Wisconsin Ice

[deweyicefish]

  I live in N.Y.State with these temps here the ice is going fast ...Was thinking of taking a trip to Wisconsin to fish
I have a time share at the Wisconsin Dells & have never been there ...I can stay there...I have a sled & a 4wheeler
I could bring 1 of them & all my gear ... Any info on lakes in the area I could fish & types of fish the ice conditions 
would be helpful...   thanks Guys & stay on top  Deweyicefish

[Double_J]

I golfed in Madison yesteday. Record Temps and rain today. Not sure how the ice will be after Wednesday's 65 degree temp. Further north is probably better.

[deweyicefish]

  Omg..This ice season was really bad ...You guys to taking a hit to...stay on top guys

[bigstorm]

I think you would need to go north of Wausau to be able to get on any ice this weekend

[eriksat1]

You would be good to go around hyw 70 and north of that. Hyw 70 runs east to west from Eagle River to Grantsburg. And yes I would think anything north of Wausau / Eau Claire should be ok for foot travel.

[IFF]

Reading this thread pretty much answered the question I was going to ask.  If I am not mistaken the amount and quality of ice has been declining over what the last 4-5 years ?

Another question would be when was Lake Geneva, or ice in the Dells area at the max of 30" or more ?

[eriksat1]

I can't answer that but we had the most ice here that we have had in about 4 or 5 years. We made it to 20" twenty years ago it was nothing to get 30".
Ok 30" might be pushing it, but 24" was pretty normal.

[52isntbigenough]

I just got home from N Vilas Co. I didnt see anybody fising on ice south of Tomahawk. We have 15-18" of good ice in Land O Lakes. 

[32footsteps]

Two years ago in central WI places ran out of auger extensions. We were pushing 30 inches on some lakes. So no, it hasn't been a 4-5 year stretch of less and less ice. We've had a few recently with less ice but we also had stretches like that 25-30 years ago. 

The typical ice out date on my home lake is between March 26th and April 7th. Sometimes a few days earlier, sometimes a few days later.  It will be close to that again this year. 

[eriksat1]

Unless it gets incredibly warm again our ice on the big deep lakes don't go out until 3rd week of April. I think we on still on schedule for that. But who knows? A week or so of 70* weather can really kill ice fast.

[52isntbigenough]

Same here, 2nd week of April on average.

[bigstorm]

Reading this thread pretty much answered the question I was going to ask.  If I am not mistaken the amount and quality of ice has been declining over what the last 4-5 years ?

Another question would be when was Lake Geneva, or ice in the Dells area at the max of 30" or more ?

Ive been fishing Geneva for over 10yrs and have never seen it get much over 20". It is the last lake to ice over in WI and this year I dont think the west half ever froze over.