What is the thickest ice you dealt with in Minnesota?

I know there are some older guys on this form, so I’m curious about the thickest ice you’ve encountered while ice fishing in Minnesota.

Like 6-7 years ago I worked at major sports retailer, and there were 0 extensions left in the entire state. Guys were driving like 2 hours to mom and pop shops hoping to find one. As a kid it seemed like 24″ was pretty normal.

Not in MN but one year on Winnipeg I needed 2 12inch extensions on a strike master gasser. Had to stand on the wheeler to start the holes. If you didn’t clean the holes multiple times auger would get locked in tight. Half way through the trip our arms were so spent we started drilling with two guys on the auger. It sucked.

Didn’t measure it but 4 years ago I think on Vermilion a Mora bit on a clam plate would go through some spots but not others. Had to shovel to the ice, then drill till the plate was sitting on the ice pushing the lever from above and hope that spot went through.

Best part was then it got too cold so I just sat in truck watching finicky foolers. Didn’t catch anything but when I went to pack up I found the line was frozen in eyelets and all the minnows were gone

Measured nearly 4′ on LOW in March about 6 years ago…

Was like fishing in a stovepipe. Buddy caught a huge northern – asked if I had a gaff – not 6′ long! Just couldn’t get it’d head up the hole before the line snapped on the edge of the ice.

I remember a few years where a single 12″ extension was not enough. I cant remember the auger length on the old jiffy’s, but with a 12″ extension I believe over 40″ so I guessing the most ice was in the 50″ + range

My buddy and I were on LOW out from long point one year in March. No extension, didn’t get through. Added one extension didn’t get through. Added another extension and had to stand on the seat of the snowmobile to drill but got through. We may have been on sheet ice but that was ridiculous!

fishthumper wrote:

I remember a few years where a single 12″ extension was not enough. I cant remember the auger length on the old jiffy’s, but with a 12″ extension I believe over 40″ so I guessing the most ice was in the 50″ + range

Very similar for me. I had a Jiffy model 30 with a 10 inch auger. There was atleast one year if not 2-3 that with an extension I just got through on Mille Lacs. After the first day of that I bought the last extension at Reed’s the next morning up as it was still very cold out and the chance of adding another inch or two wasn’t far off. Atleast one of those years I needed both extensions. But I guess that didn’t seem to extreme. Almost normal.

I have never needed an extension except for in the wheel house but one year I had the old jiffy buried to the power head before it punched through. I bet another inch and I would have had to go home since I didn’t have an extension at that time.

On year on lake of the woods we started drilling holes and had to clear multiple times. I think we measured close to 4 feet of Ice.

orve4 wrote:

On year on lake of the woods we started drilling holes and had to clear multiple times. I think we measured close to 4 feet of Ice.

Same with us. Must have been 6 or 8 years ago. We had 2 extensions on my new to me 4 stroke honda strikemaster, had to start augering the holes standing on my tail gate, then had to dig a hole for the power head to go down low enough to punch through. It sucked. But we caught lots of fish.
We also started the weekend on super hard pack snow and my truck floated across the top. This was the end of the weekend, had to call Steve from Steve’s lucky bait to get his tracked tracker out and pull us back home. Him and Jason groll came and pulled us back 3 miles to the nearest road. We didn’t see any one for 3 days on that trip and we hammered fish shallow

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BC –
You should of had a Ram!

Eelpoutguy wrote:

BC –
You should of had a Ram!

After that trip, I did get a ram.

Whatever winter was the real coldest one about a decade ago 2013/2014?

We had a legitimate 3′ of ice on Lake Pepin fishing near a couple of the main lake points and it was not near ridges where the ice sheet was doubled up. There had to be places up north that Winter that had absurd amounts of ice.

Ripjiggen wrote:

Not in MN but one year on Winnipeg I needed 2 12inch extensions on a strike master gasser. Had to stand on the wheeler to start the holes. If you didn’t clean the holes multiple times auger would get locked in tight. Half way through the trip our arms were so spent we started drilling with two guys on the auger. It sucked.

Ha here’s one picture from LW; I think it was 2015ish. 30″ of extension, almost more extension than flight, and needed every inch of it… should have had a wide load sign on my snowmobile

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LOW 15 years ago at least, it was April 1st, it was almost 60 degrees out, and we were drilling through 60 inches in some spots. The next year same time it was open water.

I’ve maxed out an auger with no extension on Mille Lacs before, but again, almost 15 years ago and was in March.

Ive been on Winnie in March needing extensions and it was not that many years ago. Our trips to Devils we have needed them and or just get the motor head to the ice and it punches through. Always have them packed with our gear.

Back in the ’70s on Minnetonka towards the end of winter. We had real winters in those days, none of these pansy climate change winters.
My dad had an Eskimo with a shaft ~40 inches at most. Drilled all we could and then got down on our knees and chopped another 12-14 inches. No extensions back then.
Before we could use that auger, one of the guys had a Mora auger with the blue metal flights. If it was more than a foot, two of us would crank it. Before the Mora auger we would chisel the holes. We picked out fishing spots wisely. Glad it was only one line then.

People ask why I dont ice fish even though I love fishing. Its This^^^^. 5 Gallon bucket and Mora auger. I know its easier nowadays but still.

I’ve lived through all the innovations in ice fishing. Those spoon augers were brutal. We would quit fishing later in the winter rather than attempt thick ice with those.

Man some of the storys you mention about ice thickness are carzy. I remember the winter of 2013? when I buried my auger on a local lake in Cambridge, but nothing compares to you what you guys mention.

about 36 inces. But that was all the snow shoveled off to get down to the ice.

First time I ever went to Upper Red was in January 2002. Went out of Agassiz cause everyone had such long lines. I just remember the berms from the roads were taller than trucks. We horsed our portables up and over. Then had to shovel the 3′ of snow out of the way just to drill. Needed all the auger extension on that trip. I remember my Dad and I sat in my old Dave Genz portable and it crushed the snow lopsided when we sat down. So I shoveled out the spot and it sat so low you could barely see it from 50 feet away. We only had the energy to move 1 time. What a day that was.

I couldn’t get thru the ice on LOW with 2 extensions one time, but that was due to the ice stacking up there. We were able to get through other spots. Not a lot of hole hopping when it’s that thick, and I don’t care what auger you have!

Netguy wrote:

Back in the ’70s on Minnetonka towards the end of winter. We had real winters in those days, none of these pansy climate change winters.
My dad had an Eskimo with a shaft ~40 inches at most. Drilled all we could and then got down on our knees and chopped another 12-14 inches. No extensions back then.

It must have been the winter of 79-80, I remember the same thing. We lived out in Western MN and it got to a point where almost nobody could move their ice house because you couldn’t drill new holes with the augers most of the guys had back then. There was almost no snow for the first half of the winter and so the lakes froze early and solid. I don’t recall any specific measurements, but most guys were running Mora hand drills or the early gas augers that I don’t think actually would even drill as deep as those blue augers would.

I would love to put a couple younger ice fisherman on one of those spoon augers….12” of ice and they would quit. It has definitely changed with the nice had augers now let alone gas/ battery augers.

Decades ago on Shawano Lake in Wisconsin, 24 inches was not unusual.

Those spoon augers were just short of useless after 4-6″.A pick axe would of been less work.

BC we did the same thing started drilling holes by standing on the tail gate. The trip we took was some time in March because no other fishing was open in the state we went up there for a bachelor party.

chuck100 wrote:

Those spoon augers were just short of useless after 4-6″.A pick axe would of been less work.

chuck100 wrote:

Those spoon augers were just short of useless after 4-6″.A pick axe would of been less work.