Minnesota ice ice out?

I am going on a small trip with my family on a medium sized lake in Minnesota in mid march. Of course I will be devoting most of m time to ice fishing, so I wanted to know if it would be safe at all at that time?

I can’t tell you it will be safe for sure. But I would personally feel ok planning a fishing trip mid march this year.

It will really depend how far North you will be I think, but there is a lot of ice this year and we received a good amount of snow last week across the entire state. Granted by this weekend with the Southern part of the state reaching into the 50’s temps wise that snow will disappear in a hurry.
I would say you should be fine if you are in the northern part of the state without much trouble at all.

I’d stop at a local bait shop and ask some questions. It’s tough to know what you’re walking on unless you’re around the lake all winter.

SR

here is my experience. i was up in itascao county on a lake the weekend of feb 17th. yep there was plenty ice…..i did not actually measure.

the following weekend i was on a lake, shallow lake near buffalo/monticello and there was more ice in central minnesota then itasca county. one reason i personally think was there was more snow on the northern minnesota lake then down south further.

I don’t think the ice depth will be a big issue but the slop on top of the ice may. I’m also planning a trip mid to late March and more worried about how I’m going to get out than if the ice will be okay. Not sure if sled or ATV will be better with all the slush…vehicle won’t be an option for me.

There was 30 inches of ice in Alexandria last weekend. Looks like after this weekend should go back into low 30s upper 20s. May be driving out in central Minnesota till pretty close to April.