Quote:
Some Northland lakes won’t open for fishing opener
Duluth News Tribune
Published Friday, May 09, 2008While most of Minnesota’s 13,000 lakes are ice-free for Saturday’s walleye fishing opener, several lakes in the far north remained locked in ice and inaccessible to boats.
Ice still covered much of the Minnesota/Ontario border lakes early this morning, including Lake of the Woods, Rainy Lake, Saganaga Lake and Gunflint Lake. Some areas of Lake Vermilion still were ice covered, as was Walker Bay of Leech Lake, the Minnesota Climatology Office reported today.
North winds in recent days had blown much of the remaining ice tight to south shores. Officials warned an-glers planning to fish lakes still partially ice covered to watch for shifts in wind that could move ice and trap unsuspecting angler’s boats.
Satellite photographs showed much of Lake of the Woods’ big water is still ice–covered, although Four Mile Bay was fully open at the mouth of the Rainy River. Rainy Lake also remained mostly ice–covered.
Snowbank Lake north of Ely — on the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and usually one of the last to go ice-free in the area — had lost much of its ice in the last day or two.
“We still have a little ice floating around out there, but it’s mostly open. And the boat landings look good,’’ said Dennis Schmidt at Smittys Resort, this morning. “It should be good for lake trout. They’ll be up in the shallows feeding on ciscoes.’’
Pete Boulay at the State Climatology Office said today that it’s hit-or-miss in some cases in the far north. For example, Devils Track Lake near Grand Marais was 95 percent covered in ice, while nearby Two Island Lake was 95 percent open. Larger, deeper lakes in the BWCAW remained ice covered as well, forcing some canoeists to change their plans.
“It might take some changes in routine, but al-most every area has some open water to fish,’’ Boulay said.
After 11 spring seasons of early ice-out dates, 2008 is the first time since 1996 that some Minnesota lakes still held winter ice for the fishing opener. Most lakes from the Twin Cities north have missed their average ice-out dates by about 10 days, al-though no record late dates have been set.
Gunflint Lake missed its average ice out date of May 7, but almost certainly won’t break its record – May 26 in 1966 – the latest recorded ice-out for any Minnesota lake.
Lake Vermilion missed its average of April 29 by about 10 days. The all–time latest ice out for Vermilion was May 23, 1950, a year when virtually all lakes in the northern half of the state remained frozen on the May 13 opening day, Boulay said.
It looks like Saganaga Lake also will miss its average date of May 3 by about 10 days. Saganaga, like many Minnesota lakes, had its latest ice-out in 1996, on May 16, that year’s fishing opener.
May 9, 2008 at 4:22 pm
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