Thats it!!!

Well, I am fed up with this stupid Iowa weather. It is January 4, and the ice is not safe. With no cold weather in the ten day forecast, I am losing it. This may be the end of the ice fishing season. Well, there is only one thing left to do….DRIVE TO MILLE LACS!! I am not positive yet, but I think I am going to leave thursday night or friday morning. I will sleep in my suburban if I have to. Is anybody looking for a roomate for a month? Just kidding, I am pretty sure I have a place to stay. I have never ice fished it before, but I have a few friends that might be able to help me out. I am hitting the river tomorrow, toolsboro style. And then I am going to call my friend, to see if he is up for some company. THEN I might actually get some ice fishing in.

I hear ya!!!!! Where’s the winter wonderland that we were promised (bite my words, it’ll be colder then what we want it soon).

Luke maybe a few of us Iowans can get a convoy up to Minnesota eh.

Who’s got a big enough trailer to haul some Ice back here?

Hey! Next weekend IDA is having a Get ToGether on the Big Pond!

Get your convoy together and come up then and us folks from up nort can meet you! Lot’s of fun filled activities!

Luke, here is the thread to the Mille Lacs GTG.

Thanks, Bill

Mille Lacs GTG

Luke–don’t give up on the ice here yet. There was plenty of ice north of Highway 30 before this storm. Now we have to be careful–but I will bet you there is still fishable ice not that far away from you.

–Whitey

The DNR is already saying stay off the ice here! They are reporting lakes in the north metro have 2″-7″ of ice. I don’t know what the Mille Lacs situation is, but it can’t be heading in the right direction. Be careful!

dd

Yeah, this weather truly does suck. I just decided not to head back to SE Minnesota today, because the ice up there (Winona, Houston, and Olmsted counties) is going bad according to most people, and isn’t going to get better before school starts up. At least I left my boat in Iowa City this winter–I just took my ice gear out of my truck, checked my open water walleye gear, and got new tags for my boat.

I’m not putting my ice fishing stuff away, though, because we have all of February and most of January ahead of us. The long-range forecast says colder weather is coming at the end of next week, and I have no doubt that we’ll get some more ice before spring gets here.

THIS MAYBE BE A DUMB QUESTION TO ASK BUT I HAVE ONLY BEEN LOOKING ON INDEPTHANGLING FOR ABOUT 2 MONTHS AND I STILL HAVE NO IDEA WHERE MILLE LACS IS AT. SO COULD SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME.

Central MN. About 1.5 hours north of the Twin Cities on Hwy 169. It is a MASSIVE lake that spans over 140,000 acres (if memory serves) and has a reputation for kicking out numbers of big walleyes and gobs of big perch.

Plus unbelievable smallies.

And world record class muskies.

And huge-fat pike.

IF you’ve never been there. Get there. We have a Get-Together up there scheduled on the 21st of January. If you’d like more info about this inexpensive trip with members from the site, let us know and will point you in the right direction.

HOW INEXPENSIVE ARE WE TALKING?

Well… we (as in some of the staffers here) called up Hunters to get a shack. Total cost per person for the weekend was $60. Costs may vary with the size of the house reserved and the number of people splitting the tab… but you get the picture.

We all will all be fishing in the same general area (10 reserved houses at this time) so there will be a ton of info shared about locations and techniques. There will be a mid-day Texas Hold-em tourny (saturday I believe) as well as a buffet (not included but tons of food on the cheap) available for us at Hunters Saturday evening.

You won’t be able to get on mille lacs and have some much info and camraderie available for the taking at any price.

Call Hunter’s, tell them you’re with the IDA crew, and see what they have available. The houses are VERY nice and George will put the permanents on the best bite he has going at the time.

Let me know if you have any further qustions.

Can we just show to fish without staying for the night?

Sure. You’d just need a road pass from hunters to get to our location. We’d be happy to have you there.

Next weekend Brian? I thought it was the 21st?

The GTG is the weekend of the 21st