Water levels affect the ice?

Spent Sunday driving around the Forest Lake, Scandia area where I spend most of my time sitting on a bucket in the winter chasing slabs and waiting for flags to fly and I got to thinkin.

With the lack of water this year so far and the shore lines getting farther and farther out.

What is this going to do to our winter time fun?

There are a ton of spots on my secret lakes that I fish mainly stumps super early in about 3′ to 4′ of water well those stumps look like trees now and the roots are showing. My go to plan for early ice is shot to @&*% if the water levels stay where they are at now.

Anybody else been thinkin bout this?

Back in the late 80’s (88?) we had a couple of very dry years. There were a lot of broken lower units and props on Minnetonka, White bear Lake, etc.

One strange thing that happened was that during the winter there were a bunch of “bad spots” that weren’t there in previous years. The theory was that the lower water levels meant that the ice was closer to the bottom of the lake. If there was a spring down there, then the ice was closer to the warmer water whelling up. WBL had these big black patches over the springs, and a lot of guys plopped through. That lake never had a reputation for spooky ice but it sure did that winter. If we don’t get enough rain to bring the lakes back up, I’m going to be very careful out on the ice this winter!

Rootski

Rootski man you hit that right on the head.We had that happen here in IA.On a big marsh area that was really good first ice.Had to spudbar all way out or it was muddy wet feet and a long long walk back.I got to ponds way down I can see some of my jigs a foot out of the water.Good crappie spot gone south maybe?Hope for more water and early ice.John