Author Topic: Ice Status 2008 (Read 6451 times)

jimmygunns · « **on:** Nov 18, 2008, 05:56 PM »

As the pond in my backyard begins to ice over w/ mild skim, let's all get together again this year from all over IL & keep each other posted w/ how the ice is growing & where, or if @ all! Drive by's, stuff like that for the ones that don't live close to where they want to go.

Hope you guys all have a safe & productive season this year!

iceman79 · « **Reply #1 on:** Nov 18, 2008, 08:59 PM »

all the channels by me in fox lake had skim ice. cant wait shouldnt be to long now. come on cold water.

John_BZ · « **Reply #2 on:** Nov 18, 2008, 11:03 PM »

fox lakes columbia bay is thankfully is still wide open as of this evening. our duck blind is still out on the chain and we aren't ready for ice out there yet. after thanksgiving i'll be ready to switch gears. otherwise the pond outside of work down in lake zurich had enough ice to support some geese. going over the rt. 59 bridge over squaw creek saw the first 10ft on either side had ice. i don't think it ever got above freezing around here today.

bigbucky1 · « **Reply #3 on:** Nov 19, 2008, 08:41 PM »

I wish it would have been that cold. I dont know about you guys but it must get coldder up there that much faster because even on our mud holes I have not seen ice. Good luck to everyone. Maybe soon with the forecast being cold we can get on the ice.

uplandk9 · « **Reply #4 on:** Nov 21, 2008, 11:51 AM »

Ice on the dog bowls today, no takers though.

John_BZ · « **Reply #5 on:** Nov 21, 2008, 08:00 PM »

On the fox chain fox lake, grass lake, and most of pistakee lake are locked up. The T channel is open and pistakee bay is unsafe. we found a channel that had close to 2" of ice on it. so tomorrow morning I AM GOING ICE FISHING ! it is supposed to get down to around 13 degrees tonight with no wind so ice shouldn't be a problem. i will post back tomorrow. ice fishing before thanksgiving !

bigbucky1 · « **Reply #6 on:** Nov 21, 2008, 08:10 PM »

Saw ice on a cattle pond today. I guess that means we just need that good stretch of cold to lock everything up to fish. I dont think it could happen soon enough

jimmygunns · « **Reply #7 on:** Nov 22, 2008, 04:23 PM »

Quote from: John_BZ on Nov 21, 2008, 08:00 PM

On the fox chain fox lake, grass lake, and most of pistakee lake are locked up. The T channel is open and pistakee bay is unsafe. we found a channel that had close to 2" of ice on it. so tomorrow morning I AM GOING ICE FISHING ! it is supposed to get down to around 13 degrees tonight with no wind so ice shouldn't be a problem. i will post back tomorrow. ice fishing before thanksgiving !

Good thing you didn't pack on any extra weight this year, unlike myself!

John_BZ · « **Reply #8 on:** Nov 22, 2008, 10:49 PM »

as soon as i get a chance i will post a couple pictures from ice fishing this morning. ice didn't really get any thicker this morning but it was thick enough to hold us. i wouldn't quite venture to say it was safe ice. but being over 30 inches of water with a firm bottom, 40 feet from my truck, and only 5 minutes from home i would label it at relatively low risk. we did fish for a couple hours and caught about a dozen good size bluegills. this is the first time in quite a while i have been able to ice fish before thanksgiving ! i might try to get out again tomorrow morning.

bigbucky1 · « **Reply #9 on:** Nov 25, 2008, 03:51 PM »

Saw ice on the canal today when I stopped by the visitors center. I think it will be gone by the weekend though with the temps forecasted. Just need that week of good below freezing temps for the highs to ice fish there I think.

Ed_r · « **Reply #10 on:** Nov 26, 2008, 04:13 PM »

Drove by today Marie has a layer of ice. Nothing even close to safe. The south bay of Channel is icing over pretty good, but the main lake is WIDE open.

John_BZ · « **Reply #11 on:** Nov 26, 2008, 05:09 PM »

3 inches of ice on columbia bay. i just walked out 240 yards onto the ice to hunt out of my blind and found that the ice is thicker out there than closer to shore. in fact i am going to hunt on the ice tomorrow. i can spud out and ice block and take a picture if anybody would like to see. i guess i should motivate myself to post the pictures from our nov. 22nd ice fishing outing as well.

jdisci · « **Reply #12 on:** Nov 26, 2008, 08:04 PM »

Called Hermans today(Neilson's channel) He said some guy's have been fishing out behind the bar but no one out front yet. Didn't get an ice thickness report,the guy didn't seem too informed(it wasn't Wayne).

iceman79 · « **Reply #13 on:** Nov 27, 2008, 01:07 AM »

was out couple days ago behind the bar. lots of dinks. for every 10 u got 1 keeper gill. ice was 2 inches when there.

John_BZ · « **Reply #14 on:** Nov 27, 2008, 12:20 PM »

This is from november 22nd. that is my buddy in those pictures.

This is from today. 3" of ice all the way up to the hole 400 yards out from shore on fox lake.

jdisci · « **Reply #15 on:** Nov 27, 2008, 12:34 PM »

Quote from: iceman79 on Nov 27, 2008, 01:07 AM

lots of dinks. for every 10 u got 1 keeper gill.

