Things have firmed up nicely on the ice the past 2 days. Over the weekend it went from wet and slushy to crisp and solid, increasing ice thicknesses everywhere! Many anglers have been fishing in Wagener’s Bay and a lesser extent in Waconia Bay as the ice is thicker in those areas. Those locations are now in the 13 to 17 inch range. To get a better feel for areas many have stayed away from due to lesser ice, we drilled a number of holes today, 1/18/21. Starting from Harm’s Point, we found 7 to 9 inches of ice extending along the transition of older ice and newer ice to Pillsbury Reef. The Center Reef area ranges from 7.5 to 10 inches of ice in the areas we checked. From the “hump” by the marina to Cemetery Reef, we found 8.5 to 10 inches with some 12” mixed in. Behind the island towards Kegs Reef we were finding 8–10 inches of ice. There is a pressure ridge that starts on the east side of Center reef, runs over the North side of Keg’s Reef and heads towards Red’s Reef. The pressure ridge is definitely crossable by wheeler in areas, but you might not want to pull a wheel house over it.
We know many of you have been waiting for word on when we intend to open our access for driving cars and trucks. If overnight temps get as cold as predicted Monday night and Tuesday night, and we don’t get a lengthy warm-up in the forecast past Thursday, we hope to open the access up by Friday or Saturday. It all depends on ice growth with the varying temps this week. Until then, we continue to urge caution and patience with anything heavy in the locations described above that we hope thicken up soon. We will do another ice update later in the week and post any news on when we plan to open our access to cars and trucks.
We’ll see you on the ice!
