Well, I am admitting defeat for this Winter. We have been scrambling around like crazy trying to patch in a fix with no luck. Buddy has been up three more times now. Had to call in favors to get him multiple rides up there. Blew up another Gast pump on the frozen line even after alcohol which was another fiasco. Swapped in a Thomas 2660 that I had and spliced it into the airline for the American Eagle windmill only to find that line was plugged with frozen condensation as well. A quart of alcohol only helped for a few days and then it started freezing up again. Been running the Thomas 15 hours per day for a week, blowing off a lot of wasted air while the alcohol worked through the frozen line. Like I said now the line is freezing back up and there have been zero signs of a hole opening in the ice. Another buddy is going up to his cabin this week and I am going to have him unplug the Thomas pump. No sense in putting the wear and tear on the batteries and/or blowing up that pump as well.

This Winter has been a huge learning experience. Discovered I have unknowingly been battling condensation with the big windmill which has been killing aeration output from that unit. Live and Learn. Should be an easy fix this Summer to redo the airlines and dump all condensation out into the lake in deep water.

Buddy measured DO the last two times he was up. In one week it dropped from 3.3 PPM to 3.0 PPM. I am usually a very optimistic guy, but I am counting the fish as dead at this point. Probably 6 more weeks until ice even begins to open up, possibly longer. IMO, their only chance for survival is the Koenders windmill. It has consistently had a hole open. Maybe some fish can find it and hang out there till April.

current pic


cool pic while my buddy was up there. Probably had another one foot or more of new snow since this pic.

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