With a guess of April 18 that was off by "only" 8 days, Fivelines is the official WINNER of Ice Out Contest 10 (or whatever the right number is)!! Congratulations to Fivelines. May your reign be blessed with the catches of your lifetime and may your snags be few and far between.

April 12 is indeed an early ice out. Fully half of the 12 entries guessed dates from April 27 through May 3, certainly a range of dates within which ice could be expected to make its disappearing act. Did WB experience a warmer than normal winter, thus thinner ice? Did WB experience an earlier warm-up that quickly melted a normal thickness of ice? How will all this affect early fishing on WB and nearby waters? Maybe Dick or Wayne or Russ would like to weigh in with their analyses of what this may mean to the 2010 season, like an earlier than normal spawning period, earlier weed growth; i.e., earlier than what would be considered more normal.

Thank you to the 12 brave souls who ventured a guess in this all for fun contest. I'm alrealy looking forward to next year's contest. My anticipation is tempered only by the thought of having to endure another winter to get to another ice out event on beautiful Witch Bay.