Sounds about right for Neilson's

But if you get there at 9:00am Wayne will tell you someone came in with a bucket full of 14" crappies and he came off the ice at 8:00am.

iceman79 · « **Reply #16 on:** Nov 27, 2008, 06:47 PM »

john bz where is columbia bay exactly

jimmygunns · « **Reply #17 on:** Nov 27, 2008, 09:43 PM »

You Fox Lake Hill Jacks live on the edge!

Did you @ least get to blast some quackers? I hope as long as we keep these cold temps @ night, we start growing some ice all over! Did you pull your blind out?

John_BZ · « **Reply #18 on:** Nov 27, 2008, 11:09 PM »

Ron, Columbia bay is on the far east shore of fox lake, there isn't much in the way of public access. it isn't exactly known for good fishing either. Jimmy we are pulling the blind this saturday. we are going to run two boats to break 3" of ice 8 ft. wide out 250 yards. it sucks, we have to hire a crane to come pick it up because it is too shallow to get it on the trailer. either way we have to get it out before snowmobilers ruin it.

jimmygunns · « **Reply #19 on:** Nov 27, 2008, 11:19 PM »

Quote from: John_BZ on Nov 27, 2008, 11:09 PM

Ron, Columbia bay is on the far east shore of fox lake, there isn't much in the way of public access. it isn't exactly known for good fishing either. Jimmy we are pulling the blind this saturday. we are going to run two boats to break 3" of ice 8 ft. wide out 250 yards. it sucks, we have to hire a crane to come pick it up because it is too shallow to get it on the trailer. either way we have to get it out before snowmobilers ruin it.

Wow, that does suck! Had to wait til the last minute? What's that going to set you back?

toadhunter2 · « **Reply #20 on:** Nov 28, 2008, 09:16 AM »

that sucks about your blind that is the reason we went to pop up boat blinds about 4 years ago got tired of our blind getting froze in on pistake plus it makes you more mobile between the fox chain, the Mississippi river,Illinois river and rock river we have had a great season with endless options on where to hunt. our buddy is got the same problem all the blinds on wonder lake are froze in and the lake is averaging 4 inches right now

John_BZ · « **Reply #21 on:** Nov 29, 2008, 12:00 PM »

Quote from: jimmygunns on Nov 27, 2008, 11:19 PM

Wow, that does suck! Had to wait til the last minute? What's that going to set you back?

well we talked to the guys at mineola bay and they said that in the last 40 years theres has only been one year they can recall where the chain stayed frozen throughout the winter without opening up. that was in 1995. he told us to wait before hiring a crane as they think it will open back up. other than that a mobile crane we talked to went for 150 bucks an hour. so we wait.

ice was a very unstable 3" out there today. we dropped a duck out on a secondary freeze that was only about 3/4" thick. had to walk halfway across fox back home to get the dog. toward 10am the ice got soft so we called it quits. if we get snow tonight the ice is screwed for a while.

jimmygunns · « **Reply #22 on:** Nov 29, 2008, 07:24 PM »

It did get a little warm today. We apear to have some cold nights ahead of us, but I hope with little snow!

bigbucky1 · « **Reply #23 on:** Nov 29, 2008, 09:46 PM »

the long range for us looks good if they would just come true. May be with this 2-4 inches being called for tomorrow it will help hold the temps down now.

John_BZ · « **Reply #24 on:** Nov 30, 2008, 11:21 PM »

this 2-4" of snow is going to insulate the ice and prevent it from getting thicker in any reasonable amount of time. if we get 4" of snow we need a complete melt in order to get any decent ice anytime soon.

jimmygunns · « **Reply #25 on:** Dec 01, 2008, 07:58 PM »

Quote from: John_BZ on Nov 30, 2008, 11:21 PM

this 2-4" of snow is going to insulate the ice and prevent it from getting thicker in any reasonable amount of time. if we get 4" of snow we need a complete melt in order to get any decent ice anytime soon.

So, how much snow did fall by you?

bigbucky1 · « **Reply #26 on:** Dec 02, 2008, 09:26 PM »

jimmy I ended up with about 5" out here in the sticks. Supposed to get more tomorrow. Another 3-5. The lakes that I went and checked to day had no snow on the ice. I guess with the 30 mph winds it all blew off. I checked the ice from shore and only got about an inch so if it snows too muck it will hopefully break the ice or at least sag it to the point that the water comes up and then it refreezes. Still seen some open water though but that is on the deep strip pits. Usually last to freeze and last to thaw.

Cristoforo · « **Reply #27 on:** Dec 03, 2008, 12:10 AM »

I checked a couple spots today from the car that were wide open yesterday. both spots had frozen up! the smow fall here in the quad cities was minimal but supposed to get more soon so hopefully none sticks. couple of the spots are fairly shallow probably 8-12 ft max.

Ed_r · « **Reply #28 on:** Dec 04, 2008, 05:26 PM »

Drove by Channel and Catherine today. Catherine looked mostly iced over, but the main part of Channel is still wide open. Today I DID see 2 smaller guys out on the South Bay of Channel. They were probably only in 3' of water fishing for gills, didnt see any gaping holes where anyone went through, They looked to be traveling pretty light too. So it's coming.

bigbucky1 · « **Reply #29 on:** Dec 04, 2008, 05:47 PM »

Looked at mautinos todaY after hunting and 4 of 6 of the ponds there were iced over.

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Author Topic: Ice Status 2008 (Read 6451 times)