Overnight, the temperatures hovered around and just above freezing. In checking the ice roads, not much froze up out there at all. So, for that reason, I will be postponing pulling permanents today. Tuesday’s temperatures are to be considerably cooler, and from there, it will continue cold through the weekend.

We are limiting vehicles to under 5000 curb weight for portable fishermen, rentals, and pulling single-axle wheelhouses. Tandems will need to be pulled by ATV.

Update: 5.30 pm.  Things are starting to freeze up out there somewhat,  Tomorrow morning we will see what it looks like and and continue.

Eddy

Yesterday, some areas out there got pretty wet from the melting and rain Friday evening.  When the wind picked up as it cleared around 10:00 am, it started moving the water across the smoother ice area and would build up in front of rough ice areas. So, fishermen avoided them. We drilled holes to the north and west of our houses to drain the water, and they all stayed high and dry. It began to freeze by late afternoon Saturday, and this morning at 6:00 am, the roads I checked in the fog were looking good. After we get the rental customers to their houses this morning, we will run all the roads, redo tipped stakes, and check ice depths along all the roads to decide our next moves.

The bite was pretty good for most anglers yesterday, mainly Perch and small Walleye. Some over-the-slots and a couple of “line breakers” (probably Northern Pike) were reported. I received a couple of pictures of 24″ and 26″ Walleye.

3:00 pm updated Ice depths:     After running the roads, redoing stakes that were leaning, and checking ice depths, we did not lose much ice.  However, in the rougher “white ice areas,” the top 2″to 3″ of ice was soft and partially honeycombed. In the clear ice areas, it was not soft on top at all.  Ice thickness ranges from a pretty consistent 15″ to 16″ within the first half mile out.  Beyond that, it was between 13″ to 14.5″, and the clear ice areas were a consistent 14″ .  A couple of small areas in the rougher ice closer to shore were 18″.

We will allow 1/2 tons with single-axle wheelhouses out in the first 1/2 to 3/4 mile on Monday. Tandem wheelhouses will need to be dollied and pulled by ATV. Individual portable and rental customers’ vehicles will remain at the 5000 lb curb weight limit. We will need another cold night or two to freeze some areas better. With the colder weather coming, everything will change fast over the next few days.

I will also start pulling permanents on the list Monday. You will be notified when they are on the lake. They will be blocked up, but there is no snow for banking yet, so they will be just a couple of inches off the ice.

Eddy

On Friday, the bite was active in the morning with small Perch and Walleye. By mid-afternoon, something had changed. Some fishermen were sending nice pictures of “keepers” and over-the-slot Walleye in the shallow and deeper water areas.

We received some rain overnight, but fortunately, we were just on the east edge of most of it as it moved NE. There is standing water in many areas on the ice, some 2″-3″ deep. It’s good that there are no strong winds in the forecast, but even the west wind forecasted at five mph will be moving the water over the ice as the skies clear off, so some areas will be trapping a lot of water.  Temperatures will slowly drop over the next few days and turn much colder through the week and weekend, so we will be back on track shortly. Some snow would be nice in the next few days.

The fog set in again this morning, but it is forecasted to clear off somewhat, and maybe we will see the sun this afternoon. We have 24 to 36 hours more to wait out the temperatures before they start to freeze up. We’ll wait it out and resume then. We will remain open and continue renting, but we will restrict our access to some traffic, so call the office before coming up.

Eddy