New Roads and Lake Waconia Ice Update 1/28/22

 New Roads and Lake Waconia Ice Update 1/28/22

We spent part of Thursday plowing some new lake roads. We have added a road past the Walleye hump and out to Cemetery Reef. Ice on that road measured from 14 to 18 inches with 16 inches being a common thickness.

Out near Center Reef where the main road forks we extended the east road out to North Reef. As you approach North Reef on the south side of the road you will see a spring marked with lath and flagging tape. The spring is well off the path,  just keep a lookout for it if off roading. Ice measured 14 to 17 inches on that newer stretch of road.

Off the roads in common snow areas the ice is usually between 14 and 18 inches thick. In the deepest drifts 13 inches of ice is rare but can be found- thicker ice will be just outside the drift. Almost 2 feet of ice can be found where there is no or very limited snow. Ice on the established main road measured between 19 and 22 inches yesterday where we checked.

We are allowing up to 1 ton trucks with up to 26’ Tandem wheel houses. If venturing out on your own always check ahead of yourself especially with the big rigs.

See you on the ice

In Towne Marina Lake Waconia Ice and Spring Update 1/20/22

 The cold weather is back and it’s doing its job. Avery headed out this morning to get us all another ice thickness update. Avery checked our plowed frontage and the main lake road that heads out to Center Reef and then Wagener’s Bay. In his checking on the road he found between 16 and 19 inches of ice. When he got off the road he would look for deep snow to find our current reported minimums.  Today in a very deep drift near “Under the Wires” (between the island and the peninsula) he found a very small area of 11.5 inches of ice. Immediately surrounding that drift in common snow he found 14 inches of ice. In areas that had minimal drifting and just common undisturbed  snow around Pilsbury and Center reef he was finding 13 to 15 inches of ice. Spots he checked that had very little to no snow around Pillsbury and Center Reef had 15 to 20 inches of ice.

If you are leaving the marina on our main road  and take a right at the large fork as you approach Center Reef and continue past most of the group on that reef you will notice a path that people have been following to the South side of Keg’s Reef. Avery did some ice checking along that path and out on Kegs.  On the packed area of the trail he was finding 16 to 17 inches of ice. There is not a lot of drifting or spots that blew clean on that part of the lake. In the common snow areas found around Kegs Avery was measuring 13 to 15 inches of ice. 12” was the least ice he found out there and that was one small spot.

More Springs to report. A couple days ago an angler found and reported 2 smaller but notable springs North and West of the deep hole in Wagener’s Bay. The coordinates for these springs are 44° 52.002’ N     93° 48.525’ W  These springs are marked with smaller sticks and flagging tape. 

Starting Friday 1/21/22  we will now start letting some Tandem axle Houses on our access. 24’ houses and up to 26’ lighter weight houses will be allowed. Please no huge rigs. If you are in a one ton diesel please don’t push it and show up with a 26’ or bigger house.

See you on the ice

In Towne Marina Lake Waconia Ice Report and Spring Update - 1/17/2022

 Spring Update (West side of the Deep Hole in Wagener’s Bay)! Earlier this morning an angler put his truck tire in a pretty significant spring that was not marked at the time. He was in four wheel drive and his momentum got him out fine. He called us after he marked it with a 2x6. Later in the morning we went out to mark it better with lath board and flagging tape. Before today this spring was unknown to us. Please do what this gentleman did and mark spots like this if you find them! Certainly feel free to share the info with us so we can get the word out!

The coordinates of the spring are-      44° 51.788 N       93° 48.396 W

We drilled several holes today to get a current ice thickness update. The least ice We could find today in a deep snow drift was 12 inches. Many of the holes We drilled in the deep snow were around 13 to 14 inches of ice. We measured thickness on our road in several areas today too. Ice on the Main plowed road measured between 14 and 18 inches, with 15 to 16 inches being common . In the Center reef area on a side road we measured as little as 13 inches, but most of the ice on that road was 14 to 16 inches. The thickest spot I found today was on a spot near Harm’s point that had no snow and the Ice measured 19.5 inches!

Overall things are coming along very nicely in the Ice department on Waconia. We will be opening our access to tandem axle houses sometime later this week. Even as we gain ice thickness remember to check ahead of yourself when venturing off the beaten paths.

ICE & DICE IS BACK! Bring your Lake Waconia catch into the bait shop to qualify for a chance to win a prize and share your story! Checkout InTowneMarina.com for more info.

