Early Ice This Year! - Thu Nov 29 2018 03:33 AM
Living on the lake shore has its benefits, and for me, ice fishing is one of them! This year the lake in front of my house froze completely over on the 13th of November. People actually start walking out onto the ice when the thickness is 4 inches or better. By the time there is six inches, you will see light mechanical traffic with snowmobiles and 4 wheelers. They say 8 inches is enough to support a vehicle but not for me! LOL I don't venture out until there is 11 to 12 inches of good solid ice. Well, yesterday that was reached and its the earliest that I can ever remember being able to venture out onto the ice.
I fish in a vehicle called a Sno-Bear for a lot of different reasons. My age is the number one factor, since I am not able to physically handle a lot of the physical demands of setting up a portable shelter and taking it down every day. The Sno-Bear allows me the flexibility of fishing in all kinds of inclement weather and doing it in 65 degree comfort. It also allows for travel to just about any part of a frozen lake that you might want to venture on to. It has made ice fishing so comfortable, that it has become my chosen activity for the 5 months of winter that we normally experience here in North Dakota.
Yesterday the ice became thick enough in front of my house to safely venture out there and my fishing buddy and I spent a couple of hours making sure everything worked properly so we wouldn't encounter any problems as we moved from lake to lake. Everything checked out perfectly and today we ventured about 25 miles to the northwest for some ice time on a shallow lake that had frozen over a bit earlier. There was a storm front moving thru and the falling barometer must have affected the fish, because it was really slow all day long. We did manage to pluck 5 nice walleyes from the frozen depths, so it was still an enjoyable day!
Just thought I'd give some of the rest of you a small glimpse of what some of the more northern members do to pass the long winter! Gas & Oil gets the second chair this time of year! LOL
I fish in a vehicle called a Sno-Bear for a lot of different reasons. My age is the number one factor, since I am not able to physically handle a lot of the physical demands of setting up a portable shelter and taking it down every day. The Sno-Bear allows me the flexibility of fishing in all kinds of inclement weather and doing it in 65 degree comfort. It also allows for travel to just about any part of a frozen lake that you might want to venture on to. It has made ice fishing so comfortable, that it has become my chosen activity for the 5 months of winter that we normally experience here in North Dakota.
Yesterday the ice became thick enough in front of my house to safely venture out there and my fishing buddy and I spent a couple of hours making sure everything worked properly so we wouldn't encounter any problems as we moved from lake to lake. Everything checked out perfectly and today we ventured about 25 miles to the northwest for some ice time on a shallow lake that had frozen over a bit earlier. There was a storm front moving thru and the falling barometer must have affected the fish, because it was really slow all day long. We did manage to pluck 5 nice walleyes from the frozen depths, so it was still an enjoyable day!
Just thought I'd give some of the rest of you a small glimpse of what some of the more northern members do to pass the long winter! Gas & Oil gets the second chair this time of year! LOL
Description: Loading the Sno-Bear for transport
Description: On the ice in front of my house
Description: Todays first Walleye
Description: The days total catch