I almost hesitate to start this thread....I don't want to think of ice out....but, we can turn this into a positive and dream of just how long ice may be on this year. Been a great year so far!
Ice Fishing
Ice out predictions
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Not going to wish the year away, but I can't wait to be on the other end of the "ice" reports when we are adding new lakes for ice instead of the past week or so where the reports have been of the "ice free" lakes. Great season. Ice out was generally about Friday 5/4 according to my observations. Some earlier. Some later.
Fishsqueezer, yep I am thinking you and I were close in travels. I did not log as many miles. Had a couple lakes (flowages) as well to check. Every place we checked had ice in main areas. Shore lines were looking good. May not this week end but next one "fer shure"...
Just put about 100 miles on this morning making my rounds in Oneida and southern vilas (highway 70) every lake I drove by had ice but none of it looked remotely safe to walk on. 70’s and sunny today, 70’s tomorrow with a good wind kicking up, that could be it for the ice.
Checked the ice on Lac Vieux Desert today. 24 inches. 6 inches of white ice and about 18 inches of solid ice. Off the South side. Checked another local "small" lake on the south shore and that ice was 14 inches, but really soft and easy to cut through. That lake might open up on Wednesday.
These next three days are going to be really tough on the ice. I see a lot of north shores opening up of late. There will be ice in places for the opener, but not as many as I once thought. I may just have to be in the boat for th opener on that little lake I checked out today....But, no complaints! Been on the ice since mid November!!! Been an awesome year.
"USAbrams-Deep down, are you rooting to be on the ice one more time....or over soft water?"
I've ice fished oipeners, the problem with them is travel. You never trust the ice to travel long distances, so for me, I'd rather have open water. I can go where I want with little worry about dumping a 1000 lb atv into the drink and I can get my pier in.
Thing about forecasts and Land O Lakes actual weather? It's always cooler and always more windy than forecasters predict.
Literally 8 more full days then it's the opener. What is REALLY going to help is the cool down Friday and Saturday. Highs of 44 and lows of 24 and 19! That will help firm things up overnight which limits the melting in that period to a very low amount for those two days. Even Sunday won't melt too much until late in the day. Even any rain, if during cold, has very little affect.
Tuesday if it's over 70 and some rain will be bad. But, sometimes during rain the temps drop significantly. Sometimes not. A 70 degree rain would be awful for the ice. A 50 degree rain, bad, but not horribly significant.
Saturday morning, May 5, at sunrise that ice (where safe) will be in a decent state with lows below freezing, but as the day goes on, I'm sure it'll soften. All just a prediction. Ice can surprise us. USAbrams-Deep down, are you rooting to be on the ice one more time....or over soft water? I've been checking the weather often too, different sites...boy, there is a variation. More interesting than anything else. I've always enjoyed learning about weather and such....
With cold water temps, I'd say the odds of catching fish are better under tips ups than casting a lure or live bait over the side of a boat.
I am thinking that the small to mid sized lakes, with stained water especially will be ice free. However, Trout, North Twin, LVD, and some others will have people ice fishing on them I'd bet. The cold nights have saved the ice from a big collapse. We've had nights in the 20s regularily and it makes a huge difference. The warm up is going to really hurt the ice, but the major warm up will be Monday - Wednesday and that just isn't enough time to melt what might still be 25-30 inches of ice on some lakes. It cools down just enough on Thursday - the weekend where I think there will be 14-15 inches of ice or so on some of the lakes come Saturday morning. I've ice fished late ice a lot. And, once it gets under 10 (in my opinion), that's when it gets really tough. 15, in my experience, on the lakes I've been on, has worked out well for me. That's just my experience and my comfort level. Everyone has to be super careful and smart about it and use their best judgement.
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