Tuesday, December 31, 2013

ICE CONDITIONS 12/31/13

Happy New Year!!! We wish everyone a very happy, prosperous new year. Thank you for your patience and support. We have been out on the ice all day yesterday and today. We used our new snow blower to clean off the main road out from shore on Saturday and plowed it today. It still needs to be a little wider, but it is in great shape. Today we also plowed Archers Ave, our road to the north of Lake St.. We hit a couple of slush pockets so we will let it freeze overnight an finish it on Wednesday.

We have worked on Lake St. with the snow blower for 2 days and we keep hitting Big slush pockets. I know-how can they not be frozen? We  find pockets of 8-12 inches of snow over 4-6 inches of slush and water. This really slows down the snow blowing. We basically have Lake St. opened to just about Perch Pkwy. . We have gone through 2 pockets of slush and the road is not nearly wide enough yet, but we have it open and it is freezing down.

We will continue to work on Lake St. and try to get it longer and wider. The main road, Archers, and part of Lake St. are accessible for 4 wheeler/snowmobile traffic. . You need to park of the roads so we can keep on working. The weather forecast looks good and we are optimistic. We may try to put a few rentals out on Archers before the weekend. I do not foresee pulling private houses before next week. If you want to put your house in Archers, please talk to me later in the week. We might be able to accommodate you. Have a safe and happy new year.

Sunday, December 29, 2013

Sunday, Dec.29, 2013

I think we may have finally turned the corner. The warm weather on Friday and Saturday has settled the snow a great deal. A lot of the ice only has 6-8 inches of snow on it. There is a lot more slush out there than there was before the thaw, but it should freeze during the next few days.

I  also bought a snowblower that is light enough to work on 6-8 inches of ice. It blows 5 1/2 feet wide and is powered by a 31 hp engine that really throws the snow. If you looked at the web cam yesterday, you may have seen it in action. We opened up the main road out to Lake street and got all the snow off it. It should really freeze down now. We will start on Lake Street on Monday and keep on blowing snow most of the week.

We still had 8-9 inches of ice over much of our fishing area on Sat. because of the mild weather and snow but I think it will be improving all of this week.

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Tuesday, Dec. 24.2013

Happy Holidays to everyone. We will be closed from noon on Christmas Eve through Christmas Day and reopen on Thursday morning. Our answering machine will be on but we will not be returning any calls until Thursday. We will be spending time with family and friends and we hope that you are too.

We were out again Monday and the ice was virtually unchanged from last Thursday. The combination of warmer temps and the 12" plus of snow on the ice kept it from making more ice. We did have 23 below this morning so hopefully the icemaking started again. Unfortunately we keep getting additional snow almost every other day.

We have 8-9 inches of ice over much of the areas we fish. We have more in the first 200 yards or so but that does not help us much. There is at least 12" of snow on top of the ice which is really insulating the ice.

We are allowing snowmobiles and ATVs out with sleds or tub houses, no trailers. It is difficult going for ATVs with the snow. Snowmobiles are the best, if available. We did have some people catching fish last weekend near the south end of the reef although there were not many out.

Again Happy Holidays and hope for cold temps and no more snow.

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Thursday, Dec.12, 2013

We went out today and drilled a lot more holes and marked our main road out of the resort out to Walleye Drive and the entire length of Walleye Drive. We found a lot of new slush between shore and Walleye Drive and some along Walleye Drive. It does affect your driving and I got stuck once on my snowmobile.

We  found 6-8 inches of ice with less ice where the snow was the deepest. The snow varied from almost none where it had cracked and frozen to about 10 inches at the deepest. We will let snowmobiles and 4 wheelers out this weekend with pull behind tubs or houses. No Rangers and certainly no trailers. You would be stuck inside of 50 yards with a trailer.

Please follow our stakes out to the reef and stay on the South or left side going out and to the west or right side along Walleye Drive. That is where the road is going and we might as well pack the road for us.

We planned to plow some of the first 1/4 mile from shore but with the slush, we will wait and let it freeze good and solid first.

I was pleased with how the ice is coming considering what we have for snow. I wish we had no snow and lots of ice but we have to play the cards we have been dealt. It is coming along and it looks like pretty good ice. It will probably be an average pull-out date instead of the early one we were looking at 2 weeks ago but that's the way it goes.

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

It was great to see so many of you at the St. Paul ice fishing show. It was a good show with a lot of new products. I spent too much time at the Eskimo booth again and bought too much new gear. Sam will have to use most of it because I seldom find time to get out. Well, maybe this year.

We had eight inches of ice in the first 1/4 mile with very rough ice and 5 inches of ice beyond that with 10-13 inches of snow on it before the show. We went out again today and the first quarter mile has a good 10 inches plus, still with snow on it. After that there are areas with not much snow where we found about 7 inches of ice and a lot of areas with up to 10 inches of snow where there is about 5 1/2 to 6 inches of ice.. The ice is coming slow with the snow on top of it.

We will try to move some snow in the first 1/4 mile and try to smooth out the rough spots this week and mark our roads.

I will use this spot once again to express my frustration with the DNR. I spoke to one of the DNR's Mille Lacs people earlier this fall and was told  that they do not have a five year plan for Mille Lacs and really do not have a one year plan because their study from this spring was not conclusive with the late spring. They need to study the lake more before they can conclude what is wrong or what they should do. COME ON!!!!  Mille Lacs is the most studied lake in the US. He also said that the fishing results and the fishing pressure was very good this year and not much different from past years. WHAT???? My own observations and those of the  creel census takers I spoke with was different.

They are not holding a meeting with the input group this fall. They chose to extend the regs themselves through the winter. They are putting all of their eggs in one basket in that the hatch this spring was good for both walleye and perch. They are hoping that they will not all be eaten by next spring. Everyone associated with the lake knows that there are too many predators in the lake and they are eating all of the little fish. Why do we need special regs for northern and small mouth that are more restrictive? We  should be helping people to take more of these species and allowing some walleye harvest  on fish over 20 inches. I believe that they are afraid of taking bigger fish out because then the natural reproduction may be affected but we may have to help the lake along with some stocking as we take some of the bigger walleyes out. We need a better balance of walleye year classes.

The DNR comes across as timid and uncaring. They need to act with some urgency and be leaders on this issue. They appear to be waiting for some miracle to happen to fix the problems they, along with us, have caused. When Leech and Red had issues, they acted in a decisive manner and led the way. What happened to those people? Are our leaders waiting to retire so someone else has to deal with the issues? Are they so afraid to make a mistake that no action is preferable?

Write or call the DNR and tell them it is time to act and waiting for miracles is not the answer. We want Mille Lacs isssues addressed, talked about , and action taken.