Hey guys! I’m located in SE Wisconsin and to say this years weather has sucked is an understatement! Anyone else pissed off about the lack of ice? I cant drive very far to go find ice so I am stuck with local conditions. The future forecast don’t look good either. Calling for above freezing most of the 15 day forecast. Figures I bought a lithium shuttle for my LX6 and from the looks of it I wont be able to use it.
its the same here.
Bummer. Some lakes in my neck of the woods have had fishable ice since November (not trying to rub it in just surprised by the huge difference).
Yea this is a really odd year. This time last year I was out on the lake I live by ice fishing with my wife with 10-12″ of ice. This year the lake is at least 80% open water still.
Bummer , climate change affects us all. Im up north and have good ice . For now !
We have nothing down here. The future forecast isn’t going to be anything positive for the next 2 weeks either unless 
freezes over!
Same story in central, northeast Iowa. This year looked so promising with the record cold in November but guess that proves we shouldn’t count out chickens before they hatch. Been able to get out a few times (thankfully) but it’s still frustrating!
There is fishable ice in SE WI. Fox, Beaver Dam, Phantom, Big and Little Muskego. Just to name a few that all have walkable ice (3-5inches). Then you have Petenwell, Castlerock, Winnebago, all have been fishable for some time now. That also have seen plenty of ATV and snowmobile traffic. I was on 9 solid inches on the 30th.
Just because you can’t drive on the ice doesn’t mean it isn’t fishable. I’ve been out pretty much since the second week of December. You are on another forum site with the same complaints. If you spent a few minutes looking at the reports page you can see that there are plenty of options.
Wow – That’s Crazy that other states that close still have less than ideal ice conditions. I was able to get out the week before Thanksgiving this year. That’s about as early as I’ve ever been able to get out. Crazy weather for sure this year. Hope you can get a good cold snap soon and be able to make up for lost time on the ice once it happens.
Bummer , climate change affects us all. Im up north and have good ice . For now !
I’m not a “the sky is falling” type of guy or believe everything done by humans is the only determining factor…but if someone thinks our Winters are what they used to be they are blind.
In Western WI and SE MN we just simply do not get the snows that we used to. 2 of the last 4 years after Christmas and before New Years we have had significant rainstorms bringing 1.5″+ of steady rain in SE Minnesota. In our region, it just seems that the extreme changes in our weather patterns are more common. It can be 0 degrees and 45 and raining within a day or two during the dead of Winter. There’s something about watching lightning on Christmas Eve that seems strange.
Luckily for me I enjoy ice fishing so much more when there’s 4-10″ of ice. Once the vehicles and every soul imaginable starts frequenting the ice, I am done (until very late ice).
Av-max-temps-at-all-us-stations.png
Bummer! Been driving out for almost a month now. About 18 inches of ice last weekend in Aitkin county. 13 days on the ice for me so far.
Going back as far as I can remember, sometimes “up north” is just getting going right about now..
I had this conversation with some friends, and my initial thought was that it has changed over the years toward a warming trend. But after speaking to a TV weatherman who I know through scouts, he said that the last 25 years show peaks and valleys throughout. He directed me to an article written by the WIDNR awhile back about how we only remember certain events from our past and how that constructs our memories of the past. So say one year we got a big snow and steady cold temps and the next year average snow and average temps. You tend to only remember how much more snow we used to get, even though it may be historically on average.
Here is the article if anyone wants to read it.
https://dnr.wi.gov/wnrmag/html/stories/1996/dec96/weather.htm
Averages are simply that, averages.
I’m talking about the extremes in my post. There seems to be far more extreme changes (both ways not just warmer) during the typical year. We rented a cabin in Northern WI in the peak of Summer this year and had one day hit 70 degrees and over 5 inches of rain. Look at how many months out of the year that the rivers are well above normal pool in certain areas. The Mississippi has been relatively “high” more often than normal in the last decade for our region. Other areas of the country are seeing their longest droughts ever. Winters are no longer “boom or bust”, rather they are both. We could have temperatures below zero in the middle of this week and in the mid 40’s 3 days later. We may have a snow-free January and get a foot in the start of May. Those days show a flat “average” but speaking in averages does not begin to show the whole story.
