Ice/Fish Reports: 2018/2019 Season

Let’s hear it! I’m really excited to get up there when the lake first becomes walkable.

Some people are walking out of the Platte Lake Public Access. Pretty much the first fishable spot in my area every year. I’m planning on getting out somewhere on Monday. Platte will be my back up lake in case my first choice is looking questionable.

My friend Tim Chapman has been out this weekend checking conditions. He of Chapman’s Mille Lacs Resort and Guide Service on Isle Bay. Rather than take risks on my own knowing very little, I rely upon and trust these resort operators for their experience to check ice conditions. Some of these folks have been doing this for years and know when it’s okay or not okay to go out.

Looks like there may be a possibility for next weekend, so I’ll be loading the truck with my gear when I head up Thursday for the whole long holiday weekend.

Here is the report from Chapman’s today…

“LOTS of rough ice in close. Tim ventured out about 500 yards and had 5-6″ of ice in the spots he checked. That’s as far as he went for now. Spent a couple hours dragging an I-beam with ATV on the rough ice and now going to flood to help smooth it out if the auger starts!” #dothelake

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Andy have you been around any of the smaller lakes to see how they are looking

I saw some pics of Facebook showing a 50-yard-wide band of ice bordering the upper west side of the lake. The rest was open and choppy. It’ll be a while apparently.

I got out for an hour and a half on Platte Monday evening. Ice was 6″ 200 yards out from the access. On Tuesday evening Bulldog Lake, the one I wanted to go to on Monday was probably safe now with how cold it got Monday overnight. However, they put up a sign at the Holy Family Access that it can longer be used for that purpose. Pretty bummed about that. It will be interesting to see if people respect the sign or not. I went to another close by lake that I like to fish and found 5″ out to my spot. By the time I got back to the truck, got my stuff, got back out, drilled holes and got set up it was dark. I only caught 1 very small crappie. That was the only fish I marked.

mcrew wrote:

Andy have you been around any of the smaller lakes to see how they are looking

I have not. As I mentioned above, I rely and wait until the resorts start letting folks out on the big lake. I’m not much of a renegade anymore.

Bass Thumb wrote:

I saw some pics of Facebook showing a 50-yard-wide band of ice bordering the upper west side of the lake. The rest was open and choppy. It’ll be a while apparently.

The NW side is always the last to freeze up. Here though is a pic of a fellow that had his boat out Sunday on the west side and then walked out Monday on a south bay and bingo…

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Bass Pundit wrote:

On Tuesday evening Bulldog Lake, the one I wanted to go to on Monday was probably safe now with how cold it got Monday overnight. However, they put up a sign at the Holy Family Access that it can longer be used for that purpose. Pretty bummed about that. It will be interesting to see if people respect the sign or not.

The Church has move Brainerd and is being sold!

I saw a FB post from Steve F. saying that things were kind of dicey right now with what I am assuming was/is the wind breaking up the formed stuff. Sounds like it’ll be some time for sure, although I think I heard good from the South end…

Mark

Isle Bay today…

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The west side was pretty much locked up as far as the eye could see.
When we got to Garrison, there was some open water.

Made it to the cabin in Outing and only had 2″. F%$K, I wanted to drill holes on T-Day.

Just pulling out of isle bay and it was a tough day. Fished all over from 10 to 33 and only found consistent small perch. A couple small eyes and a couple tip up break offs. Not set up for pike.

Bearcat89 wrote:

Just pulling out of isle bay and it was a tough day. Fished all over from 10 to 33 and only found consistent small perch. A couple small eyes and a couple tip up break offs. Not set up for pike.

Which access / resort did u go out of? How much ice?

We went out of chapmans, the ice was great. Had 6 to 8 every where in the bay. We hiked out 1.5 miles. Was a little not so fun by hand. The resort said wheelers should be allowed as of today. The ice was really good. And locals had wheelers and side x sides all over

Thanks for the info. Might try it out tomorrow

I’ve been fishing the prairie potholes in the eastern ND region. Went out yesterday with some friends and one of their dads, caught about 100-150 9-14 inch Perch, a few big bluegill which were 8-11 inches, and a fair amount of smaller walleye. My friend lost a 28+ inch fish at the hole two days before on the same lake. There were about 9 inches of ice. Going to see if I can get out of school early some day and get over there some more!

