Ice Conditions

[MuskieRandy]

Just thought I'd start the usual thread on late season ice conditions and ice out, since one hasn't been started already. Last weekend (3/15) trucks were still driving on the ice. I didn't drill any holes, so I don't know what the ice depth was; I assume it was still pretty thick. The ice was pretty firm on top, very little slush, but the warm days were melting the top, creating standing shallow pools of water both Sat. and Sunday. Hard to walk without cleats it was so slippery! Looking ahead, the forecast for the next week calls for highs in the mid forties. If this type of weather keeps up, maybe we'll be looking at a mid to middle late April ice out.

[The Tiny Fisherman]

Hi Randy, We were out both days last weekend and there was about two feet of ice. Which I was kind of surprised, thinking there would have been more. Last year in Apirl we had that much ice, so you maybe correct on a early ice out. Drove the trucks out without any problems, other than in the late afternoon there was lots of water on top. Fishing was slow, we did catch a few smallmouths on light jigging rods.

This is my catch,

[gus]

Those look like some nice ones.Perfectly chilled,easy to clean,and just darn good for you.Just hope you didn't catch all of them out of the flowage.

[George]

And just remember, anyone can catch 'em, but you have to be 21 to keep 'em!

[The Fox]

Isn't there a limit on the Flowage???

[The Tiny Fisherman]

Its way too easy to go over one's limit on the Flowage. Once you start with the beer, then the Bloodymary's kick in and the next thing you know its cocktail hour. Its even worst if Flambeau Fluffy is the mixologist, she make a pretty strong one. And she'll never let you sit there with an empty one. Depends on what you definition of a limit is, here Fluffy is showing that two could be too much.

"Life is ruff in the northwoods" by Claus Kraetke

[George]

I don't know about the limit thing, but they appear to be nicely chilled!

[porky]

I got my limit more than once with FLUFFY!!!!!!

PORKY

[Flambeau Vista Retreat LLC]

Porky, get back to cleaning cabins! If you're done, please post the results of the ice fishing contest! LOL Scott

[LundAngler]

Guys,
How are things progressing with the ice out?
Thx,
Jeff

[gus]

Hey Jeff,
Went fishin yesterday.There was about 18" of ice.Fishin was slow only one snake.Thank god there was a little bit of snow to keep the beverages chilled.

[MuskieRandy]

I measured 19" of ice yesterday. It was pretty easy walking on the ice. No pools of water on top, and very little slush. The ice is getting a little soft. Ice is pulling off the shoreline to some degree. It's hard to walk onto the ice in places. I broke through trying to hop onto ice that would support me, and got a nice soaker.

Water is still low. I thought it would be a higher cause most of the snow is melted by now. However, the Turtle river seems to be flowing pretty well at Iron county park. The secondary spillway was in use there, so hopefully in a few weeks it starts rising.

[The Tiny Fisherman]

Randy, here we thought earlier that we would see an early ice out. We were ice fishing in front of our place and there was a go 20 inches. The west shore line had solid ice and as you can see we had no problem driving the ATV out there. There were a number of ATV's and snowmobiles out on the ice. Fishing was real slow, Scott Tomack stop by and he wasn't doing to good either.

Have a great day,

[MuskieRandy]

For your information, here are the ice-out dates for the last few years (no exact date for 2004, sorry):

2003 4-26
2004 before 4-25
2005 4-13
2006 4-14
2007 4-18
2008 5-2

[gus]

Tiny,
How much is Fluffy charging for tours of the flowage?Looks like a fun way to see the sights.

[LundAngler]

Here's a shot from MODIS showing yesterday's ice conditions in Northern WI.

[gus]

Kinda surprised at the lack of snow.Be very little run-off unless we get some rain.Hopefully the ice is gone by opener.And I don't mean muskie opener.

[MuskieRandy]

Over on the Chippewa Flowage forum, Trav uses this link to MODIS:

http://ge.ssec.wisc.edu/modis-today/

Then move the blue box over the area you are interested in and click.

Then change the image to 250m resolution for the largest zoom.

You can change the date in the top left if interested.

If you don't see an image using the current day, it could be because the current day's image has not been taken yet. In this case, go back to yesterday's photo.

I like this link better than the "Lake Superior" MODIS link because you can see the entire state. (I wasn't aware MODIS covered the whole country, duh)

You can see the progression of the iced out lakes as you go from south to north!

[George]

Thanks Randy. That's pretty cool!

[MuskieRandy]

Most of the ice is gone. The ice remaining is very rotten and is easily busted up. Water is still pretty low for this time of the year. Looks like it's 2.5 feet below full pool.