April 13th update

As of yesterday, I officially gave up on seeing open water come the first Saturday in May. Yes, there is hope, but with the week's weather ahead, nothing is changing. We still have 22 to 30 inches of ice on some lakes. The bright side, is that the panfish are biting on all the normal "late ice" haunts, so it's actually a great time of year to get a couple meals of fish.

Now, if only we could get some of that typical "late ice" weather for our current conditions. Look for weed flats in 5 to 9 feet of water and either use waxies or plastics on small jigs. My favorite has been the Marmooska heads with either Gulp! or a waxie. Guys that are using tip downs with small minnows are doing fine on crappies too.

I still believe that lakes that have some flow(such as Eagle River Chain and the Rainbow Flowage) could and should be ice free for the opener.

I think the Tsunami of last year(or whenever), after tilting the axis of the Earth a smidge, changed the calendar seasons too.

Winter Jan 15-May 1st
Spring May 2nd-June 30th
Summer July 1st to Oct 2nd
Fall Oct 3rd to Nov 15th
Weatherman's Pick Nov 16th-Dec 24th
The Other Channel's Weatherman's Pick Dec 25th to Jan 14th

Where's that damn Groundhog?

Good Luck!