Pre-Thanksgiving Ice Report… there isn’t any!

I took a drive south down 61 today from Red Wing headed to Winona and kept my eyes peeled for an sign that somebody, anybody, might have found some walkable ice. Nothing. Actually, all but the smallest ponds connected to the main river were open yet or lightly skimmed over. I had received a couple e-mails in the last two days from anglers looking for a place to drill some holes and catch some gills. If it’s out there, I didn’t spot it and my suggestion would be to stay well off what little ice is there.

When was the last time anyone can remember safe ice by Thanksgiving? I gave up icefishing a couple years back and can’t recall being on the water that early in some time. Just curious mostly…

Two years ago we fished the day after Thanksgiving through the ice. This year I plan on “walking on water” this Thursday. I’ll let you know how we did and how dry I stayed.

Here’s to hoping your thanksgiving prayer doesn’t included “thank gosh I didn’t die from hypothermia!”

Looking forward to your report back from early-early ice.

dont know about the river… but the lakes up in this area will have some walking ice… I heard of some people out on ice as early as last week up here (the St Croix Falls area and North)… and Im sure by Thursday with this cold there will be at LEAST 2″….. marginal as long as you dont group up on it.. and dont hit a THIN spot…. but if it breaks on you…. and no one is around… say goodbye and good night… that ice is too thin to pull yourself back out on… and too slick to get a hold of… and even those little hand ice picks will probably just punch holes through and bust the ice….
moral of that story… dont go alone…. have rope with you…. and be careful… catching a fish is NOT worth dying for…..
personally I would stick to the river.. the pool 4 bite will be dynamite for a while yet….. why fight it?

Pax reported over on FTL that White Ash is sporting 3″ of ice already so there is some to be found in the northern direction. With the warmup holding off until Friday, things should be okay up that way.

Remember thoses 3 children who fell through the ice on a pond in their own back yard? Two are dead and I personaly haven’t heard if the 3rd one is still alive or not. Please use common sense, better to be alive than frozen “stiff ” laying on the bottom. Thanks, Bill

You guys are right! A few fish through thin ice is not worth the risk. At least wait for 3 inches so you and a buddy can sit close and shoot the bull while hauling in those gills.
James, I thought I read last year that you were thinking of taking up the sport of ice fishing. What happened?

3 inches of early ice is alot safer than 6 inches of the stuff when it’s melting in the spring. The spot I’m fishing only has about 2 or 3 feet of water underneath it. I don’t usually venture out into the bays with deeper water until there is a little more ice. If it doesn’t support me at least I can give you the water temp instead of a fishing report. lol

Actually Herb, I used to ice fish like a maniac. You may have read that I was looking to do it a couple times for kicks… believe me, I’ve got plenty of ice time… fallen through twice…. learned that chasing walleyes on the ice on the river is truely dangerous. Now, ice fishing is something I’d do to get away with friends… like up to Lake of the Woods in a sleeper house. More about hanging with friends and raising my overall cholesteral level about 50 pts/day and all that bad for me stuff than it is about catching fish.

I’m an animal on the water, basically I’ve never met anyone that can match my intensity in a boat. But, on the ice, just call me by my indian name, “Mr. Bigyawnwithbeerinhand.”

Believe it or not, 1996 I fished river backwaters on Nov. 13th along the Iowa-Minnesota border. Ice was about two inches but the water wasn’t much deeper! I also remember fishing a farm pond on Thanksgiving Day in the early ’90s–about five inches then if I remember right. Early winter has at least one advantage.

Bill on a sad note, I had just read in the paper that the third little boy-2 yrs old had also died. What a sad time for that family. Ya have to watch that ice when it first comes. John

Fished for a couple of hours on Thanksgiving. The ice was only about an inch thick so I did my fishing standing from a dock. Caught alot of small bluegills with only about 7 or 8 worth keeping. Managed to catch alot of bass too with the biggest being around 14 inches. All fish came off soft plastics and little cecils.