In Towne Marina Lake Waconia Ice Report - 2/21/26

We will be closed for the winter season after this Sunday, 2/22/26.

Avery walked out today 2/21 towards Waconia Bay to check on the spring and drain holes that he found on Thursday 2/19. If his previous ATV tracks and sticks with flagging tape weren't there marking those spots it would have been impossible to see. The drain holes had crusted over and the wind and snow had covered up the holes masking them again. There wasn’t enough of a crust to keep someone from falling through them if they stepped on one of those “land mines”. On his walk to the marked area Avery found a hidden 12 inch or so drain hole hidden by snow just off the path.

Our frontage is still a wet slushy mess under a thin crust of slush ice making it unusable. Snow is still hiding and insulating from freezing any drain holes of varying size and bad spots potentially anywhere on Lake Waconia. We can not recommend folks go out on Lake Waconia or any area lake without diligently checking your path with a chisel.

Important -Drain holes do not need old fishing holes to form! When it was still warm and raining, water was opening up holes in areas where people hadn’t been fishing too. The water will make its way through cracks etc. opening up spots potentially anywhere it needs too. We are not doing any more ice checking because the snow and conditions have made it impossible for us to cover all the ice and mark all the bad spots.

All remaining bait will be 50% off Sunday 2/22. We currently have Crappie minnows, Fatheads, Wax Worms and Larvae.

Reminder - Walleye and Northern Pike season ends this Sunday 2/22/26

In Towne Marina Lake Waconia Ice Report - 2/19/26

The latest winter storm has put a major damper for this weekend of ice fishing. 8 inches of heavy, wet snow fell in Waconia yesterday. Because of current lake conditions, we cannot recommend folks venture out on Lake Waconia without walking with a chisel and thoroughly checking ahead of yourself.

Why do we feel this way? With all the warm weather, the rain, then wind and snow, our access is a slushy flooded mess. Within the first 5 minutes of his ice check today 2/19/26, Avery found a spring that activated (44 degrees 51.332' N and 93 degrees 47.282' W) and some uncomfortable drain holes in Waconia Bay. Check out his video below. Some of these holes were completely hidden by snow. We expect there to be more large drain holes elsewhere on the lake. Being that we expect many of these drain holes to also be covered by snow, we do not feel comfortable doing further ice checking as they will be impossible to find.

In our very limited check, Avery measured 19 inches of ice in Waconia Bay (we have lost about 4 inches since the warmup). The lake itself commonly has 4 to 7 inches of Heavy wet snow sitting on top of the ice. With only a few cold nights coming up, there is no guarantee that drain holes will freeze solid.

We will have another update sometime on Saturday.

In Towne Marina Lake Waconia Ice Report - 2/15/26

 Good morning,

We shifted the cones at the access this morning. For now, please come straight down the middle of the cones.

Drive extra slow both on and off the lake to help us keep the access open as long as possible for everyone working to get their permanent houses off Lake Waconia.

With the current warm temperatures, possible rain, and strong winds forecast for Tuesday (2/17), we strongly recommend that all permanent houses be removed from the lake as soon as possible.

We will be physically blocking the access at 5:00 PM tonight. Please plan to be off the lake before then if you intend to use our access. After 5:00 PM, the access will be closed to all car, truck, and permanent fish house traffic and will remain closed until conditions improve significantly.

Good luck

PS - We still have Small Shiners, Big Fatheads, large crappie minnows, and small crappie minnows.

In Towne Marina Lake Waconia Ice Report - 2/14/26

 

Our access is holding up for today! We are not allowing houses to go on the lake through our access anymore but you can use our access to pull your house off today 2/14 and tomorrow morning 2/15. 

Houses have been leaving the lake continuously all day. We absolutely recommend removing your house and not leaving it out past Sunday.  With rain and high winds forecasted for Tuesday and Wednesday people will have problems around houses. Water will be draining and swirling and then holes will open up especially around the remaining houses.  

We still plan on closing our access entirely to truck and permanent fish house removal at some point Sunday 2/15 at noon or as late as 5PM depending on conditions. We are hoping to be able to open our access to vehicle and Permanent fish house traffic next weekend if things heal up at our access. We will keep you updated. 

See you on the Ice!

In Towne Marina Lake Waconia Ice Report - 2/13/26

 IMPORTANT MESSAGE: With the warm weather and worsening access conditions we are no longer allowing permanent fish houses to be brought onto the lake through our access. This decision is being made to preserve the access for those who still need to remove fish houses that are already on the ice.

Our access will be closed (physically blocked) to all vehicle and permanent Fish house traffic sometime between Noon and 5PM on Sunday 2/15 (or sometime Saturday 2/14 if the access diminishes even faster) so plan on removing your house from the lake by then or earlier if you want to use our access. 

We will have an area for ATV, Side by Side and people walking to access the lake. 

If you insist on leaving your Permanent house out on the ice beyond this weekend, check on it daily. Look for water draining under or around your house. The rain and wind predicted for Tuesday and Wednesday will make conditions even worse.

We are hopeful that cooler temperatures later next week may allow the access to recover and reopen for normal use, but we will need to evaluate conditions at that time before deciding.

See you on the ice!

In Towne Marina Lake Waconia Ice Report - 2/11/26

As of today, 2/11/26, our access is holding up well. Having said that, with the upcoming warmth this week into next week, we are Not allowing Tandem wheel houses ON through our access until after conditions hopefully improve. People who have tandem houses on the ice currently will be allowed to take them off through here as long as our access condition allows. We will be giving updates as soon as any changes need to be made about what we are allowing on through our access. General ice thickness has not changed as we are still in the 20 to 23 inch range.

All the accesses including ours will take a beating well into next week. We expect many houses to leave the lake by the end of Sunday 2/15. If you’re on the lake this weekend and insist on leaving your house out there, check it daily (look for excessive water around it and drain holes enlarging) and remember we might need to close our access entirely at any given time this weekend or after. Things start to cool down a bit Wednesday 2/18 but wind will probably come with it. If the wind comes and water is around fish houses we could have an even more serious problem with draining and swirling.

We’ll see you on the ice!

In Towne Marina Lake Waconia Ice Report - 1/25/26

 Even Thicker! Avery went out today to see how much ice we have made since our last update on 1/22. He drilled about 20 holes between In Towne Marina and the Center reef area.  In that stretch he was finding 19.5 to 20 inches of thickness in the clear black ice where there was no snow. Where he checked in drifts of snow around fish house groups he measured 18 to 18.5 inches of ice. The area south of Coney island that we have been checking on has grown to 16 plus inches since our last check on 1/22 so that ice is catching up nicely. 

Getting around on the lake is easy right now as most areas are blown clean of snow when moving between spots. It's pretty easy to avoid the deeper drifts in groups of fish houses and areas where fish houses vacated leaving their old banks and drifts. 

We are allowing up to 28' tandem Wheel House now with up to 1 ton Pickups or smaller vehicles. Remember to always check ahead of yourself when heading off in your own direction. 

See you on the ice!