Potential long ice season

Well Mother Nature is blessing us with what appears to be cold start to winter. As a ice head this really gets blood pumping to lace up the short sticks to set the hook on the first fish of the season……however….

We all have to be smart with our fist ice decisions…safety first… This is shaping up to be a very early start to ice season compared to recent years and if we have fish able ice into May…well it will be another long ice season. Please take a buddy with when venturing onto first ice, wear a life jacket, use a spud bar to check ice every few feet, and let loved ones know where you are going and when you expect to be home. We have had a few fellow ice fisherman already go thru the ice locally as well as north of the border. Use common sense on each ice trip of the season as I will rate my success not by numbers and size of fish, but on returning safely. The fish and the company along will make the memories.

Have a safe 2013/2014 ice season.

good reminder Cal. A good fishing trip is always best upon a safe return home. Good luck on the ice everybody…. Ill be posting my first ice pics sometime Monday I would say!

A safe trip home and a good meal after a long day is possibly the best reward there is, oh and a nice warm wood stove too!

Is it wrong that I’m excited for a long cold winter?

last year I was on the ice the weekend before Christmas and fished until the last weekend in March, not bad for southern WI. I wouldn’t mind that again, had a good season on the ice. This year has the potential to start earlier (don’t want to jinx it).

winter of 2011/2013 was just horrible down here, nothing froze until early January and was back open by 3rd/4th week of Feb.

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Is it wrong that I’m excited for a long cold winter?

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yes

Cal,
it’s not to often that the ice heads down this way get to get on the ice before Christmas,

but…..

there is a hard cold rumble down here with the hope for a good cold snap before any white fluffy stuff comes…

I like to target shallow mud flat back waters first ice on the ‘sippi. And when I say shallow I mean 2 to 3 feet of water shallow. 2 reasons.

#1 = Safety. There is no current. If you go through you stick in the mud like a dart to a board.

#2 = Pan fish are plentiful 1st ice.

With the weather we have had here the past two days in eastern SD we should be on the ice here in a week or so. We are suppose to have a small warmup but it won’t get much over 32 and only for an hour or two, lows are in the single digits!! I should be on the ice in two weeks on a good 6″ of clear solid ice I would think.

If anyone has walkable, safe ice to fish on by Thanksgiving, it really is a bonus, compared to most years. If the current weather pattern sticks around for a few weeks, and we keep getting the cold air from the Polar regions,and Siberia, we will have a long season. Point is ice by turkey day means we have a nice long ice season, so don’t push it past the point of being safe, only because you need be the first on the ice. There will be plenty of time to drill holes, and go fishing until the end of the ice season. I’m definitely looking forward to it. Be safe,everyone.

18 acre 35′ max pond by the house was wide open this morning.

Commercial Bay on White Bear has a layer of ice