Thanks for the update Zac. I love ice fishing but haven’t ventured out in this area since moving here in 2017. I assumed the waters around Rochester would be pretty fished out, but from the sounds of it you’ve had some luck.
There’s a Facebook group for Southern Minnesota fishing with lot’s of reports on bigger game fish. Especially west in the area’s of Waseca, Faribault and Mankato.
That is very helpful, thank you
Thanks Thumper, that helps. We are walking out, so a lot of where we fish will depend on where we can get to. It looks like there’s some promising structure right out from the cabin we are staying at on Shamineau. Hopefully the consistent weather will help the bite.
Has anyone been out on KR7? any reports on ice conditions?
You can’t live your life around “what if’s???”…..if you did, it would be one boring life sitting on a couch wrapped in bubble wrap.
Get out and enjoy life
Go to places without cell service
Have FUN
When my wife’s water broke I was sitting on Red Lake lol
To my defense, the boys wanted out two months early. I made it home in plenty of time 
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Agree
nice blizzard! 3 inches in Roch and a light breeze. for those who know how to prep for a trip, you go when you can go and thats that. looks like I’ll be fishing tomorrow afterall. I kind of feel bad for those that canceled plans because of a prediction.
Agreed
I’m that dad with the trip planned with his son for this weekend. My brother lives in Moorhead, I live near Rochester. Every year on MLK weekend we meet up somewhere around the Brainerd area for some father and son ice fishing (we both have 11 year old sons). We always have the dates blocked on the calendar and we schedule the rental months in advance. I can tell you that when your 11 y/o has been looking forward to his “dad’s trip” for months; excitedly packing and help prepare and freeze food, going through gear, learning how to do something he was too little to do the year before, it’s heart wrenching to have to tell him it’s not going to happen. My boy was up at 530 this morning, too excited to sleep for the trip.
We are very fortunate that the owner of the rental we are staying at was flexible with us and allowed us to move our reservation to next weekend. We are both very fortunate to have jobs with flexible schedules as well. That means that we don’t have to choose between our one weekend away with just our boys and the risk of the weather. Not everyone is so lucky.
That said, I also want to rant a little about the weather forecast. I’m all for being safe, but the schools down here canceled class for today a full 18 hours before the snow even started to fall. The tornado sirens go off in the summer due to cloud rotation that “could” produce tornados. Part of my thinking this morning, right or wrong, was “can I believe the hype about the weather or is this just more hand wringing over something that MIGHT happen”. When it seems like every normal winter storm is suddenly a killer, I’m a lot less likely to believe there’s danger.
What I’m saying is, if I didn’t have the flexibility to change my plans for this weekend, I might have decided that the weatherman was just being a big sissy about it and have gone anyway. Not because I’m stupid but because my love for my son might have clouded my judgement.
Just my two cents.
I’ve had trouble with my pilot staying lit, even when the heater is running full out. I’ve found that if I put the heater on a foam pad, it keeps the tanks from getting as cold, as fast and seems to help the problem. It is frustrating, but after a few years of getting headaches from sunspot heaters I figure it’s a fair trade off.
Luttes, thanks for the explanation. I’m taking mine icefishing next weekend and since I got a free map with it, I’ll download the one for the lake i’m heading to to see if I like it a bunch better then the basemaps. Since most of my summer fishing is drifting in a canoe, I’m not sure I’ll really need the full compliment of maps for another $150.
This is up there with their ice fishing autochart propaganda; the direct result of too many office meetings.
Will you explain this more? I am curious about what you mean, is the autochart no good for ice fishing?
Interesting. Thank you. Sounds like a gimmick; marketing wank. I was hoping maybe the way a uv light or something useful.
Thanks for the pics, I really like that idea for the back-country trips. I have a few old laptop batteries around, maybe I’ll try to recycle some of the cells from them.
It sounds like most agree that a replacement flasher is the right move instead of a camera. I’ve seen suggestions for the Garmin Echomap and Striker, although I can’t seem to find much information; and I’m still thinking maybe the Helix. Does any one else following this thread have a suggestion or preference?
Thanks Steve, I think that’s what draws me to the Helix. I think i can make it work for the canoe trips. I wasn’t able to find power draw figures for it vs. the Garmin, but I’m going to take a harder look tonight. Can you give me any more information about how you wired up the batteries for using in the back country? I’m very interested in learning out to do that.
Thanks all. As a side question, if I do stick with a flasher does it make sense to upgrade from the fl8? Are they that much better?
I do like the camera for the kids, as it’s so hard to keep their attention on fishing on the ice in January…. But maybe dropping a camera and not seeing anything would just make the problem worse.
