No ice good?

I'll put this here because it will get more views.... I think so. Lakes in southeastern wisconsin are gonna get a huge break this winter. With all the pressure I see on some lakes. Especially lakes like Wind lake, the Muskegos, smaller lakes in waukesha. A lot of fish will be living a little longer. Also with no ice or snow cover weeds wouldn't die as quickly, meaning less chance for lakes to winterkill (Big Muskego). I feel that this years open water fishing is gonna be amazing. What are your guys and gals thoughts?

I have a feelin that the 'eyes are gunna bite slow atfirst but then they are gunna just go nuts

Finally, the weather is taking a nice turn. Even colder than they thought. Still not "cold", but we'll take it. And today and yesterday didn't get as bad as they thought either. That's the thing, sometimes when people see it's going to be 40 degrees, (people that don't ice fish), the automatically think the ice is going to be shot. But, what they don't realize is that it might get down to 25 degrees at night, and during the day, it doesn't get above freezing until about 10:00 am and lasts until 5:00 PM, a 7 hour stretch. So, the freeze/thaw effect kind of negates itself. Sunday morning, on the way to church I noticed that everything looked really solid from Saturday night's lows. Really dampened some of the melting thank goodness.

Good to hear the knee is better, cds, but dont worry ,with this warm weather, you will be falling thru again soon, ha ha! Good thing you didnt name one of my "secret" little lakes on here, or Beaver lake wouldnt be the only thing getting "pounded" With the warm weather,many people are afraid to test the ice out of fear for their saftey, so numbers are down on the lakes this weekend. I was out on one of those pounded lakes yesterday. There was only one other group, and they stayed at the far side of the lake where we never fish anyway, so it was like having the lake to ourselves.

On the other hand, yes, the small lakes in SE Wisconsin have been hammered when it is safe, but almost a whole month was wiped out earlier this year. And if the ice continues to deteriote, walking on will be the only option, and that will limit numbers too. By the end of the season, even the small lakes around here won't have seen what they normally see in a regular year in my opinion. The weekends of 50 people on a 250 acre lake will be limited to just a few this year, rather than the 12 or so weekends where it is usually possible.

If lakes in the north get a ridiculous amount of pressure because they have fishable ice it won't matter....tribal spearing will bear the brunt of the blame anyway.

As much as I love to ice fish, I would like to see a few seasons that the safe ice period is short. Help protect the fish from the "Bucket People"

Yup. Bad for the little lakes that are receiving tons of pressure because they have safe ice. Never seen so many people on 3 of the small lakes i have fished compared to other years. Good for big lakes with sketchy ice that few people are fishing. Not too many people creep out on thin ice over 60 ft of water like cds! Did ya heal up from falling thru the ice the other day, Chris?

I'm looking forward to getting out on Big Muskego this year. Excited to get some big bass on my new reel

I knew it. Sure enough, temps for the weekend and early next week are steadily climbing from what they were just 2 or 3 days ago. Almost all winter, when one looks at the end of the 7 day and compares it to what actually happens, it's warmer than they originally thought. This is sick.

Robollio: According the the DNR Biologist in charge of Big Muskego, "There hasn't been a winterkill there since 2000-2001." Yes, that is verbatim what I was told earlier this year. Obviously that wizard wasn't out there the winter of '08-'09 when there were thousands of dead pannies & bass under the ice. Obviously wasn't out there the winter of '06-'07 either when there were dead fish littering the bottom. I saw this with my own eyes. You are correct that many lakes will get a much needed reprieve, which is good in some respects. The downside: some lakes that could use a thinning out of any species, won't get that.

I think its great!

Always wondered what is worst for the ice? High temps, sun, or rain? High temps and some sun today. I knew it would end up in the 50s. Whenever there is a spike in winter, always go higher than what they are predicting the day before. And the "cooler weather" this week...seems to me it's usually likely that it will take longer to settle in than thought and not be so cool. At least we've gotten basically no rain this winter. When it does get to 55 degrees, and it's raining, that's real bad. A cold rain around 35 degrees seems to not really do a whole lot of bad stuff to the ice.

This has been an interesting year weather wise, but in the long run I think it will be great for the next few years to improve size of the fish. I fish the Wisconsin River alot in the spring and this year when the walleye should have been spawning, we had so much flooding and high water that fishing was almost impossible and the few that ventured out didn't get much simply because fishing conditions were brutal. The amount of fish that were taken this year was way down which will only better the fishing they next few years. Now with the poor ice conditions most of the winter in central Wi. the number of people who only fish when they can drive their trucks on the ice is way down which means more fish make it through another year. Personally poor weather or conditions keeps the fair weathe sportsmen out of the game which in turn will make things better for the true hardcore hunters and fishermen who make the effort to go out when conditions are less than ideal.

That is interesting. I was one who went north to find ice earlier this winter. So, I would say on one hand, the lakes that were fishable just after Christmas got hammered by southeast Wi folk. But, the best case scenario in SE Wi might be if the ice gets a bit iffy, and no longer safe for vehicle travel. Only walking. One could have a lake almost to themselves.

Then there's the other side of the coin. How long will the places that do have good ice and are getting pounded take to recover? Read a lot of threads on other boards of people driving a long way to find fishable ice, and had two trucks with IL plates at one of my spots the other day.