Remember we have ALL 5 of our Fish House Rentals available! Our 8 hole Ice Castles have TVs if you want to watch the Big Game! We drill the holes, the heat is on and ready for you to fish! They are currently located around 10 to 13 feet of water for good daytime sunfish and evening crappies! If you’d like to make a reservation, please call (952) 442-2096.

We’ll see you on the ice.

In Towne Marina Lake Waconia Ice Report - 1/13/2022 - Access is OPEN for use to cars and trucks with single-axle houses

We have opened our access to cars and trucks up to 1-ton that can haul up to a single-axle fish house (commercial use of our access is not allowed). Sorry, no tandem or larger fish-houses allowed behind cars or trucks this weekend. We will announce later when will allow those. We will be monitoring the snow situation for Friday and will begin to plow a road from our access once the snow ends and the wind allows for us to plow safely.

We now have ALL 5 of our Fish House Rentals available! 2 of them are our Ice Castles that are 8 holers and two are 6-hole houses and one is a 5-hole house. We drill the holes, the heat is on and ready for you too fish! They are currently located around 10 to 13 feet of water for good daytime sunfish and evening crappies! If you’d like to make a reservation, please call (952) 442-2096.

We’ll see you on the ice.

In Towne Marina Lake Waconia Ice Report - 1/10/22 - Access open for cars and 1/2 ton trucks starting Tuesday 1/11/22

Ice Update - Today 1/10/22 we were finding between 10” and 16” of ice. I was concentrating on seeing how much ice we gained in the deeper snow drifts. Common ice in the deeper drifts is 11 inches. The least I found today was 10 inches of ice. I am having to work pretty hard to find 10 inches of ice and those spots are shrinking! Surrounding ice near those drifted areas was 11 to 16 inches today.

On Tuesday 1/11/22 We are opening our access to driving! We will be allowing cars and up to ½ ton trucks through our access. We will be allowing single axle wheel houses behind trucks LATER in the week. We currently have a road that ends north of Waconia Bay (12” to 13” of ice on that plowed road). We will continue that road out towards Center Reef and Pillsbury Reef tomorrow ( the ice where that road will be was between 10.5 and 16” where I checked today).

As always, we can never guarantee ice. If you use our access it is drive at your own risk. We do our best to report thicknesses to you but can’t cover it all, so we always advise you to do your own ice checking before going out, especially with a truck and fish house.

Our access rate if driving vehicles, ATV’s or Snowmobiles is $5 per day on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and Holidays and $3 per day Monday through Thursday. If parking and walking out through our access, it is $2 every day.

Our Fish House Rental season is underway! We’ve got 3 rentals on the ice. 2 of them are our Ice Castles that are 8 holers and one is our 6-hole houses. We drill the holes, the heat is on and ready for you too fish! They are currently located around 10 feet of water for good daytime sunfish and evening crappies! If you’d like to make a reservation, please call (952) 442-2096.

We will see you on the ice!

In Towne Marina Lake Waconia Ice Report - 1/7/2022 - Access remains CLOSED for cars and trucks at this time

Mother Nature has done her part bringing bitter cold to help ice growth on Lake Waconia. However, we were still surprised how the existing snow on most of the lake has kept things from progressing how we had hoped and getting us the numbers we want where we checked (Waconia Bay, “under the wires” between the island and peninsula, Center & Pillsbury Reefs and Wagener’s Bay). The thinnest ice we were finding under heavy drifts was 9.25 inches, with 10 inches being common. Overall, much of the ice where we have checked in common snow thicknesses is between 10.5 to 12 inches of ice. You can find 13 to 16 inches of ice in scattered locations where there is no snow. Unfortunately we are finding enough of the 9.5 to 10 inch ice that we are NOT comfortable opening up our access to cars or trucks at this time.

We want nothing more than to open our access for cars and trucks, but need to let the ice get a little thicker before we do so. In order for some of that to happen, you may see us plowing our frontage, but that doesn’t mean our access is ready for continuous traffic. We’ll update as soon as we know more. As for now, we are still allowing 4-wheelers and side-by-sides with single-axle fish houses to be pulled with those machines.

We will be open this weekend from 8 am to 5 pm and 9 am to 5 pm during the week.

We'll see you on the ice!

In Towne Marina Lake Waconia Ice Report 1/3/22

 Monday January 3rd, 2022

Here is another quick ice update video.

We are still NOT allowing Cars and Trucks on our access yet. ATVs and side by sides are allowed, along with single axle wheel houses.

In Towne Marina Lake Waconia Ice Report 1/1/22

 Here is a quick video ice report for the start of 2022.  

We are NOT allowing Cars and Trucks on our access yet. ATVs and side by sides are allowed, along with single axle wheel houses.

Happy New Year!