Here’s more data. This is the long term ice cover for Lake Mendota in Wisconsin. The 10 shortest ice seasons are indicated with the red and the 10 longest ice seasons with the blue. This is from Furley Outdoors, a widely respected photographer who has documented a lot of the outdoors throughout WI over the years and is an avid outdoorsman himself.
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How old is this guy if he has data covering 125+ years?
Only joking of course, that is pretty interesting to see. I personally always thought that was the case, but after talking to the weatherman I wasn’t sure.
The swings do seem to be much faster and larger than they use to be. A friend of mine had 20+ below at his house on Monday evening and they are forecasting 38 for the high at his place tomorrow. 50 + degree swings in just a few days. All these big weather swings doesn’t seem to help the bite much either. Stable is best. Doesn’t matter if its cold stable or warm stable – Just as long as it stays stable for a period of time.
I like this one:
Remember guys that besides the last couple of winters, we had a stretch of really warm winters where you couldn’t even walk out even in northern MN until after Christmas.
The last couple of winters got us back to more normal and I think we’re forgetting that it was only a couple of years ago when we had crappy ice the entire season. I think one of those was 2015. I just remember going into Cabela’s well into the SUMMER of 2016 and they were still trying to get rid of their ice fishing gear. Last year, most of the ice fishing department had bare shelves by the middle of February.
There is fishable ice in SE WI. Fox, Beaver Dam, Phantom, Big and Little Muskego. Just to name a few that all have walkable ice (3-5inches). Then you have Petenwell, Castlerock, Winnebago, all have been fishable for some time now. That also have seen plenty of ATV and snowmobile traffic. I was on 9 solid inches on the 30th.
Just because you can’t drive on the ice doesn’t mean it isn’t fishable. I’ve been out pretty much since the second week of December. You are on another forum site with the same complaints. If you spent a few minutes looking at the reports page you can see that there are plenty of options.
I don’t know if you have me confused with someone else but I am not on any other forums and I never said anything about having to drive on the ice. I am more than happy dragging out my gear by hand. Nothing immediately around me has any safe ice and with the way temps have been and will be for the extended forecast I doubt there will be any positive progress any time soon. I’m all the way in the very SE corner of the state and the lakes you listed are at a minimum are about an hour from me and I don’t have the time right now for two hours of driving to fish.
Hey guys! I’m located in SE Wisconsin and to say this years weather has sucked is an understatement! Anyone else pissed off about the lack of ice? I cant drive very far to go find ice so I am stuck with local conditions. The future forecast don’t look good either. Calling for above freezing most of the 15 day forecast. Figures I bought a lithium shuttle for my LX6 and from the looks of it I wont be able to use it.
I know the feeling.I lived in Racine for many years,and could only fish parts of Wind and Eagle lakes way back this time of year.Racine and Kenosha county lakes are usually the last to freeze solid,more so as you get closer to the big pond.Half of Wind lake could be open,and at the same time they are already driving on Fox lake.
Chris,
I apologize if I confused you with someone else.
40 Today
40 Tomorrow
43 Saturday
38 Sunday
38 Monday
This makes me want to cry, why oh why cant we keep the daytime highs below freezing…
After looking at the weather forecast I give up and am joining you guys about SE WI. I wouldn’t feel safe on anything in the bottom 2/3 of the state.
If anyone is familiar with Lake Wisconsin, on Christmas day it was totally froze from the train tressel down to the dam (along with all of the bays), On 12/30, you could launch a boat at 2 spots on the river channel and go probably 6 miles in the main channel (bays stayed ice covered with good walkable ice)
Hoping for a cold end to January and all of February, want to get out on Mendota for some perch!
Chris,
I apologize if I confused you with someone else.
No problem. I just wanted to clear that up.
If this keeps up I’ll have to bring my ice fishing gear with me when I go snowmobiling beginning of February up in Hurley. I’ll have to explain to the guys that I have to split the time riding and fishing! Lol. I really hope at some point this year I can ice fish and snowmobile here around home but I am not holding my breath at this point. Still a lot of time left but definitely not a good start.
I have 10 inches of ice in central mn obut there’s 40s all the next week
I have 10 inches of ice in central mn obut there’s 40s all the next week
Just rub it in why dont ya! Lol
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