Late Ice Out?

Well it's already a week into April, but you wouldn't know it by the weather. With large dumpings of snow, and temperatures hovering around -15 C at night, it's hard to imagine that spring is around the corner. Around this time of year we get a lot of phone calls and e-mails from guests wondering if the ice is going to be out in time for the opener in mid May. I'm always perplexed as how to answer this question, as the ice goes out differently, and at different times each year. In the four years that we've owned the camp, we have not experienced a year when there was still ice out on the main lake when camp opened, however, I have heard stories of when it was not out on time.

One really nice aspect of our camp and its location, is that the ice in the channel and in our small bay seems to go out days before it does on most locations on Gullrock. The previous owner of the camp, Mike Weaver, told us about one walleye opener when there was still ice out on Gullrock and Red Lake, and there were dozens of people who came to launch their boat from the camp, so they could take advantage of the fishing in the channel between Keg and Gullrock, instead of losing a day out of their fishing trip.
Don't be so anxious for the ice to go out too soon, because it seems to be the trend that the later the ice goes out, the better the fishing is during the week of walleye opener.
At this time, it's impossible to predict when the ice will be off, as it all depends on the weather. We will definitely keep you posted.