In Towne Marina Lake Waconia Ice Report - 1/18/23

We are temporarily not allowing permanent fish houses through our access. Currently, the access will remain open for snowmobiles, ATVs, side-by-sides, cars and trucks so you can get to your fish house or go portable fishing. Please drive slowly to keep the road in as good of shape as possible. Some areas of the road have less water, but expect several inches of water in stretches of the road past Waconia Bay, especially on the way to Pillsbury and into Wagener’s Bay. We have lath board and flagging tape marking some of the holes that have popped open in the road and are bleeding water because of all of the weight on the ice. Those areas are why we have limited what we are allowing through our access, and may close the access all together if things get worse. We need a good hard freeze to heal up these areas. We do not expect it to happen quickly. It’ll probably take a few nights of low teens to single digit temps for things to improve.

We will continue to update when we know more.

In Towne Marina Lake Waconia Ice Report - 1/16/23

Captain Obvious here…It’s a wet one out on the ice. With the mild temps and rain today, Lake Waconia is probably the wettest it’s been all winter. We aren’t putting this report out to panic anyone. As of this writing, Monday, 1/16/23 at 2 pm, the ice is holding up reasonably well considering the traffic on the lake and weight of the snow, slush and water. However, if you are driving on the lake roads, expect to see stretches of 3 to 5 inches of water on the ice. We ask everyone to drive at slower speeds to help keep the roads in good shape. Depending on how things progress overnight and into tomorrow we may have to consider closing our access to allow it to freeze up properly once the cold does come.

At this point, we are keeping our rental houses on the lake as they are on higher ice, blocked up well and always check on them. If you’ve got a fish house on the lake and you’re not currently fishing in it, we suggest checking on it in the next 48 hours. We don’t blame you if you decide to pull it off the lake though as things certainly aren’t ideal. Please don’t bring it to shore and leave it in front of our marina. Take it with you. If leaving your fish house on your fishing spot, we also HIGHLY suggest blocking it up with 4x4s to keep from having a potential regrettable situation when freezing temps come back later Wednesday.

We will continue to monitor conditions and report any major changes we know about. We appreciate everyone’s patience with everything this winter!

In Towne Marina Lake Waconia Ice Report - 1/12/23 - Access will be open Friday 1/13 for vehicles and up to single-axle houses.

Hey everyone! Good news! Today, 1/12/23 Ben and Jim have been on the ice plowing from the end of our snow blown path in Waconia Bay to Pillsbury Reef. They plowed with our Blue Chevy Diesel with v-plow and Red F-250 with Boss plow. They marked a path they could open up that still is bumpy and slushy in areas, but doable to get to Pillsbury. From this road you can get the existing network of trails people have been using to the Center Reef area. Of course, with the extreme amount of snow the banks on the sides of the road are exceedingly high. Getting off the road will not be easy and will require work if you plan to get out there with a fish house.

What does that mean? It means we are opening up our access tomorrow (Friday 1/13/23) to those who wish to drive vehicles with single-axle wheel houses out on the lake. Thickness on the snow blown road to Waconia Bay is between 15 to 17 inches as it has been able to freeze thicker since we’ve been keeping it clear of snow for a while. Thickness on the road beyond Waconia Bay to Pillsbury Reef will vary just like the ice everywhere on the lake in the range of 11 to 15 inches. If you choose to bring a fish house out, be prepared with equipment to shovel yourself out or have a buddy that has what you need to clear a spot for your house. We will not be individually clearing spots for fish houses to go off road at this time. Keep in mind, if you are in an area there isn’t slush under the snow, there likely will be once you drill a hole. Bring 4x4s to block up your house as it will save you in the long run.

Life isn’t easy on the lake this ice fishing season, but we are doing what we can to get people out from our access as safely as possible. As always, we can never guarantee ice as it is never 100% safe. We are a pay access, so fees for regular Mondays through Thursdays are $3 and on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and Holidays are $5 to drive a car, truck, ATV, side-by-side or snowmobile through us. If you choose to park and walk out from our marina, that is $2 everyday per person 16 years and older. If you’d like to purchase a winter season pass, that is $35.

