What does early ice out mean?

[Kevin Cochran]

I am assuming this year we will have the earliest ice out in history on the lakes up here. The average ice out is at the end of April and in the next few weeks the ice on the majority of the lakes will be gone.
Here's a link to the ice out dates:
http://climate.umn.edu/doc/ice_out/ice_out_historical.htm

What exactly does that mean for the muskies?
I imagine with the warmer water temps muskies will spawn sooner and aquatic growth will be further along. Muskies should be very catchable casting in early June. Usually in the first two weeks we do alot of trolling open water on the larger lakes.

That said I still have quite a few open dates in June. If you want to catch some early season fish that havent seen a bait for six months let me know.

[AMeyer]

The ice in my area -central MN- is GONE! Crazy! If this weather keeps up, water temps and weed growth will surely be farther along than normal. As Kevin said, that should actually improve the June casting bite.
That doesn't mean I like it though. If the trend continues, our already low water levels will be extreme by mid-summer. We've seen some very high water temps the last couple years and I'm really afraid we could see prolonged periods of 80+degrees this year. That seems to negatively change some of the "normal" muskie patterns, negatively effects the weeds on some lakes and most importantly it puts a LOT more stress on muskies. If we see water temps that high for any length of time, you can count on seeing more floaters this year. I would really encourage everyone to take that into account this summer.

[Kevin Cochran]

If we do not get rain this spring there will be problems with low water throughout the upper midwest. The lakes without dams up here will be low. On Plantagenet the access is horrible with average rainfall this year I am sure it will be tricky getting in and out.
Aaron touched on high water temps. It is a possibility that high water temps will be expected if this warming trend continues. It could even happen in June on the smaller lakes.