Ice out on the Turtle-Flambeau Flowage

[The Tiny Fisherman]

Ice went out yesterday afternoon (03/21/12). This is a new first out record that I know of. Beating the record set two years ago by ten days.

Getting the boat out of storage tomorrow and going fishing.

Can't wait,

[Hot Runr Guy]

Tiny,
I haven't looked at the Excel Energy site yet, but was is the level looking like?
HRG

[The Tiny Fisherman]

HRG, I would say it's down about three feet. We need rain, because all the snow is gone. If you look at the crib pictures (post), those stumps by shore are usually under water.

[smallmouth99]

down 2 feet according to the energy site. been watching it every day. the lake has come up a foot since Mon.

[Flambeau trail]

Tiny, thanks for the ice out picture. Hard to believe being this early. Can't remember the year, but not too long ago we didn't come up for the opener because of ice on most of the flowage. Be a differant type of walleye opener. Walt.

[BlueRanger]

I think that was 3 years ago - I can understand not wanting to make the drive with that kind of uncertainty, but you really missed out. The ice didn't go out at Springstead Landing until literally the day before opener, and we had the most ridiculously easy walleye fishing I can ever remember - you could throw a Rapala at just about any rocky shoreline and catch walleyes, most of them still dripping spawn or milt, and it stayed like that for the next 2 weekends. And there were a couple great year classes - tons of 17-18" fish and quite a few in the 21" range. But the downside was that the smallie action didn't heat up until after Memorial Day.

[byronbears84]

Since the ice is out so early this year, could this mean the mayfly hatch may occur earlier than normal as well? im gonna look back at some reports to see when the hatch happened 2 years ago when the ice went out nearly just as early. Anyone know anything about this topic?

Thank you all

[The Tiny Fisherman]

The year Blue is talking about was 2008 and it was the best fishing in years. The ice went out that Friday afternoon and we had to scramble to get the docks, lift and boats in. There were a few people that didn't come up, thinking they couldn't fish. And boy did they miss one great bite. You could catch fish almost anywhere, but you had to be there.

The year Walt is talking about was 1995, we couldn't fish on our side of the flowage. We trailer our boats to Murray's landing, the snow banks were as high as our truck windows. We fished the Manitowish river for two days and did we get some big walleyes. Letting all the big ones go, it was hard to catch anything under twenty inches.


Put the boat in Saturday and went for a boat ride. The water temps were from 49 to 53.

Went to the falls Saturday night. There was too much foam on the surface to see much. We only saw a few walleyes.

Those were some great year,

[Mark Benson]

Tiny:

Ahhh, the spring of .'95!!! We started out ice fishing on Lake Minocqua and I remember the first time I fished Trout Lake that year and the ice didn't go off until May 19th!!! My first fish on that lake was an 18" laker that spring.

.'08 we were planning on ice fishing if needed but luckily were able to get on the Mannie Chain, the next day I went to fish Fence and the other half of the lake still had ice on it!!!

Mark

[BlueRanger]

Well, smallmouth99 will be happy to hear that it was 27 and frosty when I left this morning... I stopped at the falls Friday night and didn't see any walleyes. Lots of foam, like Tiny said, and the water wasn't as high as it usually is in Mid-April. But with the water temps he mentioned, they could be done already. I also didn't see any sign of spearing activity.

Didn't get out fishing except for a few casts at Black River Harbor on Saturday morning. I spent two very long days driving around the U.P. shooting waterfalls - put on about 550 miles, took about 1000 exposures at 6 different locations, some with multiple falls, and if I wanted to make some calendars, I'd have enough for about 20 years worth. I should have some samples posted by tonight - I did take a few TFF photos, and I'll put those up first. Amazing conditions for waterfalls - high water, very green conifers, a mix of sky conditions from heavy fog to clear blue, and winds off Lake Superior kept temps in the 40s half of Saturday and all of Sunday which made all the hills and stairways more enjoyable.

Here's a small world story: I stopped at a boat dealer in Rice Lake on my way up, looking for some electrical connectors to connect some new livewell pump cartridges. In chatting with the parts department guy, I learned that his grandparents live right around the corner from us on the TFF, he comes up regularly, and he mentioned seeing my pictures on here... What are the odds?

[smallmouth99]

Yeah cooler weather is there for a few days. Would like to see 60 deg water temps when I get there. Maybe the rains you are going to get the next couple days will help with the levels too.

[BlueRanger]

Posted a few photos...lots more to come.

[DonH]

Hi Blue,

Not only are the photos you posted really, really cool, but you have an eye for the shot. Some of the waterfall and river shots are quite exceptional.

Thanks for going to all the trouble and posting for us all to enjoy. Many a bad day at work, I go to your photos to take a short respite from the ongoing rat race.

[justlen]

Blue;

Do you Geotag your images? I find it really useful when camping out here in the PNW.

[BlueRanger]

Thanks Don, I do think I'm starting to develop some looks that I like. And it wouldn't be nearly as much fun just staring at them myself. Justlen, no, I've always had quite a memory for location details, and I seem to be able to remember how to get back to just about everywhere I've ever been in my life, even going back to my early childhood. But I do try to map most of the ones I post so others can see where they're taken - unless it would reveal my hotspots! I did get the locations and captions added to last night's uploads.