Ice on Nelson

[wyogator]

Does anyone know how the ice is holding up on Nelson?  I know this sounds like a ridiculous question.  I have fished it several times this season with 9-12" of ice.  It has only gotten above freezing a couple of times.  A friend of mine however, insists that the ice is unsafe and not worth it.  Maybe he is talking about drivable ice.  I would rather be safe than sorry though.

[doublehaul]

Don't you live up on the highline?  You should be able to drive a pickup on there anywhere you want right now.

[mthuntr]

Last I heard the ice hasn't improved much and it is dangerous for pickups because of all of the snow cover.  I also read that you can't get a pickup past Sleeping Buffalo.  I don't know if the second part true but we've canceled 3 weekend trips to Nelson because of the especially nasty weather.

[wyogator]

I do live on the Hi-Line.  I haven't fished it in a few weeks though.  The snow is too deep to get to any of my favorite fishing spots.  I have fished other areas with less than great results.  I can't get around the north side at all.  I was able to get past Sleeping Buffalo though.

[Firetrap]

Went last week on Monday the 24th through thursday the 27th.  We had a hell of a time getting onto the lake itself the first day. We got everyone's 4 wheelers stuck trying to make a path starting around noon. We finally got everyone out by about 330 or 400 pm. We got half of our tip ups out before dark and in only 8 to 9 feet of water.  There were spots on the lake where there was a ton of water on top of the ice. I asked a local the next day and he said that there was open water in the creek still and that it was running onto the ice under the snow.  Some places we would pop holes, it would be a watery mess the next day from the snow pressure on top of the ice.

We almost quit, but we stuck it out and got on the ice no problem the next day because the drift we busted through froze solid and wasn't  so powdery for the rest of the trip. We only caught about a dozen Walleye in the 3 days. The biggest being 3 lbs. We caught a ton of Pike. To real nice ones the last night both above 11lbs. We also perched and did well on them. Must have caught 4 or 5 dozen. The perch bite slowed way down around 1 pm. It was best around 10 to 12 am.

Here's a couple of pics....

[iceholer]

cool jig you got there and nice fish

[wyogator]

Nice pics!  Thanks for the info Firetrap.  I may give it a shot this weekend.

[mtman000]

does anyone know if they ended up having the murphs landing derby this year. i remember someone saying they were thinking of not having it because of the ice and snow conditions. just havent heard anything else

[iceholer]

its over

[mtman000]

thanks for the info captian "ICEHOLER"

[iceholer]

thanks for the info captian "ICEHOLER"

[wyogator]

I don't know if they had it or not.  My wife knew about it, but didn't tell me until the day of the tournament.  So, I didn't go.  I'm pretty sure with this snow, there probably wasn't much of a turnout.