Illinois Chain O' Lakes
- Thread starter snipes517
- Start date
chicagosledder
New member
Suicide at this point.
Was out by shore on the northside of fox lake on saturday and there was about an inch and half of ice, Went pass cedar lake in lake villa,today on Monday,going down 83 and there were a set of tracks going down the east shoreline across the Lake,crazy I bet by friday somebody will be out on fox, grass but channel lake was still open yesterday,but the cold should get the lakes to freeze good by this weekend just chimin in, like snipes said post about your experience on the chain
We live on Lake Marie and the bay back by the townhomes (north of Sandbar) just iced over 2 days ago, you may have the possibility of skirting the shore by late weekend if weather cooperates. Otherwise comfort level out there would be week between xmas and new years with weather cooperating. There will always be those wanting to be first across the lake, but this is a crazy body of water to play with as the water is down and was relatively warm only 2 weeks ago.
Unless you know the Chain well I advise waiting several more weeks until all the locals (and crazies) have covered the lakes and you can follow their paths.
Snopro
Unless you know the Chain well I advise waiting several more weeks until all the locals (and crazies) have covered the lakes and you can follow their paths.
Snopro
Several more weeks? I totally disagree on that one,i'd say theres about 3 inches of ice already and whats the forecast for wednesday ,thursday mornin,5-10 below and with a high of 3,guaranteed there will be fisherman out this weekend with good solid ice.The warm fall is way in the past and looks like this Christmas and new years is going to be good for the local establishments.
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I drove around by the lakes today and channel lake was starting to ice over,but out in the middle was still open and lake Catherine was wide open.I continued around lakes going past fox river by bridgeport and river looked real hairy,real open down the middle,you can see it starting to ice over but didn't look good,when i went over grass lake bridge was still alot of open water.Remember this was in my car not sled,i'd say alot should freeze up though with temperatures were having right now,stuff like this can make some pretty good ice quick.I'm gonna go down by fox lake tomorrow and go jump on the ice and see if it can hold me,i'll post to let you know if i broke through
ridindirty800
Active member
The wind is going to make open water much harder to freeze with the cold snap for a few days here.
Lake Marie just iced over east to west (not channels) 36 hours ago so even with the cold temps coming we are still a little ways off to safely go around the lakes unless you know the entire lake system. West side of the lake is 1.5" think just off the shore north lakes are open and with the coming winds it will be rough for those to freeze up. I have been riding the lakes for about 20 years and there will always be those that risk it that rip around on 2-3 inches of glare ice but we pull out at least 20 sleds/quads a year so not sure its really worth it, especially given there is virtually no snow cover on the ice.
Stay dry..
Stay dry..
i have some pictures for you first is channel lake and channel looking south to lake marie,there are pictures of fox river lookin south and across and north at 173 bridge,bobs marina looking north at lake catherine,last picture is looking south on grass lake bridge other pictures are fox lake on the north side- - - Updated - - -
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well good news didn't break through,i'm a big boy at about 280 pounds and jumped up and down on ice on fox lake and side of the fox river and not even 1 crack of the ice,seems and feels pretty damn solid the bad i would say is not alot of snow on channels going around ackerman island,fox and grass look to have the most snow cover,so would be better if you have studs,glad were getting the good cold before the next dump of snow and last i did see first ice shack out in front of the thirsty turtle on channel lake,but he wasn't out far probably less than 100 ft.- - - Updated - - -
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after tonight and thursday,i wouldn't worry about anything.not much to know about lakes,most areas are shallow,the deep points are where you gotta worry about and that would be in the middle of mineola bay,middle of lake marie,and of course middle of lake catherine,i think thats one of the deepest spots over 45 ft. deep.then of course where main current runs with the fox river through grass and nippersink and through rt 12. bridge into pistakee.bluff you usually just shoot across from steitzs north towards antioch.the channel through bluff and marie i wouldn't go down,but i did one year.the channel from grass into marie has lots of land on the side and this year with a real low draw down pretty sure it would be all good.my crystal ball says if we get the snow friday and saturday there will be tracks all over by sunday and if not by next week,everybody i'm sure is ready!!!
Drove up to Wisconsin through wilmot going along fox river and man it looked bad.Was a big dam of ice floe chunks across whole river,this will be bad if it freezes like this.Behind the dam was suprisingly alot of open water.When i got up by silver lake park river was really open flowing,not much ice,maybe Sundays cold will do the trick,any brave soul that decides to ride river past wilmot heads up!!!
1flatlander2
Member
one of my neighbors went out on petite on the east side. i was on my channel Tuesday (north side of petite). we need snow!
some pictures of fox river in wilmot and the ice floe dam did start to collapse some but still some big chunks sticking out.Underneath bridge in wilmot looks to be some big sticks and a couple of large rocks,if you look at picture you can see big hole right by pillar of bridge,water was flowing pretty fast
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better than dozen fisherman and a 4 wheeler now out on bay by thirsty turtle channel lake.channel from choppers solid under bridge can see through ice looks to be better than 4inches.looks good from channel across to the thirsty turtle,but there is a few stubborn open water holes still in middle on channel lake
