Red Door Resort as of 1/11/2016 – The ice depth is improving! I found 9 inches in the snow banks and 11 to 11 1/2 inches on the bare ice. The crack that the atv bridge is crossing is 24 inches wide under the bridge 1/3 of a mile off shore. It is starting to heal and we now have a new crack on the bottom of the ramp! which is where we want it to be!
We will be spending more time on Wednesday checking the lake and will report again than. Decision will be made after that time on a pull schedule. Providing the ice depth improves in the snow banks and under the bridge,
Nitti’s Hunters Point Resort as of 1/11/2016 – We are finding 10+” in most places however we are still finding spots of 8″ the guys are out breaking up the ridges. We will be out everyday and I will be reporting to you everyday. 4 Wheeler and sled traffic only. We had some cold temps this weekend but we are still catching walleye. Mornings and evenings at 18′ during day 25′. Dead stick seemed to be the ticket this weekend.
Mac’s Twin Bay Resort as of 1/11/2016 – Driving is a go…The cold has been good to us. Ice conditions have improved and we’ll now allow driving of vehicles up to ½ ton in the bay and on Roads A&B. 10 mph is max. Private houses up to 10×20 can now be moved out: to the bay and Roads A & B. That may expand come Friday so stay tuned. Guys fishing the perch hole are doing well both yesterday and today. Over the weekend, the spear houses saw some northern action, and one group angling had 4 unders and threw back a nice 31” northern. Saw another guy land a nice northern on a tip up as the plow truck drove by. Not too many are targeting walleyes here in the bay, one couple had two smaller walleyes and another spearer saw two really nice ones go by.Seeing lots of small perch minnows, so target those perch colors with your baits.
Ice conditions: Right now, we have 8-12” in bay. Roads A, B, and C are plowed and have about 12”. Main road is plowed to Road I but we have some cracks out there due to the cold weather. Depending on how they heal, Kevin may open Roads D, E, F, and I (currently 8-11”).
Lyback’s Ice Fishing as of 1/11/2016 – Yesterday we had our coldest morning of the winter and this morning has beat that by a couple degrees. Right now it’s -16 degrees. That should be making some ice. As anglers left yesterday the main reports were Perch with some decent keepers coming from a couple rentals. One had 20 averaging about 12? inches. Most Walleyes caught were under the harvest slot, but a couple in the 18?-20? range were kept. Today we are going to check ice depths and decide our next steps. We should be letting small vehicles, (small cars, mini SUV’s) out in the next day and maybe 1/2 rated pickups by midweek in some areas. It depends on the what we find today. We will be starting to pull more houses Wednesday for the weekend is the plan.
Chapman’s Mille Lacs Resort as of 1/11/2016 – Did some ice checking yesterday. We are putting on ice but still found some spots of 8.5″ under the snow. Will start working on plowing roads in the next couple days.
Twin Pines Resort as of 1/11/2016 – The Fish are biting ….we saw Northerns & Walleye this weekend. The ice in St Albans Bay is 12+ inches. We will be driving by this weekend
Barnacles Resort and Campground as of 1/11/2016 – Found 10.5” to 14” of ice depending on where we go. We have a road plowed out front and to the Rock Pile. Wheelers can get out to the East Flats. Ran across a crack south of the Rock Pile which we will bridge tomorrow if needed, there is 14” of ice on either side of the crack. Will know more tomorrow and post another report.
Lundeen’s Tackle Castle from 1/7/2016 – We’ve only seen about an inch of additional ice thickness since last weekend – mild temps continue to stall the ice machine. Currently we see anywhere from 3 to 9 inches. We expect to see some overnight temperatures around zero beginning Sunday and continuing for a few days. With a little luck we can put down some much-needed additional ice. We’re seeing some smaller houses beginning to dot the “icescape”, and expecting to see more daily. Several of the resorts have even pulled some rental houses out.
Northern activity is still decent on Mille Lacs – The effort is split evenly between spearers and anglers, with both having some pretty good days. Suckers or big shiners have been the ticket for your best northern action. Look to Cove Bay and Wahkon Bay first in 7-11 feet. The walleye bite has been good so far – Walleye action is best early in the morning around sunrise and again around sunset. Pull out all the early season tactics and hang on… this is the “early ice bite” we’ve been waiting for since fall. Jigging Raps and “Darters” tipped with a piece of a fathead have turned some fish when they’re aggressive, but a small shiner on a glow hook works best when they’re fussy. Much of the bite has been from 12-18 feet, although we’ve also seen some fish out to 28 feet. The perch look like they may be mounting a small comeback – sorting is a must (over the past several years) but some true “jumbos” have been cruising outside the Wahkon/Isle area. Crappie minnows or bugs (waxies, euros) on a small rocker-type spoon work well. Last fall we started to see a few decent ones show up and several folks have remarked that they have kept a few already this winter. I wouldn’t call it a recovery, simply an improvement… which wouldn’t take much!