I was out on the ice weds. night. Some ice activity was occurring on Faribault area lakes. There were spearers and panfisherman around bullrush bay of Lake Mazaska—although there is still open water on the lake. Shields lake is more of the same some anglers scattered on the fringes since 12-24-01 there has been some crappie action although the area south of the grass island still had open water on 12-26-01 weds. night. Some anglers told me that there was 2 inches of ice in some spots up to 4 to 4 1/2 inches in others. More of the same for French. Cannon I have not checked, but extreme caution shoud be used on Cannon–current and warm water springs are not things to ignore.
With the snow covering the ice there is no way to see the “Bad Ice” and conditions can go from 4 inches to less than 2 inches as some anglers have already found out in the faribault area. The safest thing to do now is to stay off the lakes till it thickens up uniformally (hopefully soon). Right now there is a layer of basically frozen slush-similar to honeycombed ice on the top with some light snow-up to 4-5 inch drifts here and there. The cold temps in recent days seem to be deceiving as one would expect the ice to thicken rapidly. That is not the case though. The snow/frozen slush/honeycomb ice is insulating the ice from the cold air. This will more than likely cause the lake freezing process to slow down.
If you must be a daredevil. Get a good spud bar, a life vest, ice picks (to pull yourself back up on the ice if you fall through), ice cleats, a 100 ft rope, a cell phone, and a buddy that can pull you out of the drink. Be cautious!
First ice can be great–I agree, but a couple fish are not worth hypothermia or your life. With the cold temps predicted for the rest of 2001 and in 2002 conditions shall slowly improve. Remember that no ice–NO ICE is safe. I hope none of you have to get wet!
TGIF