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Well Connie the recent reports from the pilot on the Viking outpost blog sure are encouraging,hopefully Kevin will just be able to pick us up and take us into camp normally just like any other week without having to do anything different because of ice issues. Late last week i was starting to make plans to do something else during my vacation week because it just was not looking good for the trip but after this recent news it is a full go ahead and i am going to get on that plane to Winnipeg Monday morning no matter what i hear for the rest of the week!

Yes Chef i saw your post with all the pics and it made it even harder to wait for the trip,that is why i have been freaking out so much about this ice situation because i am just so damn ready to get up there and actually fish somewhere where there is a pretty decent chance of putting a 40+" Pike in the boat rather than these over fished waters around where i live where you would be lucky to get a 30 incher along with a few hammer handles. Just praying for this ice to melt so i can get up there and see what it is all about.

35wailin that is a very similar setup to what i am planning on using,50# Power Pro with a 14" 100# Seaguar flouro leader. I know some people seem to dislike the flouro leaders due to bite offs but with these 100 pounders i feel pretty good about not having any get cut through.

Thanks for the info grt1,i am just hoping what i heard about Red lake being the last lake in the area to open up is true and that Nungesser is well ahead of what they are seeing there because those pics you took make it look like it will be awhile before that part of the lake is open. Kevin has been saying for almost 2 weeks that he expects ice out on Nungesser to come no later than the 18th,it sure is starting to look like he knew what he was talking about based on the observations of the pilot who went on the scouting mission yesterday!

Basskicker, i am pretty sure the guys going up on the 16th are going to Little Vermillion lake which is much shallower than Red lake which they said causes it to thaw much sooner every year. So if the reports of many smaller and shallower lakes to the north being ice free are true then it looks like they will be good to go.

Wow grt1 that ice still looks like it is a ways away from breaking up. Supposedly some other parts of the lake(far western side) are opened up enough to land float planes and fish the shallower areas according to a blog posted last night. Also in another blog posted yesterday they had some video of a boat in the water along with some VERY weak looking ice in the Howey bay area of the lake so maybe the water at these government docks is just really deep and will be one of the last areas of the lake to thaw? Also got some very encouraging news when i asked one of the bloggers who had sent a pilot up north to check on the lakes up that way about the conditions the pilot saw when flying over Nungesser,this was the answer that i was given: "From what Craig saw from the air, you will definitely be fine at Nungesser. Your outfitter may not have much time to get the camp ready and there may be a few bits of ice left, BUT YOU WILL BE FISHING!" so this person seems to be pretty sure that i am good to go based on what they saw from the air but being the pessimist that i am on stuff like this i will not feel better until i actually hear it from Kevin himself.

Good news,Enid of Viking Outposts reports that they had a pilot fly up to their lakes 90 miles north of Red lake and all of them were mostly open water as of today. I hope that the larger lakes in the area soon follow suit.

Hell Dan,they don't even seem to be able to predict it correctly just a few days in advance.

Yeah the reality that the trip might not happen is really starting to hit me,can't reschedule either due to the huge pain in the ass of working out the time off to get up there so if this doesn't happen i guess i will have to wait until next year for my Canadian adventure. On another note i am really starting to build a hatred of the various weather forecasting websites,a week ago i was worried but then all the forecasts looked like we would have plenty of warm weather(60+degrees) to melt the ice so i started feeling better and then boom,they change drastically and it now looks like nothing but upper 40's and low 50's all the way till we are supposed to arrive which i am not sure will be enough to get rid of the ice in time.

What lake is that Dan? There are some weather sites predicting rain with cool temps for the Red lake area on Mon. and Tues. but a couple others that are not reporting any chance of rain at all on the same days so who knows,the rain would certainly help get things moving along much quicker.

Connie,have you heard anything from up that way about the ice? I sent an email to Kevin yesterday, he is still going with the 18th as his ice out prediction for lake Nungesser . The forecast was looking great a couple days ago with a few days in the 70's coming up in a week or so but it has now changed to 50's with a chance of rain and does not look like it will be much above 60 for most of the month. Keeping my fingers crossed,it is gonna be close.

