This weekend, especially Friday and Saturday night with the full moon and no snow cover on the ice, was some of the best fishing I have seen for awhile for the majority of anglers out there.  Many rentals had a bunch of C/R Walleyes over and under and kept many in the slot..  Almost everyone had a good weekend out there. Perch were good too with many 10″-12″ in the basins.

After watching numerous 14 day forecasts, I have decided to pull the few larger house’s I had out there before it turned warm, starting tomorrow morning while things are frozen.  In our areas we have too much variance of ice and alot of clear black ice with no snow.  That exposed to the sun that will soften and loose it’s weight carrying abilities if the sun starts hitting it.  This weekend portable anglers out as far as the Graveyard found places with as little as 10″-11″ in a few some spots and under some of our houses in the clear black ice it was only 11″.  Though many places you will find 15″-16″ or more in rough ice areas, it’s not as consistent as we thought it was. The temps forecasted in most models shows it really does not get cold enough to keep it consistently freezing and the best it will do from what I see we will be lucky if it holds it own, let alone improve.  Some snow cover would really help the ice to insulate it from the changes, but that’s not in the forecasts either. We have protected our access thru this  by limiting excessive traffic and it will keep us going.

With all the variance in ice depths we have in areas we will keep going with our smaller-light 8’x12′  basic rentals. All will need an ATV to make it to shore in case of an emergency, but we will shuttle their gear to and from if needed. Small wheelhouses under 14 ft. pulled by ATV’s or SxS’s, along with portable fishermen with ATV’s and a small trailer is recommended to pull gear as we have lost all our snow.  I encourage all permanents on shore to come up, camp in their houses and portable as it is worth the trip.

In the 50 years, (since I was 18) doing this full time every winter, I have seen many years with the warm up we have now this late in the season. Most of those years the ice was 24″ or more and it was no big deal. Now we have almost enough ice to go like we would have in December, and no cold weather ahead.  Two days away it’s February.  And a lot has changed over the years. Permanent houses are bigger and heavier, trucks and wheelhouses pulling in and out on the ice roads every weekend, accesses get beat up with the salt they bring out on the ice from being on the highway, etc.  It’s not like it used to be.  The only thing that we can’t control is the weather. It still does what it does. I care about customers safety as others do around the lake, with the ice conditions we have in the areas we go to I’ve chosen this. Everyone else choses as they see their ice conditions and this year it varies all over the lake. So chose where you want to go and check with the business that goes to that area you want to fish and patronize them. They know what they are dealing with.

Be Safe and keep fishing.

Eddy

This morning the reports came in from the fishermen out overnight and they were very good. Many had there slot fish and reports ranged from 4-15 Walleye  over and under per house.  Mostly all in shallower water.  So the bite was on last night.  We’ll see what it does today..

The temperature dropped below 32 degrees for a while overnight and some of the wetter areas started to freeze. It is suppose to freeze the next two evenings. Next week we are going to see some sunshine, so there will be melting days. If it keeps freezing overnite it will hopefully hold it’s own, but there isn’t any real cold forecasted in the future so I’m not sure what will happen.  We’ll go day by day.

  Click to enlarge, That black strip of ice is our weakest area. That is what’s holding us back.  🙁

We are allowing vehicles out in the 4000lb range. single axle wheelhouses pulled by SxS’s or ATV’s.  We will continue renting our smaller basic rentals and shuttle customers if needed. Portable fishermen I recommend bring a small trailer to haul your gear as we have lost our snow cover on shore and driveway.

Keep a Tight Line!

Eddy

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Overnight last night the bite was a little slower but still pretty good for most.  Today we had more portable fishermen out and they were spreading out to some deeper basins and reefs.  The reports from the deeper reefs were mixed but the basin areas the activity picked up.  Where there was smaller Perch there were Walleye going after them and they were hungry.

With the temps approaching 40 degrees and having two nights above freezing.  I limited traffic to vehicles under 4000 lbs. curb weight and wheelhouses pulled by SxS and ATV’s only. Most rentals had wheelers and trailers and we shuttled out there with their gear with our light rental trucks.  We have good ice from 14-16 inches in most areas, but with this warm weather I wanted to limit traffic to make sure our roads will last in case the forecast stays warm.  It sounds like we will have a couple pretty good freezing nights that will help Saturday and Sunday, but the long range isn’t ice making weather but it might hold it’s own with freezing some at night with the warmer sunny days. We have a stretch of ice in front of us about 100 yards out and 150 yards wide running east to west I call our “Achilles Heel”. We have 14″-16″ of clear black ice in that area with no snow cover.  When and if the sun comes out next week with the warm temps that is where the damage will be done.  (If you can’t cross it. it doesn’t matter what’s on the other side..)

For now this is what we are doing. Saving our access, renting our smaller houses with ATV’s and trailers accessing them.  Small wheelhouses, pulled with with SxS’s and ATV’s  and portable fishermen with ATV’s or vehicles under 4000lb curb weight.

Keep a Tight Line!

Eddy