Snow.. no good!!

[TMFLDEM]

Went out yesterday after noon at a local pond.. Lots of snow on the ice but worse yet there was a lot of slush on top of the ice.

After fishing in the fishtrap for an hour i could release fish at my feet and the could swim to the hole . 2" of water on top of the ice inside the shanty. Wouldnt be suprised if we have no safe ice around kearney by the weekend..

good luck and be careful

[BojiHawk]

That sounds like a spring or maybe some ice sag.  I've had that up at Louis and Clark in some of the bays.  Something about the water moving I would assume.  Can't stand slush fishing...pain in the neck.   I normally sit in the sled and fish over the side...or you can use buckets or a something to put your feet in although most are a bit small for insulated boots.  The dilemma is to melt the snow now, you need some warm weather, which will deteriorate the ice.  Next comes a refereze of the slush which might make things even more dangerous later in the season.  Needless to say, it has been a dreadful year for icefisherpeople.  Hope this is a fluke...but something tells me that drives to northern Minny and South Dakota are going to be the norm by necessity due to global warming.  You can't really deny some of the facts out there concerning ice shelves falling off in the arctic...one show I watched date some now exposed ice strati that predates Christ.  That is very disturbing.   It's a fragile world and we're treating it like a baby treats a diaper.

[hardh2ofish]

Sounds like you didnt have enough good clear ice form before the snow insulated it and made the ice soak up the moisture.  Ive fished stuff like that before and I dont much care for it now that Im not desperate AND Im not on it.  Would definately call it ice sag.  SCAREY!  Good Luck  and please find safe ice so we can hear more reports.  Good Ice in Valentine area  more than 15".

[TMFLDEM]

well i will prolly be up at valentine in the near future . we had pretty good ice, 10" of ice with prolly 8 of clear ice.. just a lot of melting going on. We havent put on any ice here for at least a week, since the first snow we got. Just trying to fish as much as possible and be safe..

hardh2ofish, watch out, now that ice may take a turn for the worse around here, the traffic may increase in downtown valentine. I know of more than a few that will be headed your way soon if this keeps up. I ussually make a trip more that 4 times a year, One in the spring to fish the fuge and a few ranch ponds, another to tube the river, another to grouse hunt and as many as possible to icefish..
good luck guys

[huntnfish]

TMFLDEM.  How thick was the ice. On Saturday, I fished around Elm Creek and had 6 to 7" of ice and very little slush.   Yesterday around GI, the ice was about the same, with alittle more slush.  Caught lots of gills though, so it was not to bad.

[hardh2ofish]

any of you guys fish the mormon island ponds?  I used to hike back to the far east pond and fish a little.  was where I started my ice fishing career.  Buddie of mine thought that it would be full of fish since not that many took the time to make the hike.  I see they messed things up on that pond to put in that new exchange.  Wonder if it will make it back to something fishable.  Thats the pond i caught the fish in my avater pic.

[TMFLDEM]

The ice was anywhere from 8-10", mostly clear but an inch or two of white ice on top

I have never fished well over half the lakes people talk about on here, including Mormon, but i have hopes to fish more different lakes as time goes by

[huntnfish]

I fish the ponds at Morman fairly regularly during the summer, and have also caught large crappie out of the far east lake, but not recently.  I did fish it last summer. I caught a few nice bass, and lots of small ones.  It seems to get fairly weedy.  I have never ice fished it,  although I would not mind trying.  The second lake was renovated approximately a year ago.  Hopefully, it will get back to where it was, with some large bass and tiger muskie.