ICE CONDITIONS--UP Lakes

[WALLEYE MIKE]

Report your conditions here.

[MrBluegill]

Im lookin for a report for any lake that has fishable ice........me and my buddy are lookin to fish some where this weekend.......ive heard they got good ice right over the bridge???:confused: if anyone knows of good ice in the UP shoot me a PM

[U.P. Whackmaster]

It is starting to finally get cold again! The ice is UNSAFE here in the U.P. Yesterday a 60 yr. old man drown in Baraga county ice fishing on a inland lk. MDNR reports that the ice is unsafe everywhere, do not go out! I'll keep you posted!
Whack

[UPWalleyeGuy]

12-21-06 Upper bay has a little ice, few guys are going out. 3-4" of ice out there.

[jackandkelly]

I heard that several small lakes in the area have 4-6" of ice. Can anyone tell me if this is true before i make the drive?

[HuntCast]

Ice is WAY too thin by shore at Teal Lake in Negaunee, but it is getting colder. Another week with weather like this and you might be good to go.

[THE BAIT SHOP GUY]

01-06-07 Still only about 4 inches on upper bay of LBDN. Reports for most of the lakes near the Wisconsin border are in the 8 to 10 inch range.

[mifisher]

Looking for any information on Ice in DA eastern UP. Thinking of making a road trip up there this weekend to scratch my ice fishing itch. No particular destination in mind, but looking to target mainly walleye, some panfish(gills/perch), and maybe some pike. Any information will be helpful....especially eastern UP. PM me if necessary! Thanks in advance!:fish: :help:

[HunterHawk]

Anyone know if there is any more ice on Little Bay Denoc... looks like we are headed there the 9-11, and staying in a motel or something right on the lake.. i cant wait... anyone i can keep in touch with to get ice reports and fishing reports before i go?... never fished it before... im dieing to try out my vex this year.... any info would be great, and good luck and be safe.
-hawk

[UPWalleyeGuy]

Current temps this a.m. are in the single digits. The majority of the bay to just south of gladstone is iced over. We received 3-5" of snow yesterday so that won't be extremely helpful but I am guessing that we should have fishable ice by the weekend in most areas north of Gladstone.

[BFTrout]

Check this website for up-to-date ice conditions on the bays de noc:


http://www.baydenoc.com/fishingreports.htm

[HunterHawk]

Thanks a lot guys. much appreciated. like i said ill be up there 9-11... maybe see ya up there.
-Hawk

[Blue]

Was fishing in Dickinson County this past weekend. Guys were driving trucks and cars all over the lake. Ice was about 12" thick. On way home to the LP, we drove by Kipling and there were maybe 20 shanties on the ice. Most looked to be inside of Butler Island.

[phantastickfish]

ummm soo mi. ashmun bay is at about 3. misqueto bay around the clay banks is at about 3 also. im not sure about munusgon but i know people have been going out there.

[Hamilton Reef]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 23, 2007

Contact: Lt. Thomas Courchaine 906-875-6622 or Ann Wilson 906-228-6561

DNR Conservation Officers Conduct Ice Rescue

Five Department of Natural Resources conservation officers were called upon to conduct an ice rescue after two snowmobiles and their operators went through thin ice on Lake Gogebic in the western Upper Peninsula over the weekend.

Two officers were conducting a group patrol near Bergland on Saturday, Jan. 20, around 11:00 p.m., when a 911 call came from Michigan State Police Regional Dispatch that two snowmobiles had broken through the ice on Bergland Bay, near the inlet of the Ontonagan River. Both snowmobile operators were reported still in the water. Sgt. Steve Burton intercepted the radio call and notified two other officers on snowmobile patrol near Bergland. The conservation officers, Douglas Hermanson and Brett Gustafson, quickly located the scene of the accident. By then one snowmobile operator had been able to get himself out of the water and onto stable ice, but the other could not and was still trapped in the lake.

According to reports provided by the officers, Hermanson and Gustafson crawled on their stomachs to within a few yards of the open water, and first tried to talk the man through self-rescue techniques. When that failed the victim complained of numbness, and the officers threw him a rope. The victim secured the rope around his waist to prevent him from going under.

At this moment, Conservation Officers Steve Burton, Matt Eberly and Dave Miller arrived at the Bergland Pier. Eberly and Burton pulled snowmobiles from their trucks, gathered additional rope and ORV/snowmobile ramps, and then went to the scene, while Miller stayed on the pier to set up an incident command center and coordinate the rescue mission.

At the scene, the officers pushed a ramp toward the victim, and used the others as support for themselves. By pulling on the rope and pushing the ramp to within the grasp of the victim, the officers were able to rescue the man and get him onto safe ice.

The victim was transported to a waiting ambulance, then to Ontonagon Memorial Hospital where he was treated for severe hypothermia and later released.

“The victim told the DNR officers that he would not have been able to get out of the water on his own,” said Lt. Thomas Courchaine, law enforcement supervisor at the DNR’s Crystal Falls field office. “It was the quick reaction time of the officers and their ability to be creative in such an emergency that undoubtedly saved this man’s life.”

Courchaine added that anyone operating a snowmobile on ice should be fully aware of river inlets and outlets, where ice is often weakened by currents.

Those traveling by snowmobile on ice are encouraged to carry self-rescue equipment and cell phones to use in event of such emergencies.

“This man was very fortunate that there was a concentrated patrol of conservation officers in the area that evening,” Courchaine added. “And that our officers were fully prepared to handle the crisis.”

The DNR is committed to the conservation, protection, management, use and enjoyment of Michigan’s Natural resources for current and future generations.

[HunterHawk]

nice post, glad everyone made it out well.

[UPJerry]

Not sure how representative this is of area ice conditions, but one of the Marquette County inland lakes I frequent had somewhere around 10" of ice on Feb. 1 (and that was before the recent extreme cold snap). All the holes I drilled were in relatively shallow parts of the lake, which is deep overall.

[THE BAIT SHOP GUY]

North of Gladstone there's 12 to 20+ inches of good ice. South of Gladstone to just north of the Escanaba River 10 inches+. Escanaba south towards Portage Point - 6 to 10 inches.

They've been driving full sized trucks all over the upper bay and the first mile or so south of Gladstone. They'll be out near the Escanaba River by next weekend. Very little snow on the ice, just enough for good traction.

[UPJerry]

What a short ice fishing season, even in the U.P. I am no risk taker, and after the warm spell we are getting this weekend and in the coming week, I will probably be too nervous to go out on the ice anywhere.

It didn't help when we got a whole lot of snow not long before the warm spell. Last time I went fishing, a few days ago, it appeared that much of the snow on my local lake had developed into rotten ice, taking some of the former good ice along with it. One part of the lake were just a total mess of slush with a slightly harder layer on top.

Bottom line, the clear ice is getting thinner and slush is getting thicker. Things aren't likely to improve. At least I got a few nice fish out of the year.

Disclaimer: The lake I speak of is spring-fed, so others may not be as bad.