I was in Minneapolis over thanksgiving break, there was no ice.

Mpls. Mn.?

My report is that I haven’t really found the fish yet. And the ones I have found (panfish) haven’t been biting very good and I suck at finessing a bite, so my results have been poor with 7 trips taken on 4 different lakes (Platte, Rock, Bulldog, Long).

I’m going to be going out of Chapmans Saturday. Can’t wait to get up there and hopefully can get on some nice fish. Have a couple buddies up there already who have gotten a few in the 20s today.

Went out of Chapman’s yesterday and had a good 7-8 all the way to the end of Isle Bay. Fishing was slow. Our group got 7 or 8 fish for the day with all of them coming from 5-8 pm. The fish we did catch were nice though and even got a few in the slot for dinner! Smallest was 19 biggest 28. All we’re fat and healthy which was good to see.

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Anyone walking out of Garrison yet?

Looks like a good time, mahto! So weird seeing Mille lacs fish on the ice, but it makes me happy.

AUTO_5 wrote:

Looks like a good time, mahto! So weird seeing Mille lacs fish on the ice, but it makes me happy.

I thought so too! I rarely keep fish and was only up there for the day so I didn’t take any, but I haven’t tasted a Mille Lacs walleye in awhile.

Mos’ wrote:

Anyone walking out of Garrison yet?

Yes, a few.

I wasn’t too far away today and there was about 5-9″ of ice. it varied quite a bit from hole to hole. Fishing was slow.

Appreciate the feedback! just wanted to make sure before I came down that way. Too bad the fishing is slow, hoping with early ice the bite would be alright! That’s Fishing

Mos’ wrote:

Anyone walking out of Garrison yet?

This was from Garrison Bay on Monday the 3rd.

I fished the north end all day Saturday. We had a group of 6 guys and moved several times throughout the day, but settled in on one specific spot for the afternoon evening.

It was sunny in the morning and had a pretty decent bite window for about 2 hours. Caught around 20, all were 18-24″. 21′. Most came on jigging spoons, but we did have a handful on sucker minnows. After that bite started to die we tried to get out to the mud. We made it out towards East Flat, but ran into a different shade of ice. (Ice that wasn’t the same as the main sheet we were on). We got off the sleds to investigate. It was only 3″ thick and we could see pockets of open water way off in the distance. We turned around and headed back towards the main break.

The main sheet of ice up there is really good. We were seeing 9″ pretty consistently, but NO WAY would I go venturing across the main basin right now. The MODIS satellite images make it look even worse than I thought it was and I still wasn’t messing with it.

We headed back to the main break and by that time the wind picked up with a cloud bank. The fish bit the rest of the day with a CRAZY evening bite. We caught well over a hundred fish for the rest of the day. My best bait was a 1/8 oz perch tumbler spoon. I switched to glow goldfish once the light levels started getting low. Flutter spoons definitely out-fished lead or rattle spoons. They also out-fished hard body minnow baits like the slab rap / rippin’ rap. I’m sure that’s day to day though. I would’ve rather fished a minnow style bait, but the spoons simply worked better that day. Out of all those fish 26ish was the biggest. Caught four 8-10 inchers, A dozen or so 16-18 inchers, and TONS of 20-24 inchers.

I only took one photo all weekend as we were all on a mission to catch as many as possible

Be careful out there guys. I wouldn’t venture too far out from the shoreline breaks.

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Nice report Pat. Wish I could get on an ice-bite like that!

Pat:

Very nice report!!! Especially regarding moving around on the ice and the visual cues you guys took to understand that the ice was changing!!! That’s an important visual cue that helps to keep guys topside!!!

Great fishing too!!! Congrats on the successful outing!!!

Mark