Lac Vieux Desert 1/9

Ice was tape measured today at 17" here off north shore. Trucks are driving pretty much anywhere, with approx. 8" snow cover. No drifting to speak of for now, just some old ruts from the melt down a couple weeks ago, but these aren't too bad with the 4" fluff snow that helped fill in a little on Wed. Just watch for any fresh piles of weeds protruding thru the snow. I purposely ran over a couple piles the other day with the snowmobile to expose them so they could refreeze, and the one area was atleast 6 ft. in diameter of open water. These are the muskrat breathing access areas, so give atleast an 8 ft. wide berth, or you could be swimming. With their underwater activity, it is like a reverse cone under the surface. Northerns providing consistant action, but you must be very mobile if you want keeper panfish. Flying flags to all -