Yesterday we seen anglers show up and go out. When they checked in there were mixed reports but all caught Walleye, some in the slot and a mixture of Perch.  They went out on snowmobile and ATV’s.  Surprising to me, but one group with an ATV, towing two portables went 3/4 mile out to a reef beyond along the stakes where I will plow to.  The drifts were so hard they drove over them. As one of them said when they came in that he felt like Santa riding the Norelco “tripleshaver head” over the snowdrifts in the old TV commercial.    🙂

I pulled out our first small rental, (Jack of Clubs) yesterday with my Dad’s  46 Willys.  For 69 years that Jeep pulled the first rental down the hill and it’s become a tradition for us. The Jeep doesn’t get used much out on the ice anymore. But the first rental is it’s job.

The reality of the ice conditions for us in our areas we go is that there is just plain not enough ice and too much snow to start pulling all the houses.  We pulled four small rentals yesterday and the places I put them were on flooded and froze ice that was 14″ thick (10″ of good ice, 4″ of slush ice)  just off the roads I reopened.  I put one house in and area that hadn’t flooded on 12 inches of ice and when drilled it immediately flooded.  With no cold weather forecasted for the next couple weeks I’m not going to say when we will get things going.  Until we get more ice we are in survival mode.. We will be renting out our small rentals, working on making new roads to get more ice under them so eventually we can get everyone out.

It will remain Portables/ATV’s/Snowmobiles, small wheelhouses under 14 feet, capable of being pulled by your ATV. (In restricted areas only). You will not be able to park and fish on or close to the roads.  We have a large parking area for Wheelhouse camping available for those interested.  Permanents are welcome to stay in their house on shore also and portable.  It will be nice weather for that.

Be Safe

Eddy