Fishing Lure

Happy Monday! We’ll start with bait shop news first before getting into the ice report. Despite the positive ice news below, the bait shop and access will remain closed at this time as we await the extreme winter weather later this week. Measureable snow is likely on Wednesday and Wednesday night. There are predictions for high winds of 30 mph+ potentially gusting over 50 mph on Thursday, Friday and Saturday with brutally cold wind chills and blizzard-like conditions. We will update our shop and access opening date later in the week once we know how things shake out with the weather.

Now on to the ice report! We took a long walk to several areas of Lake Waconia today,12/19/22. We are very happy with how the slush from last week firmed up nicely. It not only added immediate thickness and strength to the ice, but also freeboard (the thickness of ice that is above the water level). Last week when you drilled a hole, water flowed out and flooded the area of ice around you. Now, with positive freeboard there generally is up to ¼ inch of ice above the water in your hole.

We walked from Waconia Bay, to “under the wires” (between the island and Lakeview Terrace) and out to Center Reef near Pillsbury. We did not cover Pillsbury Reef or into Wagener’s Bay. We also went to the walleye hump/hole between the marinas, Cemetery Reef and east on the way to Anderson’s. We stopped and marked 2 of the notorious springs that we have found every year lately. One was very active and bubbling (shown in the video), the other was thinly iced over, but problematic if not marked. We used lath board and flagging tape to mark around them, so they should be visible. Both of those springs are between Cemetery Reef and Anderson’s Reef. We expect to find several more springs in common places from the past, so continue to pay attention. For clarity’s sake, we did not make it to Anderson’s Reef, or north to Reds Reef. We then tracked back west on the south side of Coney Island and checked out the pressure ridge that extended from the southwest side of the island into Waconia Bay. That area has improved greatly from 2 weeks ago. It’s still something to potentially avoid with anything heavy in the near future. We also marked an area on the NW side of Coney Island with lath board and flagging tape that is still open water with ducks and swans using it that also has thin ice around it that is about a 50 x 100 foot affected area.

As for ice thickness where we checked, we typically found a range between 7.5 to 12 inches, with a lot of it 8.5 to 10 inches. Very little of the ice is clear perfect ice. Typically about ¾ of the thickness was solid clear ice with the top ¼ of it being frozen slush. Where we ended checking in locations that transitioned from older ice to newer ice, we found less ice in the 4 to 8 inch range and didn’t continue further. Those expansive areas are on the main lake east of Center Reef, behind the island and north of Cemetery and Anderson’s Reefs.

Keep in mind, we can’t cover everything. With the snow cover and variation of freezing times, we highly suggest doing your own ice checks before heading out. We know many of you will see our reported numbers and think it’s go-time to start bringing fish houses out on the ice. We continue to preach patience! We are holding off on bringing any of our rental fish houses out. If permanent houses are brought on the ice with the weather coming up, heavy drifting likely will occur, making things difficult to get around and adding lots of weight from the snow around your fish house which could flood your area.

We’ll update when we know more. Stay warm!

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