Whos Ready?

[Random guy]

Very ready, I may just pull the boat int the heated garage and start getting it ready for another open water season.

Definetly getting a new planer mast, maybe upgrade the stereo and fix that dang wobbly seat. I love boat prep time, like big kids constructer sets.

[Scoot]

Yep, me too. I was ready for open water somewhere around the first week of Jan!

[Nick Kuhn]

Driving over a now nearly completely open Pool 2 everyday doesn't help matters at all.

[gotcatfish]

 Quote:

I'm feeling about an early April ice out for the metro area lakes

No way!!! There is 30" of ice. Mid to late April before we get open water on metro lakes. There is plenty of open water on the river right now though. We had ice on Prior until the middle of April last year and we didn't have much ice at all last season. It's a long way off for those of you who don't fish the river.

[Nick Kuhn]

It has more to do with temperature than it does with ice thickness methinks. The mean temperature last April was only 48 degrees, and really it was much colder at the beginning of the month than that. 2006 the mean was 54 degrees, so quite a bit warmer. In fact 2003 was the last time we had an April as cold as last year. So if we get a nice warm Spring expect some serious meltdown, even though the ice is thick.

[rodmaker]

I've been ready since I went down to the boat show late Jan.

[Bassman55]

Rain and wind really make a difference when the ice goes off too. Rain makes the ice no good. If we would get some sun to melt around the shores and a wind gets underneath it, all the ice break up and pile up.

[rodmaker]

Nothing better than early season Crappies

[Pyrex]

 Originally Posted By: VahnTitrio

It has more to do with temperature than it does with ice thickness methinks. The mean temperature last April was only 48 degrees, and really it was much colder at the beginning of the month than that. 2006 the mean was 54 degrees, so quite a bit warmer. In fact 2003 was the last time we had an April as cold as last year. So if we get a nice warm Spring expect some serious meltdown, even though the ice is thick.

Is that true? I thought last spring was warmer than normal, I know come fishing opener last year was perfect, 55-56 degree water temp ( on lake sarah southern MN). of course that may have warmed up in late April, so you might be right. Of course a warm southern wind will melt more ice than a guy thinks...

[Nick Kuhn]

Got the info from an almanac, but your right it did warm up quite a bit about midway through April. Plus once the ice is gone the water starts to warm up close to the air temperature pretty quickly.

http://www.wunderground.com/history/airp...eq_statename=NA

[Sutty]

I am getting there, trying to decide what upgrades are happening this year. Planning on some track systems, a new GPS unit and a couple more planer boards.