We headed out on the Polaris Ranger today (12/29/21) to get an ice update. We started at our access and checked some ice at and between the following areas- Waconia Bay, Under the Wires(between the island and peninsula), Center Reef, Pillsbury reef, Deep hole in Wagener’s Bay, Harm’s Point , south side of Coney Island, Cemetery Reef and then “The Walleye Hole” between the marinas. There is a fair amount of snow on most of the lake. You will see in the video attached to this post how the lake looks and how the ice thickness varies depending on how much snow is sitting on it. We found ice between 7 and 10 inches thick today. Most of the holes drilled today were in the 8 to 8 ½ inch range. 9 to 10” of ice is what we found on some of the small areas that have no snow.
It’s important to remember the springs that we marked exist and there is always a chance there are springs we haven’t found on the lake that will affect the ice. This year seems to be a very active spring year. We have marked some more small springs and bubblers in the Waconia Bay. We have noticed more gas pockets in the ice of Waconia Bay and Wagener’s Bay than most areas we have checked on the lake. If you want to err on the side of caution, waiting for thicker ice than we normally feel comfortable with isn’t a terrible idea.
We will be allowing single axle wheel houses pulled with atvs or side by sides through our access starting Friday 12/31/21. We will not be allowing cars or trucks through our access (even for shoreline parking) until ice improves more.
We want to preface this report that Lake Waconia’s ice is in very good condition for walking. After drilling hundreds of holes the past few days and checking ahead of themselves, Ben and Avery were comfortable enough to take the marina’s side-by-side Polaris Ranger on the ice to cover more ground. They spent a lot of today marking the springs on Lake Waconia that we had in our GPS from previous years. All of them were active enough to be a problem so we marked them with lath board and flagging tape. Most of the ice that we measured while heading to the springs was measuring between 5.5 and 7.5 inches. We have done our best to mark everything we are aware of, yet we can’t say we’ve marked all the springs on the lake.
Based on the ice we’ve measured the past few days, we are allowing 4-wheelers and side-by-sides through the marina access starting Friday. We are not allowing wheel houses or permanent fish houses through our access at this time. Remember to check ahead of yourself when heading out. Here are coordinates for many of the active springs that were marked today…
E. of Cemetery Reef: 44° 51.586’ N 93° 46.474’ W
W. of Anderson’s Reef: 44° 51.673’ N 93° 46.263’ W
S. of Reinke’s Reef: 44° 52.660’ N 93° 46.246’ W
N. of Red’s Reef: 44° 52.460’ N 93° 46.230’ W
Between Keg’s & NW Side of Island: 44° 51.987’ N 93° 47.241’ W
S. of North Reef: 44° 52.351’ N 93° 47.113’ W
SE Side of Keg’s Reef: 44° 52.136’ N 93° 46.939’ W
S. of Red’s Reef: 44° 52.044’ N 93° 46.346’ W
East of Island: 44° 51.651’ N 93° 46.567’ W
East of Island: 44° 51.639’ N 93° 46.567’ W
Between Wagener’s Bay Access and Rock Dock: 44° 51.608’ N 93° 48.159’ W
Between Keg’s & NW Side of Island: 44° 51.940’ N 93° 47.225’ W
N. of NE Side of Island: 44° 51.832’ N 93° 47.146’ W
Ben and Avery spent a few hours today on foot checking ice on Lake Waconia. They started their trek at the Wagener’s Bay access. Heading towards Pillsbury they found a spring on the north side of deep hole just south of the reef (that they made a video about in our earlier report) and marked it and headed on top of Pillsbury and walked over to Center Reef. Where they checked in Wagener’s Bay, Pillsbury Reef and Center reef they were finding mostly 5 to 7 inches of ice. Where there was snow they found 5 to 6 inches of ice. Where the snow blew clean they were finding mostly 7 inches of ice. As they headed south of Center towards “under the wires” (the area between the Island and the Peninsula) some of the snow drifts are deeper. They found as little as 4 ½ inches of ice in deep drifts, but 5 to 7 inches was still the norm. Ben and Avery then ran over to the west side of the island to check on some spring locations from years past and marked 2 of them over there. They walked along the south side of the island to check on some other past spring spots in front of the beach part of the island. They marked the 3 springs that they found there and moved on. Ice thickness along the south side of the island was mostly 5 1/2 inches as there is pretty consistent snow there. From the East end of the island they followed along Cemetery Reef and were again finding 5 to 7 inches of ice. They found less of the 7” in that area because there is more widespread snow. From Cemetery they headed back toward the Marina crossing over the “Walleye Hole” (the area between the 2 marinas). Snow and ice thicknesses were similar to Cemetery Reef area.
