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