Dude I feel your pain. I too am from Rochester and two weeks ago had the same exact problem. I wound up going to Big Lake and much to my surprise they couldn’t get it going either. So after about a half hour of good attempts they warrantied the power head and gave me a brand new one of off the shelf. The best they could figure was it was a compression problem. Trust me you should take the time to run up there it’s about a two hour drive from Roch and well worth the time, they will make it right free of charge and when you leave it will be working. Nothing against your local mechanic if he can’t get it going your still gonna have to pay him. Any questions drop me a line I’ll check back later on this post.

I appreciate the info. Have u been down there lately or did you just drive by. If so, is the water high, is there anyone fishing below the damn, or are they on the rock pile across the way? Thanx for the info.

Nice report Vikefan. I was down at Minnesota City boat harbor on Friday and Monday. While I did see 5 northerns come thru the ice, the biggest being 9.5# I myself didn’t hook into anything. The Ice is some were in the 17 to 22 inch range. However the slush pockets are starting to creep up everywhere. The end is near.

I Agree it seems excessive. I was out this afternoon in Winona using it and it seems to be coming around all of a sudden. I’ll continue to work with it.

Thanks for the Info I’ll keep playing with it. 15 to 20 pulls seems like a lot.

Know one knows how the ice depth is on URL? Very strange…

Sounds good.

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Thanks Deckhand

There were a couple people that moved out the exact spot you described. Can you drive a 4-wheeler out on the lake. I am assuming not, but thought I would check.

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To the best of my knowledge…which isn’t saying much…I don’t think you can drive a vehicle on the Ice. A few years back people were doing it….then they put a stop to it.

You can back down to the landing and unload all of your stuff, I’ve never had a problem out there. Last year there were a couple of permanents on the Ice, I’ve always been curios how they appeared out there with out the use of a vehicle. It might be worth calling the DNR and asking.

I’ve fished willow in the past and can say for a fact “there are big bluegills and crappies'” in there. I’ve never had much luck with the powerbait, my suggestion is to get live bait and look at fishing on the point straight out from the landing or fishing pier if you will. Look for about 15ft of water and don’t botther moving if you patient they’ll meander on through at some point.

Fished it last year three or four times and had good luck. One nice thing out there is you can drive right to the ice and drop your stuff off. The minute people start cathing big ones you’ll see a lot of Iowa cars out there.

I was out there this morning about the same time you were. We had good look although it seemed a little slow at times. For the record, we caught six trout ranging from 10″ to 14.5″. Also caught a couple of dinky bass.

Your absolutly right the ice is good for the most part but one should be careful. On Wednsday A friend and I fished out there and it was only about 2 inches of ice, though it’s getting better every day.

Thanks for the info sorry for not getting back to you sooner.

I’m wondering if anyone has a suggestion for charging your gel cell batteries from the car. I go to URL and Mille lacs a couple of times a year we sometimes stay on the ice I would like to be able to charge the batteries from the car? Open to ideas.

It’s only going to get until 1:00 AM then I’m heading to Upper Red to go fishing for the day. The battery charger light comes on when you don’t have it hooked up to a battery, then once upon hooking it up it goes off just like the manual says. It just never seems to want to come back on to show a full charge.