Lake of the Woods ICE REPORT/Fishing Report

[LOTW-WW]

It’s a winter wonderland out there today!

The snow is falling today, but the freezing rain was falling all weekend, covering our beautiful landscape in a thick, slippery layer of ice. According to various local reports, there were very few people that made their way out onto the water this weekend, and even fewer reported catching fish. The layer of ice covering everything, including the boat launches, docks, and roads, put a damper on fishing this weekend. “It’s that time of year”, is the common phrase right now.

But, with a scant fishing report to give you, this time of year brings out the next phase in reporting: The Ice Report! Ice is being reported around the area in bays, small river inlets, and even on the Rainy itself. Zippel Bay was frozen over last weekend, thawed, and has now frozen over again. Morris Bay is also frozen over, with one person braving the nasty weather and breaking through to get out fishing. The River is freezing on the edges in the weed beds and around the docks. Small river inlets like Winter Road River have both a layer of ice and snow on them this morning. Four Mile Bay is still wide open, because even with the super low temperatures we’ve been experiencing, we’ve had some pretty high winds that are keeping that water moving.

Some resorts are anticipating being able to get out spearing northerns by the end of the month, if the cold weather holds. The cold weather has arrived, and ready or not, here winter comes!

[Lisa Almquist]

Thank you such a great report LOWliz! I am getting very excited to icefish this year. Hopefully we'll be on the ice sooner than later and the snow holds off until we've got good ice this year.