Weds. night here in southern MN some thunderstorms passed through. I even saw a flash of lightning and heard quite a bit of rumbling, but not from the ice this time. I’m guessing there was a quarter inch of rain at max, but add to that the previous snow and water that was already on top of the ice and I found there to be an inch or two of water on top of the ice today (thurs. & mid 40 degrees). If you get nervous about walking on ice today would not have been the day for you. There hasn’t been much ice made lately, but what there is seems to be staying!
While I made a quick 3 hour day run today it wasn’t to productive….I went out to French to test the waters so to speak. I found nearly 6 inches of ice in most areas, but watch out for the springs….some are slightly open and the holes drilled in previous days are growing in diameter (they could be real ankle busters). Thankfully I brought my GPS as the fog was thick enough to literally get lost out there…I couldn’t see my flag up 15 yards away!! I fished areas from 18 to 42 ft deep in search of crappies. I found them suspending, but not cooperative enough to bite. Just fish staring at the jig. The perch were willing to bite crappie minnows or hit shiners on the tip-up, but they were all small 3 to 5 inchers seemingly wandering by in what looked liked massive schools.
Most other lakes looked similar today….water covered and not many anglers out. Most of the guys out were pulling there houses off the lake because of all the water on top of the ice and water coming up the holes.