North Shore Lake conditions

Carlsona has really good bar food. The BP gas station to the WEST(oops)makes a good sub for taking out in the boat with you.

Oops! We forgot to mention the “Junction” which, as Kooty says, serves good sandwiches and pizza’s as well. BUT! You might want to go WEST from The Red Door instead of “east” to get to the Junction. lol It’s about 4 miles to the WEST.

head east! there is a small cafe in Malmo, awesome breakfast, ask for the wild rice sausage…mmmm!

North shore fishermen saw the first big waves of the short season today. What few boats ventured out into the big south blow did well anchored in about 9ft. A few more keepers showed up today as well compared to the low keeper percentage over this past weekend.

Water temps are pushing 50 now even in the mornings and pushing mid 50’s by late afternoon. At about 55-56 degrees the good old bug hatch should show up. Maybe in two weeks?

Big winds tomorrow will make for another bobbering day for sure. No waiting at the boat ramp during the week!!

The coming weekend outlook is very similar to last weekend if the forecast holds up. Cold front conditions will have the north shores the calmest on the lake. Brisk north and northwest winds will dominate the weekend making it another long underwear ordeal.

But fishing should be as good or better (just a guess) than last weekend, which wasn’t too bad. The bite should again be in the deeper, off the breaks shoreline water in 18′ to 25′. That should mean, again, slowly fish long leaders Lindy
Rig style. They should be best with leeches on small hooks. Slower the better.

See you at The Red Door! Bring WARM clothes.

The weekend forecast for Red Door country is BRISK!

The NW winds, although forecast to be strong, will be coming from off shore at about a 45 degree angle-from NW to SE. That means the lake should not have big waves in the Red Door area. The further east you go, the more and bigger waves you will have. More north to the wind and the lake will have 6 inch ripples and more west to it the lake will have 2′ to 3′ waves moving parallel to shore. So it should be fine with your 16-17ft.’ers or bigger. The rest of the lake, will be calm on the west side, and VERY rough on the east and south shores.

Your drift will need to be controlled to slow down or as someone suggests, you can anchor and slip-bobber fish. Without good boat control, that could be the best way to fish slowly in those “20 to 30” mile per hour forecasted winds.

Temps Sunday morning, with less wind than Saturday morning, will be nudging the freezing mark. So dress like you are going ice fishing!

Will the fish bite? Yesterday’s cold front shut the north end down from what we heard. Last weekend the cold front didn’t bother it. Go figure!

Can you believe it!?? The weather/lake forcast for the weekend is GREAT! Light winds, average temps and sun should lead to a comfortable time on the big lake. Good boat control and the choice of all the areas to fish due to good travel conditions “should” (key word) put lots of fish in the boat.

See ya at The Red Door!

We’ll be on the water by 6 this evening! Good luck to all -as always, can’t wait!

How’s the fishing been the last few days up by the Red Door? Are the eyes still around in the sand?

This past week, inbetween hurricanes, the fishing has been “spotty”. Surely, the deeper water off the sand breaks will hold plenty of fish this time of year. Light , long, slowly fished Lindy’s with leeches and or crawlers should work. And spinners could too! The rocks put out some fair catches this past week both daytime and especially evenings. 8′ to 14′. Bobbers with a 1/32oz. jighead and or colored hooks tipped with leeches and crawlers. Daytime bobbers need some wind/waves. The bobbers could sink at the base of the sand breaks too!
And the mudflats? Nice weather will open them up too. Lindy’s out there also–with leeches.

See you at The Red Door! Sharpen the fillet knives, bring the sun screen and HOPE!! Have fun!! And be SAFE.

The wind never blows at Mille Lacs on Saturdays!

And if you believe that, stop by The Red Door and we’ll sell ya a bridge that stretches across the lake from Knox Point to Izaty’s.

Lake conditions? Guess what!

Hurricane is the best way to discribe or straight line winds! Thursday of last week was nice and the fish bit good too, .5 thru .8 on 8ft lindies worked for me, I fished deep gravel bars off the shore structure found fish everywhere.

How bad was the storm that rolled through yesterday around 5:00?

One storm cell went south of the lake and the other big one went north of the lake. 1/10″ of rain and a few gusts of wind in Wealthwood. 5-10 miles north it was lit up pretty good and blew hard with a half hour of pouring rain.

The lake was pretty calm today and what few reports we heard and saw were “tough”. “Slow”. Last evening after the storm, one couple we talked to went out and had 8 keepers in an hour around dusk in 5ft. of water on bobbers. Go figure!

