Minden

[Locnar]

Any word on ice forming on smaller lakes up that a ways so far? When I heard of skimming on some of kawarthas, that got me thinking about smaller lakes... and got me excited.

[Jds63]

I'm up north of Minden this weekend. It's beautiful , lots of snow ... smaller bays and lakes are skimmed over , bigger lakes nothing yet .

[GBW]

I'm visiting my parents on 4 mile lake (burnt river) and the only ice there was has been broken up from the wind and waves

[Locnar]

Right on guys, thanks for the heads up! With the weather forecast, give it a couple weeks?

[Joeytier]

Sounds like minden is gonna get peppered with snowfall, which will wreak havoc on that early ice.

[singingdog]

I think you are looking at a couple of weeks for decent ice. Most lakes, even smaller ones, were open 3 days ago. Now we are looking at 20-30 cms of snow over the next 7 days.

[Locnar]

oh shizzah, a good foot o' snow comin' eh?

[Jds63]

Boshkung, Mountain, Gull, Maple , wide open

Drove by Balsam at Rosedale and was surprised to see it completely snow covered, so was Cameron Lake

[GBW]

with the snow and wind 4 mile was WIDE open today, not even a spot of ice at shore. I'm not going back till Christmas but my father will keep me posted on the ice there.

[jimmer]

Why can't the snow ever wait until we get a good 5 inches of ice. In a perfect world!!!!

[Sinker]

Maybe we will get lucky and the snow will flood the ice and it will all freeze later this week?

 

S.

[GBW]

with the snow and wind 4 mile was WIDE open today, not even a spot of ice at shore. I'm not going back till Christmas but my father will keep me posted on the ice there.

It's now frozen over and I will check the ice on boxing day.

My buddy lives on Washburn Island on Scugog and he went out to test the area today and it was slush and MAX 2" of ice where he tested at the tip of the island. He didn't go far out...

[Locnar]

Right on man, thanks for the update. Do you think a small lake just north of Norland would be any better?

[GBW]

Right on man, thanks for the update. Do you think a small lake just north of Norland would be any better?

Well dude they all are different due to depth and the way the wind hit's the water (direction wise hence 4ML to freeze up when it did just the other day). So I'd never tell anyone "sure go out and check it, it should be safe" cause my "safe area" on said lake could be 4x thicker then your actual spot. Is it logical that the lake in Norland has more ice as its close to my folks place, sure. BUT I'D NEVER TELL YOU AND OTHERS it's "SAFE". Spud bar and safety gear and a buddy is all I can offer there on the 'legit' reply. I honestly don't feel any lake in the area is even close to safe yet to just roam free in search of fish...

[Locnar]

I respect that and appreciate your response. And I understand that it is still early... and I definitely wouldn't be going alone. My buddy and I were thinking of checking out the lake on New Years weekend.

[GBW]

I respect that and appreciate your response. And I understand that it is still early... and I definitely wouldn't be going alone. My buddy and I were thinking of checking out the lake on New Years weekend.

No worries.

One would hope by then it should be better but it's only -2 right now in Lindsay as I post this. Also It's hard to tell how snow covered things are and we all know snow doesn't help...

[Chuck Enwinde]

Right on man, thanks for the update. Do you think a small lake just north of Norland would be any better?

I was on a small lake North of Norland on Saturday and it had about 3 inches of refrozen slush with about a half inch of black ice. Another small lake near Bancroft had even less. The snow up there has really buggered up the ice making on the lakes that were already skimmed when they got dumped on.

[Locnar]

I was on a small lake North of Norland on Saturday and it had about 3 inches of refrozen slush with about a half inch of black ice. Another small lake near Bancroft had even less. The snow up there has really buggered up the ice making on the lakes that were already skimmed when they got dumped on.

 

Thanks for the update! How much snow was on top of the ice? Wondering about that rain on Boxing Day... how much damage it will do to the ice... or if it might help by melting to snow?

[GBW]

well today was +1* for most of the day here in Lindsay. I'm not expecting to find safe ice this weekend when I go visit my folks...

[Joeytier]

90% of the back lakes here have less than 5" of ice so I wouldn't expect to see much fishable ice in Central Ontario this weekend

[GBW]

today was warm temps here (in the + range) so I'd expect that zero in my area is good to so be safe!

[J Roelofsen]

Believe it or not there was people on both Wildwood and Pittock lakes in my area last Thurs/Fri. Lots of good ice on the usual areas of St Clair and a few guys fishing the Thames already. Most smaller, shallow water bodies are GTG for this weekend around here (London area). I'll be on a favorite Crappie/Gill pond tomorrow night that should have around 6". The coming thaw will put any hopes of "safe" ice to an end by Monday and hopefully flush some ice from the local creeks to allow for holiday steelheading:)

 

Josh

Edited December 23, 2016 by J Roelofsen

[chris.brock]

Believe it or not there was people on both Wildwood and Pittock lakes in my area last Thurs/Fri.

 

Josh

I believe it.

 

It's the big dumps of snow that came after the lakes skimmed over that buggered up the Haliburton ice. I'll be up all week next week if you want to know how the ice is Locnar. No internet, it would have to be texting.

[GBW]

Well Loncar and others considering 4 mile lake, NOPE! Yesterday it was a skim of snow in spots, 2" of slush then a few (and I do mean just a few) hits with the spud bar and it was through. The crazy amount of rain that fell there last night and all day just turned everything to slush. Going to be a while there... Oh and the road in to the lake most days takes 3 - 4 min. Took 30 to get out! Spun out right at the boat ramp going 5 KPH and almost ditched it two more times in 4x4LOW and 1st gear...

[fundseeker]

Hi GBW,

We spent Christmas and today in Burnt River and at the cottage on 4 Mile Lk.. I didn't even get a chance to go down to the lake. Would have been disappointing.I'm thinking of coming back over from Parry Sound to try the walleye fshing through the ice.Have you had any luck other winters? I did OK last summer.