Rochester Area Ice

After making a painful decision to not tow a boat on 5am icy roads this morning I had to do something fishing-related so I decided to check area waters for ice progression. Here’s what I found after 50 miles of driving:

First stop Chester Woods. I was disappointed because, due to the park being open to deer hunting, the gates were closed at the road to the equipment barns. I was at least hoping to get to the boat landing for a picture… no dice. From what I could see from the road there was a nice chop on the water.

Foster Arends (first two photos) had no ice at all. Kalmar reservoir – aka KR7 – (next two photos) was completely covered by ice which appears to be setting up very nicely. Please remember appearances can be deceiving especially when there is current below the surface! I was going to hike to Cascade but as I drove past I could see chop on the west side and with a 15mph west wind I figured scouting was a waste of time – assuming no ice. Last stop was Willow Creek reservoir (next 4 photos). There is ice setting up on the east and west sides with a little ice on the north and south sides; the main ice fishing real estate is still wide open though. As I came around a corner on the trail I flushed this guy which appears to be injured and nowhere near where he should be at this time of year…not good.

My last photo is of a little gem I found last year which can probably be compared to area farm ponds as far as ice progression. Hopefully I’ll be drilling holes in this puddle soon.

Any way you slice it, the ice season is upon us so get your gear ready, fire up the auger and hold tight!

Happy Thanksgiving.

Chris

Thanks for the update chris…..cold all week should have some good ice hopefully

Hey there. Yeah, I’m thinking the same. I may even venture out onto some water tonight… Tomorrow for sure.

Thanks for the updates! Hope your next update reveals good ice conditions and fish being caught!

-Jon-

4″ on the north manor pit, 2.5 inches in the bay at Fish.

A short outing to an area pond yesterday yielded a few small crappie while hunting on 3 inches of solid ice.

Tonight I found open water at one body of water and 2 inches at a different area pond. Checked Chester Woods with a spud bar only — 100 yards out was 5 inches of good ice while 200 yards out was only 3 inches. I may not get out until the weekend after next so I’ll be ice fishing vicariously through the rest of you on this site… please post your findings; maybe you’ll force me to take some PTO

Thanks,
Chris

I had breakfast at Fayzee’s this morning and stopped at CW on the way home to check for traffic. There was a 2-man shack right at about where I stopped spud’n. Hope you did well today – and hope you can share your experience with us .

Thanks again for the update….I plan on sneaking out thursday morn before the wife wakes up to hit some area ponds hopefully ill have good news to report back

There is an Ultimate Panfish League Rochester on Silver Creek Res this Saturday. I know there was 5″ of good clear ice a few days before the big snowstorm. I don’t have any ice reports post-snow, but I know there have been guys out there. Be wary of the north side of the res as the geese have kept it open well after the rest of it was frozen. That will likelybe the weakest ice out there.

Before Silver Creek was opened to the public I would have never considered fishing it. Now that it is open to the public my interest is piqued but I still have this strange opposition to going out there yet have no idea where that feeling is coming from.

I may show up Saturday to check out the action.

Chris

I’m with you Chris…not sure why I don’t want to go there. The pressure is so great around Rochester that I head for the river most of the time. At least I can get some peace and quite (most of the time….).

I won’t go there. Most of those who do are the ones who were breaking the law when it was not open to public fishing and I have better things to do that waste time in their midst. There is better fishing elsewhere