Ice Fishing
March Ice Fishing, My favorite time of year!
Ice probably going a lot faster than I had hoped. Plenty still in Northern Wi. Heading down to Central Wi on Wednesday for a fun trip. Was going to wait until the weekend, but had to move it up. Seems to go Trucks, ATVs, then walking only. That's when fishing can be really fun, during that walking only stage.
Lots of cold nights coming, I'm thinking ice fishing in Waukesha County for 2 more weeks at least. The south side access will go bad first. Lake I was on today, 16 inch solid ice, shoreline ok on south side, but that will be the first to go. Took home 10 perch for a fish fry, no tip up out for bass today
Regjoe,
We have zero snow in northern IL. Edges will go fast. Olson Lake at Rock Cut park already has open water at shore. Already had a fatality in Lake County this week. I don't know any lakes well enough to trust it. A friend fished a small pond Sunday with 10" of ice. Tuesday it was already down to 5". With no rain, and extremely low river levels. I am going to hit the banks and try for some river walleye.
I’ll admit, I know nothing about the ice in Southern Wi this year, other than you have really good ice. However, from my experience, ice is so stubborn every year and usually lasts longer than most imagine. I gotta think you’ll have fishable Ice in southern Wi on many waters until at least mid March. Some will go quicker. You just gotta know the water you are on.
To build ice- think of all the days it never hit 32. The nights below zero. Week after week. Now, things are warming up, but the ice holds on for a long time and from my observations, really only loses about A half inch at a time. I’ve had years I’m on 20 inches of ice. We get a few warm days or rain. I go back. It’s 18 inches now. A slow melt process at times. And keep in mind-some days have a high of 50, but the nights are below freezing and it might be below freezing until 9 AM and hit 50 degrees for just one hour of that day. The worst is when the nights have lows of 40 or more! At the very end of the season, when ice is rotten, then it can go from 8 inches to zero very quickly. And the 8 inches is not always a good 8 inches. (But sometimes 8 inches is not rotten and can be just fine)
The key is to know the lake or water you are on and to be smart. If you can fish the same water and keep on top of conditions- even better. Some waters get unsafe real quick! Others are much more reliable.
Rain doesn’t seem to hurt ice as much as sun in my opinion. A cold rain is fine. Warm rain not good. I wouldn’t worry about wind until the shorelines are very exposed. Shorelines might go soon, but if a person is willing to put on hip boots or just get wet for a few feet, the main shelves should be good for a while. Granted, there is some risk with late ice and for some people, the risk is not worth it. I can totally respect that. But late ice is so fun and can be done safely if people know the waters they are on and are smart about things. Jaybee and I probably think similar on this as he’s down south and I’m up north. We both know when to say when. But I can honestly say I’m on ice until at least mid April almost every year up here.
On the Madison chain I bet we'll have ice for 3 more weekends. Whether or not I can find a place to get on by shore will all depend on how well the shorelines hold up. March 20th, give or take a few days is usually when we have ice out here. The ice is still as thick as 20 inches in some areas, so it'll be a while. the 50 degree temps with rain will affect the shoreline the most. The rest should be fine for a while.
