All this early season snow is not good news for ice fishing fanatics
MINNETONKA, Minn. – The snow is also making ice fishing a bit more complicated this year.
When it comes to conditions for the Minnesota pastime, there's bad news and there's good news.
It's a polarizing topic. Some bask in the snow, others bark at it. We caught up with Jeff Heinrichs while he was trudging through deep snow on top of Lake Minnetonka.
"This is a lot and it's miserable right now," Heinrichs said,
He says weather like this has a price.
"I do like snow, I just don't like it on the lake," he said.
Because atop the lake is his decade old business, Ice Fishing Warriors. He runs rental ice houses around the clock for two months a year. But this year is a bit different, as he could be on the hook, too.
"This season is starting to shape up, wet-slushy mix and kind of hoping it doesn't turn into the February early-off type thing," he said.
He's seen it before.
"We have had two bad seasons out of the 10 years. One season we didn't get on tll Jan. 15. One season we got off Feb. 15," Heinrichs said.
So he knows it could be worse, and it could be better.
"When you get that much snow on top, it's really hard to make ice underneath it," he said.
So we dug in to the numbers. Heinrichs used his auger, and WCCO helped him measure the ice. It was 15 inches.
He says 12 is the magic number for driving, but in some places the ice is only 7 inches, as the insulation keeps piling up. He says safety is key.
"You should be checking ice wherever you go, you shouldn't just assume it's 12 inches wherever you go," he said.
Heinrichs would like to see 6 inches more of ice, which would mean less snow and more cold.
"I wouldn't mind seeing some negative temps," he said.
Heinrichs says the good news is his clients are catching fish left and right, so it's a good year for biting.
