Talk about a water warming up fast

The nice part about the ice going out a little early is that we are able to put in the boats early and get everything ready to go a little earlier instead of right before the season opener. I was able to get out over the past couple of days just to look around see what going on in the fish world. I have not seen any crappies yet in the harbor, but we have water temps in the upper 50’s and I did see some suspended fish right outside the harbor, so hopefully this weekend they move in. Usually it is about 2 weeks after ice out that we see them come into the harbor. The main lake basin surface temps averaged 48-51 degrees, and in the shallow bays it was in the 52-55 degree range, I did find one shallow bay that was 59 yesterday. I have seen some nice muskie sunning them selves in the shallow water, and have also seen some big pike chasing the shiners that are schooling up in our harbor. It should be an awesome fishing opener, and if we get the warm weather predicted, the water temps should be at that magical 60 degree mark for opener. I will keep everyone updated for when the crappies move in. Hopefully everyone is getting out to enjoy the early season water.

Good report Josh! Thanks…

Sweet! I can’t wait to slide the boat in and go camera scouting. We need some rain though. I’m pretty sure that this is the lowest water I have seen in 11 years on Leech. Plan accordingly, some of the ramps are not so friendly with a deep boat and bunk trailer.

Yea it is down about two feet out on the main lake. Went out today to look at some spots, and there might be some extra rocks to look out for. Our marina is still good to go for launching boats, I had no problem putting in the 20 foot sea ray and that is on bunks. I did see my first crappies get caught last night on the lake and saw a couple small ones this morning in the marina. Should be in there by this weekend. The warmest water I found today was on the east side of Bear at 61 degrees! I saw some huge muskies that last couple days. The main basin was still hovering in the low 50’s and Boy, Miller, Uram bays averaged in the mid 50’s. Again its all surface temps. I did see some nice schools of fish off of Huddle’s, Olson’s and Variety when I was looking around this afternoon.