As “lake conditions” become a factor in the next few weeks more so than most periods of time, it’s time to kick the dust off this thread. Ice status and conditions will show up here.

Talk on the main street of Weathwood comes from the woods these days. Then the ice!

As hunting season winds down, the long range forecast is for ice making weather starting around the 3rd of December. Last year our records show 6 inches of ice by December 10th. Will it make it to that point this year? Maybe!

The ever-lasting warmer temps continue, according to the latest long range forecast, so making ice by the 10th of December, as the past two years, seems unlikely now. That’s no sign that the main ice fishing season will be late. 12 inches of ice by Christmas is still very possible!

If the forecasts hold, with light winds and no snow, we could have walking ice by the 12th or shortly after.

Walking ice by the 12th? Our prediction is shaping up to be off, based on the new, most recent long range forecast. The big lake needs sub-zero temps to completely freeze over and build ice. Not looking good for at least the next 10-15 days. BUT! The forecast could change so stayed tuned!

There’s no doubt the lake is ready to ice over. The calm sides of the lake are now skimming over a couple 100 yds. out form shore each morning. A couple low single digit or colder(sub-zero) nights with light winds will finish the job. Most of the small lakes in the area are iced over and building ice thickness the past 24 hrs.

No snow, light winds and single digit temps! Like a football, the longe range temp forecast bounces all over the place. Now it looks good for ice early next week and maybe walking ice by the 15th.

There is skim of ice as far as the eyes can see this morning. Will it stay long enough to add another layer tonight? Most likely not. But no doubt, it is ripe to freeze over with the right conditions in place for a 3-4 day stretch. No snow will be very key as to how things progress the next week or two.

Stay tuned!

Open water as far as the eyes can see the past couple days. Big winds will keep the waves in place until, per the forecast, until at least Thursday. Then it looks like ice until spring! Maybe walking ice by Sunday.

2 below zero this morning and calm winds has the big lake smooth as glass again. With 20-30 mph. winds in the forecast, it might not hold up though. But the 5 day forecast looks good for quite a bit of ice making by the end of this coming weekend. Hopefully, the long range forecast, which has a warming trend in it for next week, will be wrong.

Stay tuned! And off the ice for now.

Whitecaps everywhere you look! Wide open, ice free sea.

A little more optomistic point of view….

From the Hawkbill Web Cam at 3:30pm Tues.

http://www.mnlakecams.com/

-J.

Mid-day, the big winds still have the main portions the lake wide open but it’s gradually skimming over closest to shore. Sub-zero temps the next few nights and less wind will do the open water in and we expect to having at least walking ice by the end of the weekend or surely early next week.

Although cameras or people might show and report other parts or bays to be iced over, as the title to this thread
conveys, we are reporting what the conditions are on or from a view-point of the NORTHERN portions of the big lake.

We will continue to report the real conditions. The good, the bad and the ugly. For safety reasons, “optimistic” versus real is how we will report from the northern sections of the lake-exclusively.

Quote:

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We will continue to report the real conditions. The good, the bad and the ugly. For safety reasons, “optimistic” versus real is how we will report from the northern sections of the lake-exclusively.

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That is exactly what I am looking for!
Thanks for the updates.

Quote:

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Mid-day, the big winds still have the main portions the lake wide open but it’s gradually skimming over closest to shore. Sub-zero temps the next few nights and less wind will do the open water in and we expect to having at least walking ice by the end of the weekend or surely early next week.

Although cameras or people might show and report other parts or bays to be iced over, as the title to this thread
conveys, we are reporting what the conditions are on or from a view-point of the NORTHERN portions of the big lake.

We will continue to report the real conditions. The good, the bad and the ugly. For safety reasons, “optimistic” versus real is how we will report from the northern sections of the lake-exclusively.

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Thanks Red Door…

Sounds like there is a chance I could be fishing the first break this weekend..

Mitch,

The edge of the water and old ice was about, from what we can see, in 7-10ft. of water yesterday. From there south, the lake was wide open all of yesterday. Today it is all ice, as far as we can see from all shorelines. There was a few patches of open water steaming in some areas first thing this morning but they have skimmed over now.

So, hopefully the new ice will be thick enough for the weekend. We will go out tomorrow and check the new ice thickness and report back.

I’m seeing temps in the sub zero range, and a light wind this AM for the north side of the lake..Well atleast the computer tells me that…