Opening at 11 am today due to weather 2/27/23

 Due to the freezing rain we will be opening the bait shop today Monday, 2/27 at 11 am.

In Towne Marina Lake Waconia Ice & Access Update - 2/24/23 - Access is open!

Our access is open again and a road is plowed from the marina to Center Reef and towards Pillsbury Reef (where we had it plowed before, but narrower). Getting off the road through the banks will be the most difficult part. Ben has plowed some off-shoots to help with that, but they are limited. Keep in mind, there are frozen snow banks from before that you’ll have to navigate through all over where roads and paths were in the past, so expect some speed bumps. Once you get off the road, the snow is soft and therefore easy enough to drive through with a capable 4WD or AWD vehicle. Be prepared with the necessary items if you get stuck. Bring a shovel, tow strap, sand (yes, it is still very slippery under the snow). If you’re bringing a permanent fish house out to the lake, it would be a good idea to check things out with just your truck first. Keep in mind we are a pay access, and our fees are for access use only. We are not a tow service.

We are done renting fish houses for the 2022/23 season. We appreciate all of you that rented with us!

In Towne Marina Lake Waconia - 2/21/23 - Shop is closed through Thursday 2/23/23 due to Winter Storm...

We are closing the bait shop at 3 pm today (2/21/23) and will remain closed on Wednesday 2/22/23 and Thursday 2/23/23. Friday 2/24/23 will likely be a later opening time and we'll update that as we see what this winter storm brings. The access will remain open at this time, but we will NOT be plowing our parking lot, or on the lake until after the storm is done (probably some time Friday). Stay safe!

In Towne Marina Lake Waconia Important Message - 2/20/23

FYI, with this week’s forecast continuing to show a large amount of snowfall with heavy, gusty winds, we have decided to pull our rental fish houses off the lake starting today, and possibly for the season depending on what happens with the lake after this winter storm.

For those of you with permanent fish houses on the lake yet, we think it’s a good idea to strongly consider removing them from the lake. We will not be continuing to plow a lake road while the storm is going on. Once the storm is over, we will make an attempt to plow roads to the areas we have plowed this season, but there is a high likelihood the road will not be in the same place it currently exists. With several days of snow and pounding wind, the current road will likely continually fill in and catch snow in the banks of the road making it so we need to start from scratch. We’d hate to see someone leave their house on the lake thinking that since they are near the road, we will plow the exact same path.

There aren’t many predicted snow events like this one, so we are taking the forecasts pretty seriously.

We will be open with normal hours tomorrow, and will address our store hours for the rest of the week by the end of day Tuesday 2/21/23.

Snow and wind coming?! Wednesday 2/22 - Thursday 2/23

 Snow and wind coming?! Wednesday 2/22 - Thursday 2/23 are predicted to bring a pretty big blast of snow and wind. We will be plowing the Lake road again after the wind settles down (most likely Friday morning 2/24). We will plow where we did earlier in the season. The screenshot on this post (yellow marks) shows where the road was and will most likely be again on Friday 2/24. 

Folks in permanent houses off on their own might want to consider the difficulty the weather might bring if the forecast is anything like they are predicting.

Thanks and see you on the ice

In Towne Marina Lake Waconia Access opens FRIDAY 2/17/23!

 Things are firming up nice on Lake Waconia. Our access opens Friday! We will be opening our access for vehicles and wheelhouses including Diesel Trucks and Tandems at 9 am tomorrow  2/17/23. Some layered ice is still in random areas today where the water was deeper during the rain. After tonight's cold the ice should be in very good shape at our landing and on the Lake. Slippery! Take it easy driving around houses and on foot, it is quite slippery in most areas on Lake Waconia after it re-froze.  There is no banking snow left on the lake with the exception of old hard road banks so be prepared for that. 

For those wanting to walk out or ATV today 2/16 we are allowing that.

Thanks and see you soon!

In Towne Marina Lake Waconia Ice & Access Update #2 - 2/15/23 - Access remains closed today (2/15/23) and likely tomorrow (2/16/23)

Ben and Avery are back after checking on lake conditions this morning. Lake Waconia has layered ice again (hopefully only for a day or 2), with the top layer of ice currently about ½ inch. Most of the lake had an inch to several inches of standing water on it from yesterday’s rain that is now trying to freeze. While they were apprehensive to break up any of the layered ice, they needed to get a sense if things were improving or getting worse around fish houses. Where they checked in Waconia Bay and parts of Center Reef area (about 25 houses), they did not notice any worrisome draining like we’ve talked about in previous posts.

