Anyone have Ice Fishing Trips Planned Already?

Just wondering if anyone has any destination trips planned for the upcoming season already (assuming we have ice). Most of my season is just day trips within 2hr drive of home, but most winters, the wife and I plan a few day trip somewhere. We have done Devils Lake a few times, Upper Red once, LOTW on the MN side once, Rainy Lake once. This time we are crossing the border into Ontario for a 3 day stay in an ice castle out of the Kenora area for the first weekend of February (all weekends were already booked for January). We are going thru Northwest Outfitters.

Now we just need summer to get over with, lol

Im like you where I just do day trips to a further away lake normally. Mille lacs will be on that list, probably the Alexandria area too.

Nothing planned per say. The usual early Red run, then a mix of Winnie, Mille Lacs and Red. That’s a long haul to Kenora with the fish house. Curious how you end up doing and what kind of road system they have out there. We used to launch there and run to an island summer fishing.

John Rasmussen wrote:

Nothing planned per say. The usual early Red run, then a mix of Winnie, Mille Lacs and Red. That’s a long haul to Kenora with the fish house. Curious how you end up doing and what kind of road system they have out there. We used to launch there and run to an island summer fishing.

The outfitter rents out the ice castles and plows his own road system about 15min west of Kenora. His website also says you can bring your own fish house if you like. He does have a You Tube channel as well. I think this coming season will be his 3rd or 4th season doing this. He also guides open water and ice so he seems like a busy guy. Found him thru watching Jay Seimens channel

Depends if we get ice.

chuck100 wrote:

Depends if we get ice.

Plan on going north… We will get ice in southern WI but it may not be reliable enough to plan a trip around

Always have a weekend on URL scheduled a year in advance

Usually Red Lake early December and LOW first or second week of January.

bigstorm wrote:

The outfitter rents out the ice castles and plows his own road system about 15min west of Kenora. His website also says you can bring your own fish house if you like. He does have a You Tube channel as well. I think this coming season will be his 3rd or 4th season doing this. He also guides open water and ice so he seems like a busy guy. Found him thru watching Jay Seimens channel

That sounds pretty cool. I will have to check them out and look forward to hearing how you guys do out there.

I plan on actually taking my ice fishing stuff out of the rafters this year, beyond that I hope to get my boys more ice time. Hopefully Red early ice, a couple Mille Lacs trips, plenty of panfishing in the metro and a buddies trip to LOW.

We are doing early ice on Upper Red. We had to reschedule from last year and hoping we don’t have same conditions as last year. If your looking for a neat adventure I would say early ice do the airboat trip for perch and whatever on the Mississippi. Cool experience and can be really good fishing. Good luck and fingers crossed for good ice this year.

Not an ice fishing trip , but I have a week long trip planned for January fishing the Mississippi river delta in Venice LA . My ice fishing gear might mot leave the rafters again this year

Mike m wrote:

Not an <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>ice fishing trip , but I have a week long trip planned for January fishing the Mississippi river delta in Venice LA . My <em class=”ido-tag-em”>ice fishing gear might mot leave the rafters again this year

Curious in this – have seen this area gain a lot of attention last couple years . You pull your own boat down there or go guided ? From what I understand you can go in the ocean and catch salt water fish as well as stay up in the river and catch big blue cats . What do you target ? Is there a lot of boat traffic ?

isu22andy wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Mike m wrote:</div>
Not an <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>ice fishing trip , but I have a week long trip planned for January fishing the Mississippi river delta in Venice LA . My <em class=”ido-tag-em”>ice fishing gear might mot leave the rafters again this year

Curious in this – have seen this area gain a lot of attention last couple years . You pull your own boat down there or go guided ? From what I understand you can go in the ocean and catch salt water fish as well as stay up in the river and catch big blue cats . What do you target ? Is there a lot of boat traffic ?

. First time for me , but I booked with Winchester Adventures for 4 days . We will be fishing multiple salt water species as well as big blues and aligator gar

I’ll be chasing Tuna during the ice season. Can’t beat catching tuna on topwater baits. Bwca lake trout in March.

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Where did you go out of when you were in devils lake? I’m planning on going there this winter hopefully!

New to the site and never been ice fishing. Always wanted to try it after I retired. Bad results from back surgery have kept me from trying it yet. That and the fact that in western PA where I live we sometimes don’t get ice. I am recovering well enough to maybe get out. My cousin and I are talking about trying an ice fishing vacation this year. Maybe somewhere in MI or on out through Dakota’s. Anyone know of a good ice shanty rental?

If I can swing it timing wise, I’d like to try and get up to red for early ice this year. Tow the castle up and stay on shore and walk out with my boy. Never gotten to do that and think it would be fun. Other than that nothing specific planned. Just know we will attempt to get on mille lacs frequently, and make the run to red lake a couple times probably in february.

Going to try the Mississippi airboat adventure in February. Got cancelled last year because of sketchy ice.

REALLY hoping for ice this year, as I finally pulled the trigger on a fish house a couple weeks ago. So hopefully gonna hit the big ones (Red, ML, LOW, Winnie) and maybe throw in a few “I’d try it if I had a fish house and could stay a while” kinda spots. Probably wind up getting out once or twice, and wish for more, but after the last couple years, I’ll take it.

Spencer Haugen wrote:

Where did you go out of when you were in devils lake? I’m planning on going there this winter hopefully!

I have stayed at Woodland Resort a couple times and went out with the Perch Patrol and I have also went out a few times without a guide

Our group has 2 already planned. Red Lake in December and Devils Lake in January. We are working on 2 more. Lake Winnipeg and possibly Tamarack Island/LOTW in Ontario once again.

Looking forward to many trips (hopefully) this winter. Housing is booked for Dec 26-30 in NE SD, a trip we do annually that time of year. I consider this a “home” area and make 4-8 trips there per winter. We always do a long weekend on Mille Lacs, and will get that scheduled once the ice situation is known. In the past I’ve fished LOTW, Red, and Devil’s Lake. I have a friend in Winnipeg that has invited me for a trip so I hope to get that in this year.