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.