Our access remains closed to all usage today (2/15/23) and likely tomorrow (2/16/23). The recent extreme weather and lake traffic during that stretch on and off the access gave it a beating. The main lake will probably heal quicker than our access. With the next couple of nights predicted to be very cold, we are hopeful things will be improved enough to open the access for Friday morning. We thank you for your patience while we let that happen.

In Towne Marina Lake Waconia Ice and Access Quick Update - 2/15/23 - Access remains closed temporarily and ice conditions update coming soon

Good morning. Ben and Avery are on the ice with 4 wheelers to check our rental houses and assess conditions around other groups of houses. Things are starting to freeze up with the cold wind, but we are checking to see if there is any obvious swirling in open holes that we can see. We will report what we find by late morning or early afternoon.

Our access took a tremendous beating yesterday and continues to have shoreline runoff filtering onto it, so we will be keeping it closed today and potentially tomorrow until it heals up so we can hopefully open it up Friday. Thanks for your patience while wait for things to improve.

In Towne Marina Lake Access Update #2 - Access will be closing at 10 pm tonight for an undetermined amount of time

Update: We will be leaving our access open until 10 pm tonight to give people more time to check on their fish houses. Many have chosen to move their fish house off it's holes or off the lake. Look at our previous posts or the shared video from Travis Frank explaining why. The access will be blocked after 10 pm for an undetermined amount of time.

In Towne Marina Lake Access update! 2/14/23

Because of the rain our access will be closed and blocked when we close tonight Tuesday 2/14 at 5pm. We hope to open the access for folks to check on houses starting in the Late morning on Wednesday 2/14. In the meantime we are asking folks to not bring houses on to our access or drive on at all unless necessary (and slowly, please) as traffic is rough on the access and road ice right now while everything is so wet and soft. There is a good chance we will be keeping our access closed and blocked during non business hours until Friday morning so things can begin to heal overnight when it is cold. Please plan accordingly during this weird weather spell.

We will be checking on lake ice conditions and posting updates if necessary.

Thanks,

The Mase Family

In Towne Marina Lake Waconia Ice Report - 2/12/23 - Pay attention to the early week weather!

Happy Super Bowl Sunday! Things on Lake Waconia are in great shape currently, but we are writing to advise anglers with permanent fish houses that will be left on Lake Waconia past this weekend to pay attention to the weather early in the week. The forecast has shown temps staying near or above freezing starting Monday, with rain up to ½ inch on Tuesday. Then Wednesday there’s potential for higher winds with some snow before it gets cold again.

If the forecast holds true and we get ½ inch of rain or more, there likely will be standing water on the lake roads and around many fish houses. In years past when we’ve had the combination of standing water, temps above freezing for extended periods and high winds, the water on the ice will want to drain into any open hole it can find. Our main concern is how much rain will we get and how long will the water remain liquid? Where permanent houses have sat for a while in warm weather the ice sometimes sags enough to make its ice the low spot. Combining that standing water with the wind and a low spot in the ice you can get a swirling effect like a flushing toilet constantly draining. Over time, the swirling will open holes bigger and potentially cause a big enough hole under the fish house to put it in danger of going through the ice (it takes a lot for this to happen).

We are not trying to alarm people, but feel it’s important to pay attention to history. Seasoned vets will remember we’ve cried wolf about this several times but have seen this be a big problem a couple of times in our 40+ years of business, in 1986 and 2003 (Those 2 years MANY houses went through the ice). Both of those times temperatures were well above 40 degrees with extreme wind and it didn’t get cold quick enough after. Thankfully it looks like temps are going to get down to single digits Wednesday night.

So, what is a good plan of action if you’re not able to keep any eye on your fish house or have a buddy check on it and you plan to leave it on the lake? If you want to be proactive you could move it off your open holes to a fresh piece of ice on “higher ground” and blocking it up (especially if your house is heavy and it has been on its spot for a long time).

Please do not bring you fish house to the public accesses or our frontage which would make things difficult for snow plowing and access usage as it gets cold after the rain.

To reiterate, this message is just to let everyone know that it’s a good idea to pay attention to things early in the week. We don’t want people to panic. We will be monitoring things and update when we know more.

In Towne Marina Lake Waconia Ice Report - 2/1/23

The ice is in great shape on Lake Waconia after a week of very cold temps! The water/slush layer we’ve been dealing with healed nicely! We are finding between 16 and 23 inches of ice including frozen slush ice now! Getting around off road has been easy with 4-wheel drive where we have gone. The Banks from the roads are very hard, so look for an off chute to get past them. Areas where people were frequenting earlier in the season, especially during the warmer weather, remain bumpy and rutted but improved. With our Main Roads in great shape and off-road being so good, we are now allowing tandem houses through our access. As always check ahead of yourself when traveling off on your own and keep the locations of the springs in mind!

Thanks, and we will see you on the ice!