to get the ice to float up and water to go down around houses. Apparently some thought it was a bad thing to do. It’s pretty obvious they don’t know how or why it works and that a lot of small holes are better (and less dangerous) than a couple big ones caused by water running down thru it.  (Like the one in your fish house that looks like a toilet flushing when it starts running in it and grows bigger because it’s the only place for it to go….hmmm…)  I’ve been out on the ice doing things like that probably more years than most fishermen on those internet sites are old. I got a chuckle when I heard that……. 🙂

Keep a Tight Line!

Eddy

Merry Christmas!!

Today we were back at it and had a few rentals and by noon other customers showed up to go to their houses.  The phone was ringing and fishermen were planning for this next 10 days with the holidays the way they are.Only fishing report I have to offer is when I checked on two of them midday.  One rental was busy with Perch and the other had a 19″ Walleye, some keepable Perch and lost a big Pike in the hole.  sounds like the Pike made the day for them though.

The ice is slowly freezing today and it sounds like it will slowly get colder the next couple, which is good.  What would really be nice tonight and tomorrow would be a little snow so fishermen can bank up their houses instead of relying just on hole liners.  With next weeks temps dropping way down there, just a little would be nice.  And to see some sunshine will help everything.

Tomorrow and the next 10 days are going to be busy times for us, and what a feeling it is to see that again.  It’s been a long time… There is a lot of things to do out there like re-staking the roads, (as most stakes tipped over in the second melt), checking out the place where cracks will inevitably run and set ramps for it, plus get rentals out and pull more “privates” for the weekend.  Check yesterday report for ice depth and what we are going to do for driving as it will still be the same.

Keep a Tight Line!!

Eddy