Minnesota Waterfowl Hunting

Mil Lacs is about 2/3 froze over as of early afternoon Friday. Water on top of the ice in many places. There appeared to be open water 4-5 miles out as there was fog way out there. I traveled up and back on Hwy 169. Frankly it surprised me to see the ice frozen that far out.

Other deeper (30+') lakes in the Aitkin area froze over last night per the locals. I would NOT recommend anyone venturing out on this newly formed ice this weekend. Smaller shallower lakes that froze over earlier in the week may have 3" by Sat AM.

Also the lake 1 mile NE of Zimmerman on the east side of 169 was froze up too.


As for waterfowl, I saw a fair amount of Tundra Swans scattered where ever there was open water.

Was going to go ice fishing today but I put my waders away already. 8+inches of snow on 4 inches of ice makes for chitty ice.

sent while sniffing your sisters panties

Sorry after measuring it we got 11 inches.

sent while sniffing your sisters panties

Heard augers going from my deer stand, guys on Buffalo Saturday and my buddy saw guys walking out on pelican. Hopefully the wind this week will blow some off and make a few more inches before the next snow storm Friday. One guy told me the lake he was on had 5" of ice already

maplelakeduckslayer wrote:Heard augers going from my deer stand, guys on Buffalo Saturday and my buddy saw guys walking out on pelican. Hopefully the wind this week will blow some off and make a few more inches before the next snow storm Friday. One guy told me the lake he was on had 5" of ice already

Kinda pissed because all my early ice spots have current in them because the mn river is so high yet. Should be a solid 5-6 inches on them already but my chisel goes through on one chop yet.

sent while sniffing your sisters panties

Prolly be vehicles out this weekend up north. Heard they are nearing 8-10" in areas with minimal snow. Sure changed over quick

I stopped by a smaller west metro lake on Monday PM to see if any one was out yet, lots of tire tracks at the landing, but no one was out yet, kind of thought that is strange - until I checked the ice. 30' out 3 hits with the chisel and I was through. So it makes me wonder what is the ice thickness say 150' out. There was 2-3" of completely unfrozen slush on top of the ice with 3" of powder snow above it at 30' out.

A big snow storm is predicted for the S 2/3 of MN Thursday night to Sat AM. Basically the same area that got the heavier snow the other day will get the heavier snow again.

That will screw up fishing in S MN for making ice.

BTW -20s for Sun AM in S MN. The good news is +20s by Tuesday to actually go out fishing.

It will be fluffy low moisture snow in front of 20-30 mph winds. Ice will be fine and continue to get better.

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West Wind Resort, Red Lake, MN
11 hrs ·

As of 10am this morning our crew was out checking the ice. We found as much as 12 inches on the good clear ice. We also found as little as 6 inches underneath the snow.


In Towne Marina, Waconia
11 hrs ·

We went for another quick Lake Waconia ice walk today. As we expected, the previous snow hampered ice growth. We started our walk in the same area as the other day, and worked our way to the west in front of the marina. Since the 12th, we have gained about 1-1/4 inches in 3 days despite the extreme cold, for an average of about 3-3/4 total inches in the limited path we walked. Also as you see on the video, there are several cracks (gray areas) going in all directions. The edges of those areas have less ice (like the 3 inch spot we depicted on the video), as water spewed up and blowing snow drifted up in those locations, leading to lesser ice. With predictions of 6 to 10 inches of more snow from Friday through Saturday morning, we expect even more changes to the ice, with slush potentially being a common theme across the lake. With Sunday being dangerously cold, we likely will not be doing any further ice checking until at least Monday afternoon. Our bait shop will remain closed for now. Thanks for your patience while we wait for the ice to improve.

Under the heading of "You can't fix stupid"

A truck went through on White Bear lake yesterday, about 5" of ice.