Ice Updates

Post your statewide ice updates here!

Derek,here in NW Iowa some of the smaller ponds have had a ice around the edges.Down around 10 tonight so the water temps are in the right area.I hope to be punching holes in 3 weeks!!
Ryan Hale

Well, I walked across our pond tonight. Was quite successful until i tried the bouncing thing. Im glad it only gets to about 2 1/2 ft deep. THIS IS JUST A TEST, DONT TAKE MY ADVICE.

Most all sloughs were froze over as well as small lakes in the Crosby-Emily area. Rush Lake was froze over with only and inch or 2.

Red Lake has 6 inches of good ice as of 11/12/03. Reports that anglers are catching limits of crappies are already coming in. Not sure what will happen to the ice conditions over the next few days as the forcast is calling for mid forties. But it won’t be long before Red will the hot ticket for numbers of slab crappie chasers.

The main channel of the Mississippi had 38 deg. for a water temp yesterday…several of the back waters had some ice on them as well..the only bad thing about this is that there isn’t any water in the back ponds

Long Lake, by Rice Lake, Washara County Wisconsin. Broke a skim of ice at the narrows otherwise its open, smaller lakes in the area are frozen. One more good cold snap and we’ll have ice fishing here…..did have the gps alone to mark a few “spots”

Hey Guys:

Report for northcentral Wi. goes like this. Large lakes are ice free. I was on Minocqua Sat. nite and water temps ranging between 36 and 39*. I have heard that smaller backwoods lakes were conducive to three or four inches of ice, but with the rain and 40-50 air temps, I understand that ice is starting to honeycomb. Funny, isn’t that a spring term!!! The week of the Wi. deer season sounds like temps could get back down to where ice could happen again. We still have 13 days of the musky season left, before the real ice action gets heated!!! Good luck and stay safe on the early ice!!!

“Musky Ben” aka Mark

Well we had some ice on Red lake and some local lakes….but all this warm weather and rain has made ice conditions terrible and non existent..I will keep you posted when its fishable.

We had some ice on most of the backwaters around Red Wing a week ago but everything I’m seeing now is wide open. Water temps on the main channel have risen to the mid-40’s now. Not a problem though is you have a boat and want to chase the pannies. The crappie bite continues to be very good in and around any available wood relative to deep water in the backwaters or out on the north end of Lake Pepin on Pt. No Pt. 14′ of water has been the depth for the big slab craps we all keep talking about… and they’re coming in numbers.

as of sunset today, 11/24, cove bay on mille lacs has ice. looks like it is froze out to the point. should be walkable/atv? this weekend. the big lake was still open. it is not to windy tonight and cold so maybe it will start to freeze over….. tom f

West Metro – All small ponds are ice covered. Virginina completely, Zumbra bays only, Minnewashta 90%. Those are the only ones I can see from the road.

Red Lake…as of 11/22/02 has 5-7 inches of great ice and is continuing to make ice around the clock. Anglers are already catching some dandy crappies out from Rogers Resort as Jerry has a trail or road marked out one mile. It sounds like the crappies are ranging from 13-15 inches with a bunch of them pushing or at that 15 inch mark…those are true two pounders.

Polk Co and St Croix Co, WI smaller lakes have 3-4 inches

West Metro smaller lakes have 2.5 inches of ice. There were several vehicles fishing on Saturday night at a couple smaller lakes I checked out. I decided to investigate yesterday afternoon during the blowout. I was going to fish Parley, but was afraid of heading out by myself this time of year. Maybe next weekend??

Nothing on the Mississippi River backwaters yet, that I know of, exceeding a skim of ice. Soon…. but not yet.

Iowa Great Lakes – Snow but no ice.

I’m not-so-patiently waiting…

Looks like those ducks are happy.

The Wee Fleck and I took a road trip south to check out the ice conditions from Lawrence Lake to Visgers Landing just north of New Albin.

Although Everything appears to be iced over, most spots just aren’t fishable due to thin ice. There hasn’t been anyone fishing out of the Millstone Landing area in the Pigpen bay. I talked to 3 guys at Visgers Landing that tried to get out there(on Pigpen Bay) but the ice hasn’t formed well along the banks making it difficult to get on the ice.

People have been fishing at Visgers, but the ice is thin and the water is thinner. I was told the water at Visgers is around a foot and a half. The water level is the lowest I’ve seen all year.

