Ice conditions

[walleyemaxx]

Hi everyone,

Went looking for a place to ice fish on the Big Chip today but found the ice to thin. Checked a few places with the spud bar and only got about 10-20 feet out before the ice started to break up. One place the ice cracked for about 200 yards out toward the center of the lake. The ice is only about an inch thick. We're having good ice making weather so I figure in a couple days we might have fishble ice. I'll keep checking everyday now.

Walleyemaxx

[DWW]

Once we get safe ice, are there any spots where the panfish are easily caught within walking distance of any of the launches? Don't have an atv/sled, but bought a 2 man frabill shack last spring. When gillespie had his show on the chip last winter for crappie through the ice looked like they were by the bananas, that would be quite the hike on foot from any of the launches.

[walleyemaxx]

Hi Tony,

Happy Turducken day. There are a few spots that I can recommend. Give me an email so I can reply to it. I don't want to blab where I think a guy should go in respect to the guys guideing in the winter. Where the Gillespe fished wasn't anywhere near the Bannanas.

One thing I can tell you is the best place to access the Big Chip is through Beerfoot Resort. They will be closed most of December but will open up just before Christmas. There are a lot of good crappie fishing spots within walking distance from there. As you look out from their landing, You could go from left to right with lots of good places to fish close by. A big plus is that the snomobile trail goes right through there and no matter how deep the snow is, walking should be fairly easy on the packed trail. The trail is very wide so there shouldn't be any conflict. I volunteered to drive the groomer for the "Musky and sno club" this winter so I'm hoping to be able to stay on top of current ice and snow conditions. Big emphasis on staying on top of the ice!

Shoot me an email and I'll give you lots of 'spots' to fish. Let me know when you're coming up. I'm not ice guideing but will be in my shop making fishing lures so I can meet up with you to do some heavy duty B.S.ing. I'll need to take a break from the shop now and again. Leave steve home though-haha. Unless he brings brats to eat!! Talk to you soon.

Walleyemaxx

[walleyemaxx]

Hi everyone,

I haven't been out to ice fish yet but had planned to get out today and the rest of the week. Unfortunately mother nature has put my plans on hold. I was hoping that the ice would be thick enough to drive my atv on, but with the extreme amount of snow we already have and the snow in the forecast, we won't be seeing the ice for awhile. We recieved about 9" of snow in Radisson over night and have up to 10 more inches of snow forecast for today and tonight. This is going to put a lot of weight on the ice and coupled with the lowering of the lake level, it'll be interesting to see how thias all works out. Fortunately, we are going to be in a deep freeze for about a week. I'm hoping that will make some good ice under all this snow. Good luck fishing and plese be very carefull on the ice with all this snow.

Walleyemaxx21537

[walleyemaxx]

Hi everyone,

Went to check on ice conditions again and I still won't go out there. The snow is deep and sure to be lots of slush. We've been in the deep freeze so the slush should be in the process of solidifying. The only tracks I saw anywhere were criter tracks. Beautiful scenery with the thick blanket of snow. I took some pics. Hopefully we'll be on the ice rod bending soon. Good luck fishing everyone.
Walleyemaxx
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