Ice Fishing By Thanksgiving!

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whitedust

Well-known member
We always tell our friends ice fishing by Thanksgiving snowmobiling by Xmas so bring all your gear. The ice was just starting to come in on Spectacle Lake & even in the Eagle River Chain of lakes a week ago now all gone. Although this current weather is delightful high in upper 40s & sun it is not making ice.:( Green grass & no wool hat or gloves is just plain weird for this time of year!
I'm still hopeful for snowmobiling by Xmas & looking for that 1st cold blast to bring on Winter. I like Winter IN Winter so get those snow dances going!:)
 
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jerkbait_1075

New member
I hope you are right but long term forcast, even Johns, (Not that longterm forcast are worth a D%&M) really are not very promising at this point. Really all I want right now is for some COLDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD weather to freeze things up. Even here in northern illnois the amount of green under growth and under brush in the deer hunting woods is incredible right now. Strange, Strange, Strange to say the least. Hopefully when it turns it stays. I really look forward to ice fishing in the northwoods while visiting the inlaws at the holidays. Some of the best walleyes always seem to come around that time of year.
 
eagle1

eagle1

Well-known member
Ice fishing?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

For crying out loud my frekking grass is still growing!!!!!!!:mad: WTH

And with more 50's on the way guess I''ll probably be mowing next week before I chow down on a Turkey dinner next week. Unreal!!!!:(
 
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whitedust

Well-known member
I'm telling you we have to get the snow dances & whatever magic we can do to get Old Man Winter out of hibernation! Sell your sled or whatever it takes to assure winter is on the way & get out of this warm pattern. Cut pine boughs today for Xmas wreaths & out of woods for deer season don't want to get shot getting pine boughs.lol:)
 
S

scott_b

Member
Not to break the rules here but if you wander over to accuweather they are showing the "flip" the week after Thanksgiving. While I don't put a ton of faith in their extended forecast, it is encouraging to see a change coming.
 
Admin

Admin

Administrator
Staff member
scott_b said:
Not to break the rules here but if you wander over to accuweather they are showing the "flip" the week after Thanksgiving. While I don't put a ton of faith in their extended forecast, it is encouraging to see a change coming.
Click to expand...

And if you go to John Dee's text forecast, he has been talking about this since Monday :), but sill too far out to put a lot of faith into and not all the models on board, so don't get your hopes up too high.

-John
 
Admin

Admin

Administrator
Staff member
scott_b said:
Sorry John,

I am more of a visual learner and tend to stick to the graphics. Big words scare me...
Click to expand...

Ha Ha, no problems I just tossed that in there for fun. Latest midday model run was pretty fun to look at, wish I could only believe it!

-John
 
M

matti

Active member
whitedust said:
We always tell our friends ice fishing by Thanksgiving snowmobiling by Xmas so bring all your gear. The ice was just starting to come in on Spectacle Lake & even in the Eagle River Chain of lakes a week ago now all gone. Although this current weather is delightful high in upper 40s & sun it is not making ice.:( Green grass & no wool hat or gloves is just plain weird for this time of year!
I'm still hopeful for snowmobiling by Xmas & looking for that 1st cold blast to bring on Winter. I like Winter IN Winter so get those snow dances going!:)
Click to expand...

I saw a few small lakes still completely frozen over earlier this week, even with temps at the time about 45/46F. Do people have experience actually ice fishing on Thanksgiving? It seems awfully early to be on the ice, even in a "cold" November.
 
K

kwikgren

Member
I remember when I was a kid, some guy caught a 41# musky through the ice on Upper Buckatabon Lake on opening day of deer season. He was walleye fishing with a small minnow. I think he won the Vilas County Musky Marathon that year, very near the close of musky season.

I caught several nice eating size muskies myself ice fishing in late November back in the late 70's. First ice can be awesome fishing! If you have the balls to go out on 2 inches of ice, it can be great fishing. My theory was that after the lake freezes over, birds can no longer scavenge the surface water, so the large predator fish cruise just under the ice looking for the dead minnows that I would provide on tip ups. Nowadays, though, everything is catch and release with muskies. I'd be hard pressed to freeze my *** on precariously thin ice just to try and squeeze a large musky back down through a hole in the ice. Maybe walleye or pike fishing would be O.K. Now that I'm older and wiser, it might be a good idea to have a rope handy that was tied to the shore!
 
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whitedust

Well-known member
Ice in Eagle River Chain of lakes today too so looks like we are now making ice that will stay. This is massive lake ice not flows so we are on the way just need some single digits to make thick ice. This is a good thing before snow!:)
 
J

jerkbait_1075

New member
"Eating sized muskies"???????????????????????????? Are you out of your freaking mind...... NOBODY should ever eat a musky..... I have never heard of anybody eating muskies.... Let em big man so they become 40 inches of pure pleasure. If you cant tell by my screen name I happen to love them little devils, or I mean big toothy gators.... LOL

And yes I do routinely Ice fish around Thanksgiving if the weather year permits. 2 inchs of good hard clear ice is fine for one man. IF YOUR CAREFULL, PROPERLY EQUIPPED SAFETY PICS LIFEVEST, AND YOU KNOW THE AREA YOU ARE FISHING REALLY WELL.

I would strongly reccommend against and warn anybody about going onto thin ice on a lake they dont know..... Ur just asking to become musky food
 
K

kwikgren

Member
jerkbait_1075 said:
"Eating sized muskies"???????????????????????????? Are you out of your freaking mind...... NOBODY should ever eat a musky..... I have never heard of anybody eating muskies...
A
Click to expand...

"Ever" is a long time when you put things in historical perspective. People have been killing and eating fish and animals of all kinds long before anyone rode a snowmachine or atv that is for certain. Growing up on a farm I never even considered not eating what I killed. Now that was a long time ago, and I have been informed of the err of my ways, plus any musky over 20# is considered unsafe to eat nowadays because of mercury anyway. The most recent big fish I caught was a 21# king salmon, which fought as hard as a musky (O.K., almost as hard) taking two long runs and jumping twice, and tasted Lake Superior awesome providing a nice meal for a bunch of people, plus I had a nice replica of it made by Rich Lax and didn't have to waste the fish for a trophy. I don't fish often anymore, but when I do that is why.
 
chords

chords

Active member
I've noticed a trend over the past 29 1/2 years on a large N Lower MI Lake. Used to be the lake would be froze over partially or total around New Yrs and easily safe for travel - sled or car - at least within a one mile ring of shore by ~ Jan 15th and making ice each day. Now our annual trip is pushed to the end of Jan and we are either saved by a single digit High/Low week just prior or livin on the edge and walking out and punching thru with a few whacks of the spud.

The key is what the cold weather pattern is leading up the the big first day out.

Sometimes it can be even more scary on good solid ice and its creaking and croakin and a big crack comes thru like a freight train and theres nothing to hold on to. Last time that happened I thought it was the big one and I shouted out " OH MAMA ".
 
Admin

Admin

Administrator
Staff member
Well, I was not really talking about one specific event as was posted in the link above. I am talking more about a large scale change in the pattern across much of the northern hemisphere that would lead to a setup that snow lovers across much of the northern US would like. It is a setup that would initially start bringing snows and cold the far northern Midwest and if sustained, see the cold and snows gradually spread south into the central Midwest.

Still in the ideas of some models this morning and gaining traction with others. So hope is growing, but still well beyond the stage where I would want anyone to start thinking it's a good likelihood. In fact, we may need to wait another 4-5 days before I would consider it safe to be saying it is a realistic possibility.

-John
 
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