So…….What would you do??

Here is what we’ll deal with Thursday night into Friday in borderland. Saturday continues to drop temps. Note the North EAST wind pointing to dreaded instability in the weather pattern, furthermore messed up barometric pressure. This is reality for ice fisherman across the state all year, and attempting to beat systems is part of the game. So boys………How would you choose to handle the front?

Thu
Dec 30

Wintry Mix to Snow

29°
7°

70%

From the Northeast

15mph
Time to Hit the Slopes
Fri
Dec 31

Cloudy

10°
3°

10%

From the North Northeast

Head out and put yourself on the sweet spot, then button up the Otter. I’d rather watch the whether from the portable than the couch

Good luck to ya Mr. Daze

x2

Are Pout as moody as walleye during frontal conditions?

I would do just what Bret suggested, a perfect time to use Rattle Wheel for portables and sit back drown a few minnows.

I would either head over to the Elks and watch a few Bowl games or stay home and do the same but I don’t have clients wanting to be put on fish. Sooo…I would make sure each person was prepared for bad weather and have two sets of gloves/mitts with. I assume your riding snowmobiles out and it looks like a miserable ride on the lake with freezing rain turning to snow. You could bust your butt and find a great spot only to have clients frozen stiff wanting to go back to someplace warm and dry. This last deer season we had a rainy day and I suited up with a large clear plastic bag as a rain coat for the trip to my stand. It worked pretty well. You might want to have something to cover the snowmobiles too. Nothing worse than finding your sled is covered in a layer of ice. Been there done that, no fun at all. As far as the fishing, sounds like you’ve got a couple patterns going. Might as well try those first, but I wouldn’t doubt that the fish will move deeper with this weather moving in. I agree with Bret and Calvin, I’d just soak a minnow and sit back without too many expectations. Oh and since the temps are supposed to drop like a rock I’d stress to my clients to dry their gear well after Thursday’s excursion.

Good luck man. I don’t envy you having to put up with these conditions.

I’d stir up a Windsor 7. Grab maybe some cheese and crackers. Hop on the couch for football and maybe read a bit.

Sometime Monday I would check IDO to see how boys on Rainy handled the weather up North.

I’m sure you will put a plan together. The question will be will you be frozen by the time you do.

Here’s my forecast

Thurs Dec 30th:

Working 1/2 day thursday but ALL ice gear will be in the truck for an early departure from work to a frozen lake or river for some fishing.

Friday Dec 31st:

Spent the last 3 years getting up extremely early to go fishing all day to sleep the new year in and wake up to an un-happy woman so I think I am staying home this New Years Eve to keep the woman happy and bring in the New Year together. May sneak some after noon ice time in though as long she don’t know

Saturday Jan 1st:

Getting up early and heading out for a day on the ice. She has T-Wolves tickets for that night so maybe I’ll go and check out the cheerleaders

Sunday Jan 2nd:

Possibility of working the resort otherwise I’ll be fishing

Happy New Year Y’all

Well hopefully next weekend we get some good weather. This is Jeff Mac’s cousin and will be seeing you on Saturday the 8th. I’m looking forward to it and hopefully (weather pending) we have the chance to set up a tip up to harness one of those giant pike I keep seeing. Good Luck this weekend. GO HAWKS!! !!!

Of course it’s going to be bad, I am headed up Thursday. I think I will try the north arm. Hopefully the ice is good that way, since Capt. John now goes south for the winter reports are tough to come by for that area.

Um I’d say have a good idea of where they are for when I get up there on Friday night!!! After last year you would have to know that the weather would turn for the worse as soon as my group came in. Good thing we have four days with you. Monday and Tuesday look very promising!!! In all honesty treat it the same as last year. Get them setup on a place that you have produced bites lately and tell them to slow wayyyyyyyyyyy down on the presentation. They will ice some fish. Maybe more of a “bobber” bite than them chasing spoons for the the most part. Half of shiner or fathead on the spoons or drop to even less with just the head. You’ll get them on fish, I’ve seen you do it before! Good Luck and see ya Friday!!!!

Quote:

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Of course it’s going to be bad, I am headed up Thursday. I think I will try the north arm. Hopefully the ice is good that way, since Capt. John now goes south for the winter reports are tough to come by for that area.

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Captain John, that’s a good one. In all the web sites with all the reports I read on Rainy I give his the same credence as I give a Obama speech.

Really??? Chris is the greatest for reporting on fishing on the Mn side and I love his reports, I even hired him as a guide. But Capt. also has very honest reports and pictures to go along with them. He only fishes the north arm and I fish with him a couple dozen times a year and have never met anybody that questions his honesty. I also mainly fish the north arm as it is 2 miles from my house and do miss him not telling me about ice conditions. I am really surprised by your comment, maybe you can pm me and site the Obama type report he gave and maybe I will change my mind.

It could just be me. The first couple of reports he did just didn’t seem right. Kind of pumped up and hard for me to believe. But then I’ve never fished with or met him so maybe I either took him wrong or didn’t understand his style. In any event I maybe shouldn’t have posted my opinion. Like anything else I guess personal opinions factor into what we read and write.

I will say this……….I am extremely envious that you have a place on Rainy. It is in my opinion one of the truly beautiful places in Minnesota.

Enjoy your trip and remember……….you don’t need any stinkin minnows.

That’s cool. I probably know what you mean until I went out with him. North arm is a totally different beast as far as numbers and size. Kinda weird but I keep a white board with me in the boat and record everything otherwise my kids don’t even believe me. He does have a downfall and that’s he rather fish smallmouth and you are right no live bait, that’s why we take my boat most of the time.
Thanks

Well We lucked out and kept our streak of 26+ extending to 5 straight days icing a walley over 26 inches with another beautiful 26 inch tank today. Congrats to Brad on this fish!! Man did that fish throw it into reverse at the hole. Front rolls in tonight boys, and you can bet we’ll be out after them. Front…..LOL!! Last year it was 38 below zero when I had Kayles group out. 5 minutes into the trip his dad landed a 29 3/4 inch BEAST!! I think the overall opininon is…..Better fishing than thinking about it!!I’ve drilled them in snowstorms and have stunk it up. I’m pretty optimistic, so I’m going to say we’re gonna HAMMER THEM!! BTW Otter houses and heaters scoff at this whimp “GIRLY” weather!! New location tomorrow, and hopefully Streak will live on!! BTW Capt.John is to my knowledge honest in his reports. He fishes a lot with Paul here on our site, and both are good sticks. Now I don’t particularly care for the endless promotion of plastics, but hey whatever floats your boat. I personally disagree that smallmouth are the ultimate fish. On that note I wish everyone would fish smallies, so I can have all the eyes, pike and Crappies to myself!! My guess would be people likely get tired of me pushing the H20 Precision jigs too, but hey everyone has a go to presentation. Portions of Rainy Lake fish very differently no doubt, and beyond that Shallow water fisherman most of the year targeting Smallies are also focusing on seperate patterns which allows for different plastics to dominate. I for one can destroy fish up shallow casting plastics, but haven’t had the same success deep by any means except on occassions late fall. Just what I’ve seen.

Hey Paul!! Hope you make it up OK!! You gonna try wet a line??

I’m sure I will try.My house is in a great location in the summer but unfortunately with ice it’s tough to get out of sand bay with all the knock down current locations so I will probably just try some areas on the east end of sand bay, prefer to stay away from the ice road. I would love to jump over to the north arm, I have some spots that are pretty close but if I’m by myself and have a break down it might be awhile before I see someone. You sure are killing them as usual.

I hear ya Paul you’ve got a great location for entering the North Arm from the US side. Good Luck if you decide to wet a line!!