Watch our video on our earlier post that shows an active spring they found around 20 feet of water in Wagener’s bay south of Pillsbury Reef. We want to stress that while thicknesses are very good right now, it’s still important to pay attention to your surroundings and avoid areas that look abnormal like our video shows. The springs on Lake Waconia are almost always in the same areas each year. However, there are many years they are dormant or don’t affect the ice. This is one of those years where the springs seem to be more active and could be problematic if you don’t check where you’re going. We mark anything we find with lath board and flagging tape, but it’s impossible to mark everything.
This is a quick on the fly ice update. Avery and I are currently out on Lake Waconia and thought we'd post this video quick. From what we are seeing we have a lot of good usable ice out here. Just use common sense caution as usual during early ice periods. Thanks and be safe!
We headed over to the Wagener's Bay access today with intentions to walk out to Pillsbury reef and Center reef to do an ice check. Out in front of the access many of you might be aware of some of the small springs that sometimes are present. Pretty early in our walk Avery noticed one of the active springs. Ben doubled back to look for more where we thought they had been in the past and partially broke through the ice trying to mark one of them. Instead of heading out further on the lake we are going to take some time trying to mark whatever other springs we can find in the Wagener's Bay area.
Please remember this is still early ice and we always recommend checking ahead of yourself. This year could end up being a more active spring year in general because of the low water of Lake Waconia. Again make sure to pay extra attention.
Ben and Avery took the marina’s first ice walk on Lake Waconia today, 12/18/21. They measured ice in the range of 3 to 4.25 inches from the marina out to Waconia Bay and between the marinas in the area we call the walleye hole. A lot of the ice was in the 4 inch range. However, where it was 3 inches, the ice had air pockets, which were scattered throughout the bay. When chiseling and you poked through those spots it would bubble for a couple seconds.
Last night we got about 1 to 1.5 inches of snow, so there is now a little bit of an insulation layer on the surface which will somewhat slow down ice growth. However, despite that and the scattered air pockets, the ice is in great shape. Thanks to the warm up earlier in the week, all the previous snow had melted which once it got cold again allowed the ice to freeze clear. We expect continued ice growth for the foreseeable future as temperatures are predicted to remain well below freezing!
We are now open for the season starting today from Noon to 5 pm. We will continue with those hours for the short term as we wait for the ice to thicken. We will not be renting fish houses until we get more ice, but if you’d like to reserve into the future, please call (952) 442-2096 for more info and to book.
Come do your last minute Christmas shopping! We’ve got plenty of good ice fishing items to stuff a stocking. If you’re not sure what to get, we have gift certificates for any amount you’d like.
What a wild ride! We are happy to report that yesterday's extreme warm up and rain storm melted off all the snow that was on Lake Waconia! We were not very happy last week when all that snow piled onto Waconia’s freshly frozen surface. With the snow gone and some decent cold weather settling in, we are back on track to building ice!
We are also excited to report that we will be opening for the season this Saturday, December 18th! Our business hours will be limited to Noon to 5pm while we wait for the ice to thicken. We checked our immediate frontage today and found just over 2” of ice. We will do an ice check in general areas of Waconia Bay and the Walleye hole (area between the marinas) Saturday morning for some up to date numbers. We will post our thickness results on our website and Facebook by the time we open on Saturday.
