Fishermen Take Note
 

If you plan on fishing this weekend it would be wise not to leave whatever dock your at until there is light. While there is a lot of open water, there are a lot of ice flows and some of the ice is thick. If you hit it at speed you will do damage.

I went out this morning and left the dock at 6:15. There was plenty of light at that time to see but I did have to make some wide sweeping turns to avoid large ice flows.

Just want to make you aware...

Good luck and be safe!

Dan

Thanks Dan. I left the dock about the same time as you but didn't have to get on plane to put my gear out. There was a LOT. More ice around in the morning and much had broken and moved by afternoon. I drove a big circle around Welch at the south end of the circle to Bear at the north end and could make the whole circle but Cattle Landing was pretty choked with thick ice fields. Most ice seemed to be blowing south. There were also thick chunks of ice near black cat.

Ice was impassable west and north of Pine and 3 mile. Lots of open water but lots of debris!

Ice Sheets
 

I heard and saw a boat hit the ice line HARD this morning near the witches. It was completely dark out and I was watching his nav lights go flying by near max legal speed..then heard loud crunching noise and the boat came to a stop. I think it was a bass boat but not 100% positive.

I was supposed to go fishing this morning with a friend but when it got light out I realized I was completely iced in on Welch! Ice was too thick to attempt breaking through. Ice went all the way to the Witches!

Dan

Ice
 

Hi Dan
It is iced up down here on Rattlesnake as well. I have not put the big boat in yet just the Whaler so no fishing yet.... How is the fishing so far?

I'm not sure about the Rattlesnake area and the ice that's out there is ice that is breaking up and moving from the western bays and coves such as Meredith, the Weirs, center Harbor, etc, etc. I can almost leave the island now as the large ice sheet that was blocking me in has started moving past the island as well as melting away from the rising sun.

Fishing was OK yesterday, I only caught three but all three were of respectable size and health. Heard from others at the dock that it was slow for them...

Dan

There was occasional icebergs moving through yesterday but for the most part we were ice free. I went around the entire island by boat without running into any ice. This morning there is a skim of ice as far as I can see. It is thin because my neighbor came out slowly and was able to push through. As you say once the sun is on this it will disappear. Hopefully not to be seen again this year!
Open the house this weekend, fish next weekend!
Thanks for the update, Good Fishing!!

To that point, even if the ice is officially out...

Last weekend there was a LOT of debris in the water, branches, logs, pieces of dock and other crap. Much of this is to be expected this early in the season. Not something you want to find at a high rate of speed.

Also I have already noticed some markers are missing or way off their intended position. Don't assume they are correct until the MP has had a chance to get out there and fix things up. Missing markers sometimes can take time to be replaced. A good sign the MP has been through is when the flashers start to appear which usually are in place by mid may.

Fished for a couple of hours on Saturday and got nothing... not much to see on the finder. Water temp 39 degrees.