Besides the Mississippi river how soon before the lakes crack open?

My guess by next weekend a few small pot hole lakes will start opening up. Cant wait to get the boat out. Thought about going to pool 4 but not the place to break in a boat around people for 2 hours

I’m still thinking end of March. As great at this warm up is I don’t think it’ll be enough to totally clear the lakes before it get’s back to winter and that one final blizzard we always get.

30″ yet up here on Rainy. Snow is going fast but there is tons of water sitting on top of the ice yet.

I just flew back into the MSP airport. Came in from the west just north of Sioux Falls. The ice in SW MN is getting quite dark. It won’t be long before that starts to come out. Minnetonka has a surprising amount of ice getting dark already too.

Jim that must be fun to see!

I’ve seen St. Pattys day before-I’ll say April 1.

About pool 4. As of Saturday, there was a fair amount of ice (a mile or so) above the dam. It appeared ice free down to Everts and the WI access. Not sure about the status of the dam gates, but there could bar a fair amount of ice yet to come through.

30 days in the hole….

You can track it here. As of today, March 9, no lakes reported with ice out yet.

https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/ice_out/index.html

Still driving on the lake in Chetek, plenty of good ice, but the forecasted rain will probably take out the last landing. ATV or walking as of tomorrow.

I think Tuesday’s weather did kick start things in the metro. Weather does look closer to normal in the 10-day (40s/20s) so i expect it to slow down some.

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I live just south of Saint Paul and boy did it rain today. Real heavy at times this evening. Hail and all. Pretty sure you will need some wood to get on most lakes around the metro.

The lakes got very dark fast.

Why don’t you just go to Pool 3. Launch in Hastings for Free, or Prescott for Fee.

Nobody out there. 16 miles of river to break in that boat.

I can give you my # if you are concerned that you may have problems and be without help/support.

Or, downstream of Red Wing to the Pepin you’ve got many miles of relatively unpopulated water.

I really thought it was going to be a later ice-out year after that cold snap a few weeks ago, but man things changed fast. I bet it’s closer April 1st or even earlier for SO MN lakes. The wind and rain are a huge accelerator. might be fetching the Kayaks out of storage this weekend and start to get them cleaned-up, etc.

ThunderLund78 wrote:

might be fetching the Kayaks out of storage this weekend and start to get them cleaned-up, etc.

Yup its kayak season! excited

30″ plus on the lake I fished on Monday, still clear and hard as hell. Took a walk yesterday and checked my backyard lake after all the thaw and rain. 4″ of milky ice/slush on top, clear and hard below that. Went up past my elbow and didn’t reach the bottom of the ice. Gonna be awhile yet here in Rhinelander.

Dutchboy wrote:

30″ yet up here on Rainy. Snow is going fast but there is tons of water sitting on top of the ice yet.

Not sure where you are at. My sister has a place on the North Arm- just North of Rebecca Island. It is HEAVEN up there.

One week later. I’m thinking MPLS lakes may go next week (Isles, Nokomis, Harriet, etc).

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It’s coming quick I think this snow melting should really get them going fast.

It’s supposed to be 60 again this weekend and rain in the forecast multiple days next week. I think the end is near