Current ice conditions

[The Bait Shop Guy]

We've been getting a lot of calls at the shop from people looking for ice reports. Here's what I know, so far.

Generally, things are pretty good out there. We're hearing 6 to 10 inches of ice, north of Gladstone. No problems for quads and sleds. Haven't heard much for pressure cracks anywhere, just yet, (if anyone reading this knows of any, please update this posting.)

South of Gladstone, the oldest ice extended as far as the Gladstone harbor. From there, up to the narrows I've found 4 to 7 inches of ice.

The bay south of the Gladstone harbor froze at least as far as the Escanaba River, Sunday and Monday night. With the snow we got last night, the new unsafe ice is hard to tell apart from the safer ice. I wouldn't recommend heading south of Gladstone just yet.

[allegiance]

The only bad pressure crack that we've came across so far runs from Saunders point all the way across to Hunters point. Took a walk this morning off the terrace, didn't even make it half way to the drop off and we found 1.5'' of ice. I would assume the ice off gladstone is the same, since it froze over at the same time.

[slammer]

Fished tuesday and wednesday and there were some changes in conditions that changed access to certain areas. Tuesday there were no problems going anywhere on the upper bay (other than some of the usual don't go there areas). Went out off Kippling boat launch and drove straight out almost to the east bank with no problems (wheelers). Coming back was a different story, as there is now a pressure crack from Butler's island heading north in it's usual pattern with some water and lots of slush along the crack. Found an area that looked better than the rest to cross and I'm still here.
Wednesday headed out from the Yellow gate access and also checked the Days river access. Both good to go and even saw a few trucks out from the
Days river launch. Put on quite a few miles on the quad and other than a few surprising slush pockets it was good going. I did not run into any ice thicker than 6 inches, maybe seven. Don't know what kind of ruler everyone else uses , but that's all I could find. There are a few other pressure cracks I found ( one between first and 2nd reef ) but no problem crossing.
Quite a bit of drifting going on yesterday over on the east end with slush pockets, so keep your speed up giver when ya start to bog. I was surprised with some of the drifts already. That's all I got !!!
Slammer!!!

[ski2313]

thanks for the update(s) Chris.