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Is the big lake flooding very bad? I blocked my house up but I'm afraid the water/ice might have still gone past my runners after saturday and sundays snow. I have to go get it loose and haul it home I think before I lose my entire floor. OH and fishing sucked by the way. 1 - 12" walleye was the only bite we got in about 12 hours of fishing on friday.

most places are not flooding from what I hear but we did flood where we put our house so we blocked it high before we left it on saturday.

How can it flood on top of the ice?


Stan(stoopid southerner)

I'm not going to pretend to understand it or explain it in a scientific manor Stan.

It just does sometimes.

that's a whole lotta ice out there, whole lotta ice.

and it maybe doesn't form like one might imagine in your head if you've never seen it.

It takes days to "sheet over" and it's gotta be damn cold, and even with calm winds it still does goofy things.

winds can tear it up when it's not completely sheeted over yet. and even after it does sheet over, it heaves & splits, it's a lot of expansion going on, a sheet of ice that is covering hundreds of square miles of lake surface on this particular lake. it pushes out, it heaves up, it heaves down, it splits, it can push up a shore line so badly you would think heavy earth moving equipment had worked for the better part of a year to accomplish the amount of damage that's done.

Sometimes after the ice is gone you will see a shore line that has suffered the wrath of the ice & you wonder "what the hell could possibly do that?"

Basically, it's a fine example of mother natures un-harnessable power.

It does what ever the hell it wants, and we just adapt the best we can to what ever that may be on any given day.

And to add to Dave's post..........S.N.O.W.

Snow adds weight to the ice which forces water up through any cracks or man made holes in the ice. The more snow the heavier and thus more flooding of water on top which mixes with the snow. There is now slush (water/snow mixture)on top of the ice. Sometimes this slush can get pretty deep and the top layer will freeze over giving a fisherman in a truck a false reading of driving conditions. Then said fisherman drives on to the layer of crusted over slush and said trucks front tires fall through causing said fisherman to sh*t in his pants!

Ah yes the wonders of winter boredom,

Stan you should check out snow mobile skipping. Now that is some kind of stoopid,

Dave, ya also mention to the boy about the US Parks Police and US Forestry Law Enforcement. Nice postings there. Great benefits in some cases, pretty laid back work place mostly tourism. An occasional rampant yogi to deal with and time to get home for misbehaving. Walker and Cass Lake each have a Parks LEO detachment.

Dave,

Yes, you are right. That honor does go to his parents. But I know there is enough love left for some special individuals in all three of their lives.

mmgravy, did you know that the youngest of those 3 children has herself a nice little pink bolt action single shot .22 rimfire rifle?

She loks to be heading down that outdoors adventurer path as well.

She walked with me on a still hunt this year. I showed her how I like to take a few careful well placed well thought quiet steps, then stop. Scan, slowly take a knee in dark timber & scan for legs & movement under the dark cover of the pines. Then plan the direction for the next few steps.. so on & so forth.

Yeah, she caught on really quick & soon was working with me, another set of sharp eyes & stealthy movement from this bright little girl. It just made me smile.

The older sister often goes on stand post with my daughter where i believe they eat pockets full of candy, drink mountain dew & make each other giggle non stop.

Have you ever heard a whisper giggle? i have heard it a lot! ha!

Yes they all 3 are very dear to us as well as there mother.

I'm very glad you found this thread & introduced yourself to me. Also very glad to have you post. I hope you check & post frequently. I did tell the kid's mom today that you found the thread & contacted me & she thought that was great.

folks, mmgravy is a relative to the kids & there mom (my nephew & nieces often pictured with us in this thread & there mama)

When I give it some thought and read your collective explanations I see how it could "flood".I reached a personal decision.I ain't driving out on no frozen lake.LOL.Fat chance that would ever happen here.


Stan

Dave,

It doesn't surprise me that #3 has a .22 and is on her way to a great life in the outdoors. It's in the genes!

I have a daughter who loves to hunt deer and has shot at least one deer each year since she started hunting when she was 12 years old. She is 26 years old now and shot a big doe the last 45 minutes of the season in 2008 to keep her "string" alive. Like your girls, she STILL has pockets full of candy and a Mountain Dew or two on the stand. That's what you have to look forward to for many years to come and that is not at all bad!

That's not bad at all, I'll take it!!

well my daughter hasn't been able to put a "string" together yet, she went deerless this year like many hunters up this way. just a poor year.

Wow, I finally got current! Most interesting thread yet. Great bunch of guys.
Dave, you're doing all the things most of think we'll do some day and never do. Kind of tells me to get off my ass and go outside!
Those kids are lucky to have such a great guy/teacher. Keep it up.
Bruce

hey thanks Bruce, thanks for posting. jeeze you didn't read the whole damn thing did you?

LOL!!

Took a while, keep it going!

Dave I think you'd be surprised how many folks do read this from the beginning after just touching on a few posts and how many more follow it w/o posting.

By the way walleyes are deep found ours in 28 FOW and they were snapping even with the bad weather on Sunday. My youngest piled into his first eyes without a bobber all jigging. He is now addicted to Gav's vexilar.

Upper Red Lake?

I heard news that the bite is maybe turning on again on Lake of the woods, heard that this morning.

Its an acquired ability.

last year I saw some goofy driving his Ford Ranger on the ice/slush and something gave way. The ice. He was lucky because some way, some how, he was held up on the remaining ice by the step rails on the rocker pannels.

The truck stayed until it was towed to shore.

What the heck makes em go so deep in that state. I'm catching those sucksers up high here. Usually do. I don't think I caught a walleye deeper than 16' all last year.

When I moved here in '99 every thing I learned about walleye fishing in MN, I could pretty much throw out the window.

I suspect a lot of ours are still held up on shorelines & most of us are probably just jumping the gun waiting for them to move out deep. It's common to fish shallow for them on the evening bite up here. On the greater portion of the US side of Lake of the woods you really can't find much deeper water than 30'

in the south west bay where i am fishing 28' is about the deepest you will find & most of my fishing is probably done within a few feet from 20' give or take.

But I used to do very well this time of year in around 15-16' of water, just haven't given it much thought lately, monkey see monkey do ya know?

thanks for putting the idea back in my head.

Well, now, i am having bad idears going round in my head about you talking bout snowmobile skipping. Its called watercross and its a blast!! I used to race a circuit called the International Watercross Association with my snowmobile and won a World Championship in Grantsburg WI. and it was some of the most fun times in my life!! Its kinda like taking that seasonal sport and making it year round again. Fun in the Sun!! and you should see the scenery at those events as well!! Now that its snow season what better way to get around those frozen fields and lakes checking tracks in the wood. We had a New years eve party at the hunting shack this year and what a blast as well!! We don't make it out to camp much now till spring but when we do the lights are on all night long!! ND is there a road plowed out to where your at? I got a Wheelhouse and would like to get out maybe this weekend if possible. might have to get those sleds out though!!