Updates on current Ice / slush conditions on various lakes

I thought that maybe everyone could give a quick update on what the current ice and slush conditions are on their area lakes. It will be interesting to see how much it varies around different parts of the state and other states.

I’ll start it will a report for the Osakis Lake area: Yesterday the ice conditions on Osakis were much better than I had expected it to be. For the most part there was almost no or very little snow cover on the lake and no shush that I could find. I was surprised to see how many Full sized trucks there were driving out on the lake. I know I would not be driving out yet but saw many who were and some of them pulling Really heavy ice houses. With the cold weather on the way I’m guessing we will add another few inches of ice over the next week. I didn’t get a real accurate measurement on the ice but mu guess is it is in the 10-11″ range of good ice with another few inches of what seemed to be old shush that has now frozen.

Same in the Hutchinson area 10 to 12 inches. Very little slush. Full size trucks and heavy houses out thick the last 2 days.

I measured 11 inches on lake jane last weekend. Saw a minivan out on Demontreville yesterday.

we have zero ice here. it’s 50 and raining. major home repairs have put a damper on my venturing north and or west in hopes of finding ice.

People are driving heavy trucks with big wheel houses on 11 inches of ice?? The DNR recommends 12-15 inches for that don’t they? Guess people don’t care for warnings and caution anymore do they…

gimruis wrote:

People are driving heavy trucks with big wheel houses on 11 inches of ice?? The DNR recommends 12-15 inches for that don’t they? Guess people don’t care for warnings and caution anymore do they…

That’s why I would not drive out. like I said that was my guess of good ice – Don’t know how to factor in Poor ice ( Frozen shush ) There was another 3-5″ of that as well.

Everyone be safe out there. With the forecasted cold temps on the way over the next week or so the ice conditions will be much better shortly – no reason to push it for a few fish !!!!

was om Devils this week, 15-18 out there.heard leech and red have big slush pockets and poor ice.

Lake I fish in the Tomahawk area has 9″ of ice as of last saturday

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I wouldn’t put my truck on Osakis, much less with a house behind it. The ice is borderline, at best. That’s one of those community-hole lakes where someone might park right next to you to use their vehicle as a windbreak. If your truck is on their Navionics mark, you might get a door ding. It’s a different breed up there, and that’s not a compliment.

I just got home an hour or so ago. I was on potato lake and there was 12″ of good ice. We took wheeler’s out & didn’t see any trucks.
It’s -11 here now in Nevis. Headed to LOW Sunday morning for 4 or 5 days. They have 23″ of ice but evidently it’s crazy busy due to bad conditions on Red.

Just fished a 200 acre, 30 foot deep Hayward area lake today. Took a snowmobile.

I didn’t measure but would guess there was about 8 inches of ice.

But beware that total, much of it was white ice that used to be slush. Some areas even still had 2 layers with the bottom layer being just a couple inches.

This basically means that there’s 2 inches of original clear ice, and in places I’m not really even on that. I’m essentially fishing 7 or 8 inches of frozen slush that’s floating on a cushion of water with a couple inches of water soaked original ice at the bottom.

Been hearing a few reports of trucks out on lakes in the general area and it really makes me cringe. I’m thinking twice about taking a 450 lb, 144″ track snowmobile out, much less a 6,000 pound truck.

Haven’t been out locally on the Chetek chain in nearly 2 weeks but I heard a reliable report last weekend that had a similar condition with mostly frozen slush making up the bulk of what’s frozen out there.

Curley’s report mirrors what I saw of a St. Cloud area lake last Weds before the cold snap. In a 7″ sheet, only the bottom 2″ was clear ice. The rest was white: layers of slush, water, slush , water, with some standing water on top. Even if that hardened up, that’s still very poor quality, weak ice.

I’m going to be very hesitant to drive on any lakes this year at this rate, unless they have managed, plowed roads.

This season’s 12 inches of ice isn’t the same as last season’s 12 inches of ice. We started with a 10-12″ foundation of rock solid, clear ice last season. I hope people understand that because it’s a very hard lesson to learn the hard way.

Anyone know conditions of battle lake area? Heard slushy but maybe it’s firming up with the cold. Be up on Battle next weekend and need to decide what equipment to bring. Might be mid to late week decision based on this cold weather and what it does.

Bass Thumb wrote:

I wouldn’t put my truck on Osakis, much less with a house behind it. The ice is borderline, at best. That’s one of those community-hole lakes where someone might park right next to you to use their vehicle as a windbreak. If your truck is on their Navionics mark, you might get a door ding. It’s a different breed up there, and that’s not a compliment.

Osakis sure does get its share of traffic – I keep asking myself year after year how it can get that much fishing pressure ( both summer and winter ) and keep kicking out great panfish year after year. I then to use all the traffic to my advantage. The key like most lakes is to stay away from the crowds and keep on the move to find active unpressured fish.