In Towne Marina Lake Waconia Ice Report - 1/6/23 - Access open for limited use

Happy Friday! Our access is open for limited use. We spent yesterday moving snow and clearing a path with the subcompact tractor snowblower from the marina out to Waconia Bay. We are still ONLY allowing snowmobiles, ATVs and side-by-sides though our access. NO cars and trucks. The question many will have is “Can I bring my wheelhouse out through your access?”. We are currently not allowing wheelhouses through us this weekend until we clear more snow. There aren’t places to set your house other than the path and we don’t want that. Because we are not using our plow truck out on the main lake, we do not have anything going past Waconia Bay at this time. There continues to be activity over in Wagener’s Bay coming from that access, with some choosing to drive trucks. We still advise against driving trucks on the lake due to the extreme snow load, overall quality and strength of the ice at this time.

If you plan on coming out with an ATV or side-by-side, chains are a must. Even capable machines are having trouble due to the depth of the snow and slush in many areas. Be prepared with a shovel as you’ll likely need it. If you plan to come through our access to fish with a portable, please do us a favor and drill all of your holes well away from the path to keep it from flooding. That common courtesy applies anytime around roads and other fish houses, but especially this year with the immense weight of the snow.

If you have questions, give us a call at (952) 442-2096 and we’ll do our best to answer them.

Keep in mind we still have 3 of our 5 fish houses available to rent (#2 & #3 the 8x16’ 8-person Ice Castles and #5 the 7x14’ 6-person house). They are within walking distance from the marina in Waconia Bay. Check out rates at intownemarina.com

Have a great weekend!

Access conditions

 Just a heads up- Our access will be closed to all usage including foot traffic for a time while we attempt to make it useable. We will report back asap when we can. Thank you for your patience. 

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

Happy New Year! We hope everyone had a safe and happy weekend! Before we talk about ice thickness, let's talk about the potential weather headed our way. We have all heard that some pretty significant snow could impact us Monday night and well into Tuesday. If you currently have a permanent house on Lake Waconia you might want to keep an eye on things. There is already more liquid slush on the ice now than before the weekend. That will only get worse with the predicted snow adding even more weight to the ice. At minimum, we recommend blocking your house higher so it doesn’t freeze in.

In the video we posted, you'll notice some cars or trucks and tandem fish houses on the ice. Those vehicles used the small city access in Wagener's Bay. At this time, we are still only allowing ATV, Side-by-Side and single-axle fish houses through our access. We are still not recommending driving as the ice includes frozen slush on top and is not as strong because of that. Also, the weight of the existing snow diminishes the strength of the ice when under stress of the extra load as evidenced by the flooding in many areas across the lake. 

As for ice thickness, not much has changed since our last report. Some of the areas we reported to be as little as 9 inches are now about 10 inches. We drilled 60 to 70 holes in locations most people are frequenting such as Waconia Bay, Center Reef, Pillsbury Reef and Wagener’s Bay. Most of the holes we drilled were between 11 to 12.5 inches. The most we found was 13.75 inches in a well-traveled area. All of the thicknesses reported include frozen slush ice on top. 

We will update mid-to-late week with lake ice conditions after the winter storm passes. In the meantime, pay attention to you or your buddy’s fish house in the coming days. Good luck and we’ll see you on the ice!

In Towne Marina Lake Waconia Ice Report - 12/28/22 - Bait Shop Opens and Fish House Rentals AVAILABLE Starting 12/29

We look forward to seeing you when we open for the season tomorrow morning at 9 am! We were on the ice today snow blowing in Waconia Bay widening and lengthening our path that we started yesterday, so it should make things easier to get to your spot. There are still areas with scattered heavy drifts, but the warmer weather today settled some of the snow a bit. If setting up a portable or wheelhouse, please set up off the path. As we mentioned in our last report, you'll want chains on your ATV if you plan to haul anything with it. We will be allowing snowmobiles and ATVs with Single-Axle Wheelhouses through our access. It will be bumpy and wet right away at the access as we are dealing with some ice heaving, but the access is still in good shape.

We placed 3 of our 5 rental houses on the ice today! If you are looking to rent, we have our 2 Ice Castle fish houses (#2 & #3) and one of our 7x14 fish houses (#5) available starting tomorrow afternoon. Call (952) 442-2096 to reserve your date to get on the ice!

Here's a list of our rental rates and policies... https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UxHHzr7rX6HPs-n7OV1YW_Eilp940Wi5/view?usp=sharing

We'll see you on the ice!