Brrrrrrrr! -19 at 9:44 a.m. This Morning!!
Yes, you read that right, -19 degress actual air temperature at almost 10 o’clock in the morning. Needless to say, we are making ice, and quickly.
That has its good and bad qualities. We are adding to the ice layer, the ice is also going to be expanding quickly and that is when we get nasty pressure ridges. The one that runs parallel to highway 281 up on Lake Irvine has a massive stretch of open water running next to it. Yes, open water even in -19 degree temperatures. Needless to say it has been a far from ordinary year when it comes to ice production.
A lot of those trouble areas are locked up now but are still dangerous areas. Trouble is, now that they are locked up and have a few inches of snow on top, they are hard to distinguish with the naked eye. For the foreseeable future; we are strongly, strongly recommending you drill as you go and stay off the lake with vehicles yet. ATV’s are good in some areas and there may seem to be a few areas that pick-up travel should be ok. However, you just never know when you are going to hit that trouble spot and only be on 2 inches until it is too late.
Our last time out the difference between 5 inches of good ice and 2 inches of slush was about 10 feet.
Remember:
NO ICE IS SAFE ICE!!
We drove about 300 yards out onto North 6 Mile today with the pick-up and measured 14-15 inches in all of the holes we drilled. We just about went for it but thought better of it and will wait a couple more days to start vehicle travel.
We also measured 9 inches of ice where 5 days ago it was 4-5 inches out on the main bay. Lots of ATV travel around the lake right now. We have seen the odd vehicle close to shore but no one is really driving full size pick-ups yet except for on some areas of the Northern Feeder lakes. Keep in mind a truck went through on Irvine last Thursday.
We are making ice rapidly so good things to come. There are still going to be some pesky trouble spots and we still suggest that you drill as you go.
Our day was not all just ice checks, we found a few minutes to drop a few lines and found a school of Perch stacked in 19 feet of water on 9 inches of ice. They were ‘cold front’ docile but we never had a time where we weren’t marking multiples. Just a matter of time before they click on.
We got one to hammer it and had two other missed bites in a very short time of fishing. It is so hard to leave fish that you know are going to snap at anytime but sometimes life gets in the way.
You can find them here:
Good Luck Out There!
Can’t wait to get out there!!!!!!!!!!!