Ice conditions

[Catfish]

How's the ice conditions? Is it thick enough to drive on? Any good fishing action? Will be up Thursday evening to fish Friday, Saturday & Sunday.
Any input appreciated!

Catfish

[RodBend'r]

Overall things have firmed up nicely. Yes, some trucks out here and there off Springstead landing. Ice thickness varied though, in spots 13"-18". Some small slush pockets and heard the south end by Beaver Flats was still iffy and slushy. Walleye's have been going good as of late also. Heard from the creel survey guy that people have been catching nice crappies and perch on the cribs.

Good luck!

[pocho]

I was up Saturday night and drove out with my truck a few hundred yards because the ice in some areas was a little questionable on the flowage area where I fish. Still had some slush areas with 8 inches of ice. Most areas were 14 plus. The east wind made the bite a little slower than expected, did catch a couple eyes and perch though. Will try to get up every weekend and hope the bite improves which I'm sure it will.

Mark

[MuskieRandy]

Last weekend the ice was very thick; I didn't measure it, but seemed like over 20". Could not find slush anywhere. Just a couple inches of snow on top. Trucks and vehicles all over the place.

[luv2brw]

Has all that warm weather the last week or so started to break up the ice oh so early?

[SLEDHEAD]

any updates?

[Flambeau Vista Retreat LLC]

Ice went out today. Now pray for rain.

www.flambeauvista.com

[MuskieRandy]

So now we can say "it went out in March in 2010" (just barely made it!) Any old timers remember an earlier ice-out, or is this a record??

[Flambeau Vista Retreat LLC]

It is my understanding that this is a new record with the old record being April 7.

www.flambeauvista.com

[Mark Benson]

Wow!!!

Mark

[rgv]

so hows the flowage after toodays rain?
was planning on taking the shack out today but when it started to rain I decided to wait awhile longer. also was thinking of going out on the sled but after reading the ride from hell decided againsy that too. I feel stuck .guess the xmas present from the kids will get a workout Wii
rgv

[Birdoguy]

Quite wet today, after rain and 40 degree temps for two days. About half of the snow has melted with areas of the lake (not the flowage) showing water on top of ice. FF and Popkos are showing some blacktop again. Sounds like the cold front coming in tomorrow will change things some.

[Bobber Down]

I'm coming up next weekend. Just wondering what travel conditions are like from Fisherman's Landing since I only have a minivan for transportation. Thanks in advance for any responses.

[MuskieRandy]

Anybody know what the ice thickness or quality is? Tiny, are you there?

[Don Pemble]

I was out there this AM and there was about 24 inches or so, but it is melting fast and pulling away from shore. Had no problem going out but when I came off I was breaking thru the top layer, this will be my last day out there until I get in the boat.

[BlueRanger]

About 4" of slush on top of the ice today. Went up to Black River Harbor this morning, and there were about a dozen boats out and another 2 dozen or so guys fishing from the harbor breakwalls. Talked to a few who said they've been getting fish this week, but the shore fishing conditions are less than ideal with a a lot of snow on the lake sides of the breakwalls preventing people from getting down on the rocks near the water - I couldn't imagine how you'd land a fish if you hooked one, unless you walked it all the way in to the beach. Made a few casts and headed for the waterfalls. Will post photos tomorrow, including some new panoramas I shot in Minocqua and at the waterfalls.

River flow at Park Falls is way down and the Manitowish, Bear and Turtle are full to their banks, but the TFF still seems to be dropping. Hope for big rains!

[MuskieRandy]

Yesterday MODIS showed that Horseshoe was iced out. Anybody know how the rest of the flowage is?

[The Tiny Fisherman]

On the west end by Donners, saturday the ice was moving and going fast. With temps in the 30's didn't help too much. It's about a quarter gone.

[Tom502]

It's late on Sunday afternoon and about 1/2 of the old Baraboo Lake basin is ice free. Lot of change in the past couple of days - the big winds have really moved ice-out along.

[MuskieRandy]

Nice clear MODIS picture today. Looks like west and central TFF are still ice. Horseshoe and south part of "South Sea" are open.

[Flambeau Vista Retreat LLC]

We have open water about 40 yard out in Lake Bastine in front of our cabins. There is open water almost half way out from Joe Millers Resort.

[BlueRanger]

The 4/18 16:33 satellite pass got a good shot.

http://coastwatch.glerl.noaa.gov/mod...egion=s&page=1

[Chico]

someone said there's still ice does someone have an eyeball on it? down by lake bastine?

[The Tiny Fisherman]

The Bastine Lake area still is more than half covered in ice. With temps below freezing doesn't help.

[rockinchair]

One would expect Bastine to be one of the last to open up. It's deep and will obviously warm slower than the shallower areas of the Flowage. It would be interesting to know the water temps of Bastine and the out flow from the dam.

[Chico]

Should we start a new post for Ice out 2011?

[Flambeau Vista Retreat LLC]

Chico, as I look out my window at Lake Bastine, it looks like ice will be out by tomorrow or Sunday. The South end is open and what is left to the North is quite thin and black.

Rockinchair, take a look at the water level thread and it will tell you the discharge (currently at 306 cfs and water level at 1570.44, so about 1.5 feet below full pool).

[SLEDHEAD]

any pics......?

[Flambeau Vista Retreat LLC]

Sorry Sledhead, I'm not that techno savvy to post pics; however, I'm pleased to announce that we have Ice Out on Lake Bastine thanks to the wind and rain this past hour. Since it is supposed to rain all night, I'm sure the entire TFF will be ice free by tomorrow. Now what will we talk about? Maybe fishing?

[MuskieRandy]

Yep, Bastine is out, but the area east of Bastine and just west of Big Island is still ice, with about 3 inches of non-honeycomb ice. Obviously though, it should be all out by the opener.

[The Tiny Fisherman]

Went to the dam Sunday afternoon and it was clear of ice south and north. Bastine still did have some ice on it, as did the area going north (going north towards the pink rock).

We got about six inches of snow on Saturday.

[Flambeau Vista Retreat LLC]

A large sheet of ice blew into the southern end of Lake Bastine on Saturday with the snowstorm just to prove me wrong on the "ice-out" report. Oh well, anybody got a good recipe for crow?!

[The Tiny Fisherman]

Here ya go,

Ingredients
16 pieces of crow breast meat (no bones) (8 crows)
16 pieces of green pepper
16 cherry tomatoes
8 button mushrooms
8 ears of sweet corn
1 1/2 cups of Teriyaki sauce
1/2 cup melted butter
8 kabob skewers

[Chico]

Has anyone seen the new lake maps yet, I can't remember the name of the company that was mapping the flowage a year ago. Are they available yet?

With the ice moving out slow like this, maybe opening weekend will be good. So I can spend $250 in gas to get, what, 2 walleye a day! Make that $300, I forgot boat gas...

[St Croix Kid]

lakemaster has a chip so I imagine they have the map.. used it last fall. amazing.