It Has Begun!!
The above photos are what a large body of water looks like when it is expelling its thermal energy. The Big Devil is being zapped of its warmth. The water is rapidly cooling and as soon as we get a calm night, the first skim of ice on the Big Lake will be in place.
Earliest I Have Ever Even Dreamed About Walking Out!!
UNREAL, SURREAL EVEN!
Those are the only words I can think of to describe the feeling of walking out on Hard Water on November 8th. Five days short of a whole month earlier than last year.
Speaking of last year, a year ago our temperature here in Devils Lake was 53 Degrees and we were still waiting for the Northern Birds to show up.
Today…well… today we ice fished. We didn’t catch a whole lot. The winds before our Northern Feeder lake locked up were quite strong and the water was the color of mud, but one Pike was put on the ice.
Had I known this:
I would have brought the snowmobile. I was thinking 1-3 inches, not 3.5-5!
Don’t get me wrong, this is not the main lake. Most of that is wide open. However, if you are an Ice Freak like us, there is ample opportunity in the North End of the basin to get on some pretty good walking ice. Keep in mind:
NO ICE IS SAFE ICE!!
Don’t go alone just yet and have your ice picks with you. But the First Freeze on the Northern Feeder lakes is good enough to walk out on.
Dare I say we might be driving by Thanksgiving, that is just unheard of. Global Warming I guess.
To give you an idea of the variance in the ice though, I took the liberty of checking different spots and here they are:
Heading back out now to location number 2, will keep everyone posted and hopefully have some Walleye Pics tonight!
Stay Safe!
Good Luck Out There!
