...how many are heading out for hardwater fishing?

[Nershi]

Sound can help on some lakes. I once saw some guys on LOTW doing laps around their fish house with their truck. I thought they were nuts until I went and talked to them and saw that it worked. They got the idea because they would catch walleyes every time a truck pulled up to their house.

Jamming some good tunes can be deadly on suspended crappies. The String Cheese Incident seems to work best. We took first in a panfish tournament with that tactic.

[h2ofwlr]

Yesterday I noticed that the MS river at I-94 Mpls and Mn river at I-35W Burnsville was frozen over with snow on top. Kind of surprised me. I just do not recall them ever freezing up that early except maybe in '91. So the ice on the smaller/medium sized lakes a person should be be able to safely walk on by now.

You know these guys are going to rip into that saying "Fowler told me I'd be ok and I fell thru" or some other thing like that

Selection by mother nature at it's finest because if you are stupid enough to not check ice thickness as you go out, you should be eradicated from the gene pool.

[h2ofwlr]

The deep parts of lake Minnewashta are still open.

The ground of the pond bottoms are not froze yet. I was out today and refurbished 3 MHN, and the pond bottom had maybe 1/2" to no frost with the 4-6" of snow on top. The decaying vegetation sure does create heat. As a side note, I had one MHN that showed green algae 1/2 way up the side of the nest. Now understand the the bottom is currently 4.5' up off the ice. So the water was up 5+' higher last June.

[maplelakeduckslayer]

Someone literally just dropped a wheeler through on maple lake as I'm getting ready to bow hunt. Neighbors in a panic heard them screaming call 911. Cops all over now.

[triplecurler]

We have between 4 to 5-1/2" of ice in pool 4. Get out in check instead of drive by ice depth reports.

[h2ofwlr]

I saw that GWhunter was getting perch this past week (Photo gallery topic). So are anyone else getting some?

I am actually seriously thinking of putting out my permanent fish house in a couple of weeks once I can drive on the lakes.

[maplelakeduckslayer]

Drive out now...a few cars are venturing out on Buffalo. Making ice all week I'm sure a lot will be driving this week, until next weekend maybe

[gimpfinger]

Been out twice and have got perch and walleye each time. Nothing to get two excited about but they been no name lakes. Searching for that hot perch bite in the sloughs.

Team Power Dump

[greatwhitehunter3!]

Depending on forecast for this coming weekend, we're headed north with the permanent.