Hi all,
Wabigoon Lake froze over night a week ago now, we had no snow and two nights of -20C right after the initial lock up and it made 4” of clear, black ice in those three days. I’ve been going down to check every evening since but have only drilled a hole once with the intention of fishing but never did. My son has been very keen to skate every chance he can get, and anytime spent with him is better than the slim possibility of a dinky sauger…. Lol…anyway, fishing kind of sucks right off our shore from mid June and is even worse until practically ice out. Because the lake went in one go, the ice is perfect for skating and with minimal snow and no cracks(yet), clearing an Olympic size rink area is easy and no flooding required(yet…lol). There were sleds out on the lake last night, dumb if you ask me, no ice is safe ice, especially when the margin for error is so big this early on. Anyway, it has also been fun to check ice thickness with my son and educate him on ice safety and hear him explaining back to me why we approach it the way we do, the safety considerations to think about before walking out and his great knowledge of how weather conditions before and after ice formation fit into those safety considerations, and just as important having a whole lot of fun doing it and not hearing about Minecraft for a whole hour!!!!!!