Well there are quite a few people in this thread who sound like they have caught a pretty good number of large Pike and Muskie and only one of them sounds like they had a Fluoro get cut on them and he was the guy using the 60# instead of an 80+# and this is why i went and took back the 80's for the 100's which i am confident in after hearing from the guys on this thread.

Well i decided to take back the the 80# and grab the 100# instead just for piece of mind,i have 8 of them i am taking with me,should this be enough for 4 and a half days of fishing?

Well i have the 80# ones but maybe i will take them back and get the 100# just to be safe,they did have 150# but i would think that might be overkill and hamper lure action? Also i will be fishing mostly Suicks,spoons and inline spinners,will these type of leaders be good for those lure types?

Thanks guys,looks like i will stick with the Flouro leaders.

Well if the ice will get the hell out of the way i will be heading up to the Red Lake area May 20th-25th to do some Pike fishing. I went to pick up some lures and other gear for the trip today and because of the huge price difference i ended up getting 80# Flourocarbon leaders instead of the Titanium ones that it said to get on the camps website. Wondering what you guys opinion is on these being good to use for large Pike or do i need to take them back and get the Titanium ones?

Oh yes good old Holland, have been over to Amsterdam 3 times with the wife(wish i would have gone once before getting married ) never did any fishing but talked to some locals who raved about a few secret spots they had.

Newest forecast is showing 4 to 6 straight days of rain starting on the 9th with highs in the low 50's to low 60's and then jumping up to the low 70's the day after the rain ends. I am no expert on ice but i would think those type of conditions would really put a hurting on it.

I don't even know what area i am looking at on that map of the ice,is that Red Lake in the top left of the picture? I see you can look at different pics,maybe someone who knows the area can find one with Nungesser in it.

Well Connie if you have 3 guys in your group that can fish,that would put you 3 men up on our group. I am supposed to be the big fisherman out of the group and i maybe get out twenty times a year including ice fishing so i am far from what you would call a "good" fisherman. The other three guys in the group(my dad,dad's best friend and his 26 year old son) hardly fish at all where they live out in Phoenix but are eager to get on the water and give it their best shot,i told them they better be ready to put in some long days.

Well i am looking at the Accuweather 15 day forecast for the Red Lake area and once we get past this weekend it starts looking pretty good with temps getting into the mid to upper 50's by mid week and then hitting the 60's by next weekend. Then all hell breaks loose starting the 12th with predicted highs in the low 70's for a couple days in a row which could be more than that but the forecast cuts off. So i feel better than i did yesterday,just a lot of pressure on me since i pretty much planned the whole trip for the other 3 that are coming and really want things to go well.

Doing my first fishing trip into Canada at the end of May. Heading up to lake Nungesser just north of Red Lake and staying at Angler's Kingdom lodge,keeping my fingers crossed that the ice will be melted in time for our trip so i can catch a few of those monster shallow water spring Pike. Also will be making quite a few trips out on lake Erie in a buddies boat looking for some Smallies and Walleye.

Hey Connie i think i found that blog you are talking about,that does set my mind at ease(at least a little bit).

Man you guys are scaring me! I have been dreaming of this trip ever since we got it booked in December and at the time we made the booking the ice not being out was not even a consideration with Kevin telling us it usually goes out by the 5th or 6th of May. It would be just my luck that it stays frozen 2 weeks later than normal the year i finally get a chance to fish Canada. Our first official day of fishing is not until the 21st and we fish the 3 days after that as well so i hope we at the very least get two days of good action or it will be a monumental disaster.

I am going up to Angler's Kingdom at Nungesser lake May 20-25th and am getting a little worried about the ice not being out in time for our trip. I was originally told by the camp owner that the ice would be out by May 5th but in an email today he said they just got 2+ feet of snow up there and that the ice would not melt until the snow did so he is now predicting the ice out not being until around the 18th which is very close to our arrival date. So i am wondering if anyone who lives up that way has an opinion on when the ice will go out and if they agree with Kevin that it should be melted by the 18th. I was also wondering what this will do to the fishing conditions for the week we will be there which would be the first week of open water,we are going mostly for Pike but would like to do some Walleye fishing as well since Nungesser is supposed to be a really good Walleye lake. I have heard that the week after ice out is one of the best weeks of the year to catch big Pike,is this true? And also any opinions on how the Walleye fishing would be for that week? Thanks for your time, Ben