Today the NW wind blew about 30 mph for most of the day, but the temperatures were in the upper 20’s . Couldn’t do much on the lake as far as opening roads so I pretty much stayed off the ice until late afternoon.

Three groups of anglers went out, and I got a chance to talk to of them and they did well with  Perch and the Walleye.  One angler caught and released a 28″ which “made his day” he said.  So far I think it is going to be a good “catching” year on the ice if we can get out there.

The ice making has pretty much stopped with this warm weather, and we are right at that “go/no go” stage.  Ice depths average between 8-11″ inches depending if you on bare ice our drilling in a snow drift.  I’m going to wait one more day to decide if I’m going to put rentals out for Christmas and after.  Weatherman is predicting a significant storm on Sunday, temperatures could be warm enough where we get rain here and if not it’s possible we could get up to one foot of snow.  Either way on 8-11 inches of ice I would prefer not to have houses on it during that.  So we will wait.

It will be ATV/Snowmobile portable traffic only until we see a change in temps and ice.  We have plenty of parking available.  Private house owners are welcome to overnight in their houses if they want to come up.   Let’s hope for some more cold weather.

keep a Tight Line!        Eddy

Today we had a few more fishermen out with the warmer weather.  The few that stopped in did to report their catch had a pretty good day.  Walleyes are biting and many caught and released.  Perch were biting but many were small from most reports.  I noticed that the anglers were not in the basin areas where the larger Perch would normally be.

I got main roads started to the Graveyard Reef an Banana Reefs and have things staked and checked to head to the Tundra tomorrow. ice depths ranged from 8 to 11″ inches so it will be ATV/Snowmobile and portables until we get more ice.

I will be setting up some of the smaller rentals for the weekend and what is reserved already.  Call for information.

Keep a Tight Line!   Eddy

Got in from checking the ice and found a lot of variation.  Where I was out plowing two days with the Cruiser it was a consistent 12″ (first 1/3 mile from shore).  From there I found as little as 7″ in areas where there was 3-4″ of snow in drifts, to as much as 10″ in bare spots of ice. if i was to average it I would say 8-9″ on the ice 1/2 to 2miles out from our shoreline. But alot of it has not been checked yet.   What snow was out there really made a difference on how the cold got to it.

Good news is I had a customer that went out in the morning and came in about 3:00pm. with 10 Perch over 10″, caught and released 20 Walleyes ranging from 9″ to 26″, one third of them were over 20″ and broke a line on a Northern Pike under the hole.  Lots of smaller Perch were there also, but by up-sizing the bigger ones were caught. All in all a pretty good day I would say..

Plans for here.  Strictly ATV or Snowmobile traffic and portable for the first few days of this week.  After I get more roads made with the Cruiser, maybe by the end of the week we will let ATV’s and small wheelhouses out. But there will be no trucks or vehicles out there until I know we have a consistent 12-14″ of ice on our roads everywhere we go. Midweek I will be pulling smaller rentals out so we will have them available (especially if you have an ATV and trailer).

Keep a Tight Line!     Eddy