With temps reaching the upper 30’s into next Monday the ice conditions probably won’t get any better.

Derek, those ducks ought to get there backsides to Missouri in a hurry. Probably stopped at Okoboji looking for some hot chicks.

Here’s the forcast for the Okoboji area. If this holds true, how long do you guys think it will be before we have ice??? If I don’t do some fishing soon I just might lose it.

Today
Dec 05 AM Snow Showers / Wind 32°/9° 50 %
Sat
Dec 06 Partly Cloudy 28°/24° 0 %
Sun
Dec 07 Mostly Cloudy 40°/40° 10 %
Mon
Dec 08 Showers 41°/14° 50 %
Tue
Dec 09 Partly Cloudy 31°/9° 20 %
Wed
Dec 10 Partly Cloudy 25°/10° 10 %
Thu
Dec 11 Sunny 22°/14° 20 %
Fri
Dec 12 Mostly Sunny 31°/19° 30 %
Sat
Dec 13 Scattered Snow Showers 37°/19° 30 %
Sun
Dec 14 Snow Shower 34°/17°

Thanks,

Wade

cove bay on mille lacs has ice! i have been out on my wheeler and had a consistent 7″ of ice in the area that i checked. just remember to check the ice for yourself to be safe, don’t take my word for it, my neighbor lady thinks iam nuts for going out on the early ice. drove up the west side to vineland bay to see if rocky reef had ice. well there were ducks swimming. there was still alot of open water in that area of the lake. i was out on cove bay on wed and did keep 10 perch and put back a 22″ eye. the perch were mostly small, the keepers were on the small side too. going to give it another try today after i prime the sheetrock in the new kitchen………tom f

Hey Wade, We have that problem in southern Minnesota too. That pic reminds me of my trip down to the Iowa Great Lakes last Sept. Still keep bugging Nate that he has to make a trip back down there with me next year but he keeps telling me no. We had a bad week of no walleyes biting like everyone else as we were a month early they said. But part of me loves that area as my family use to vacation there every year when I was a kid. They are getting some ice up north but not much here. A few backwater areas are getting some as you will notice Mike Smith from Hooked On Fishing has been sneaking out to ice fish before the ice is safe in my mind. Fishing brings out ”the kid” in all of us I guess. Been below freezing for a few days but now its warming up some so mother nature is rubbing it in for the guys who want ice. Will be here soon though for the lakes and the backwaters are a good sign of it so far. Hang in there and there are always panfish in the lakes willing to bite just before and after frezze up. Thanks, Bill

I’m trying to be patient Bill but it’s hard. I put my boat away too early this year. I’ve never had a nice boat before and I guess I was worried I would do some damage if I didn’t get ‘er winterized early. Now I’m going through some serious withdrawls. Ryan Hale emailed today and said we might be able to get on the lake this weekend. Let’s hope so!

If you can get Nate down here sometime be sure to get in touch with Ryan and me.

Wade

Sounds good. How far away are you and Ryan from Okoboji and Spirit Lake? If I can’t get Nate to make it I know My old fishing buddy who moved from Rochester back to Fort Dodge Iowa is always game for some fishing. Thanks, Bill

Bill, It’s about a 2 hour shot for me. But compared to most of my fishing trips that’s a short one. Ryan is about 45 minutes from ‘boji. He’s in Ankeny today do some more promotional “work” for Pure Fishing. You know how much he hates to talk fishing (lol) . We both enjoy getting together for some time on the water and we both want to meet more folks from the site so definately give us a heads up anytime you’re down this way.

Take Care,

Wade

Hey Gang:

Recent update includes fishing time on the hardwater as well. Took a run up to the Manitowish chain last night between Minocqua and Hurley and managed to catch a few walleyes, one northern and one muskie!!! Most area lakes have three inches of beautiful hard clear ice. It also appears that our largest lakes have even iced over. I even suspect that our action, which started at 2:40, coincided with the moonrise as by dark she was a couple of hours into the sky. With the moon coming and going from behind the clouds last night, I might suspect that our action could have been better with more clouds. Hopefully I can attach a couple of pics for viewing.

Wish me luck on the pics!!!

My ugly mug with my only muskie of the season (out of season).

I forgot to mention that both of these fish were released!!!

Mark

The pics look great. Nice job!