It's March here and the ice is still hanging on in the ponds. Of course I wouldn't walk on it.

How about you?

I don't know if there's any ice left, but there's about 2 ft. of snow on the pond.

There is ice holding your snow up.

Were in a mini deep freeze today. This past February was the second snowiest on record. About 39". 2008 was about 43", then you have to go back to 1900 and there was 33". All in all, were about a foot over normal snow fall for the year.

getting thicker

Almost two feet here, no warming trends in sight.

No sign of it melting except for about 4" around the edges. Not turning dark grey yet either.

Gone about a week ago.

Our pond has been iced over with 2-3 ft of snow since 12/1

Winters don't get much worse than this year - still socked in - It'll be a while before any ice is gone here.

Will be free of ice in the morning!!!!

Scott was over tonight and can verify it. His pond is still covered and he is only a stones throw away.

I have a lot of water that moves through the pond this time of year. Maybe I'll try feeding this weekend

And yes Scott....We should have used some accelerant!

That's the difference between torching grass on the ground and cattails in water. Next time the pyrotechnic show will be a good one.

Still 100% ice covered tonight. One lone goose on the pond, Kate ran out to check out the decoy and didn't pay any attention to the live goose.

Biggest .62 acre pond is 60 percent ice free.





Other 1/10 acre pond 50 percent ice free.



Really opening up with a mild couple of days with thunderstorms and then it got cold and got an inch of snow!
I look for some possible skim ice freezes and thaws still but the thicker ice is over.

Here's an intense winter algae bloom I get in my bluegill production pond every winter from just winter snow and rain. The ponds are drained down just before winter. I'm going to pump this into my perch production pond for a phytoplankton start for the yellow perch fry.

I am willing my pond to thaw. I went out yesterday and this morning and began breaking up the ice against the shoreline and throwing the chunks onto the bank and out into the middle.

While I suspect I'm all but wasting my time, I can't help but FEEL that I'm bringing myself just a bit closer to fishing by doing so.

As a result of my impatience, I have now successfully "swam" in my pond 3x's in the past 24 hours. The quantity of full outfits needing to be washed is growing at an alarming rate... but I can't help myself!

No ice means it's tilapia stocking time!

The word accelerant ALWAYS perks me up!...lol

Wow. I just went out to the pond. I've been on it for the past two days, trying to break up the ice along the shoreline. Though it's still 5-6" thick along the shore, it instantly breaks free if I try to put weight on it.

Can't wait!

After a calm night and a low of 20 F. the ponds have completely iced over again about plate glass thickness. Oh well T-storms tomorrow night so it won't last.

I need to do some fishing soon and prefer open water as I have order for three large bluegills for the World Taxidermy Show. Big bucks for the big ones!

23 inches, up an inch from last week.

My ice is melting from the top down. The decoy that marks the aerator was completely frozen in, with just the top if it's head peeking thru the ice. Now the whole duck is sitting on top of the ice. It's pulled away from shore a few feet, when Kate tried to run out on the ice she broke thru, but was able to get up on the ice once she hit the white, thicker ice. I wouldn't chance walking on it, but it's still hanging in there.

Pond came up <2" with the 1 5/8" of rain/snow that we had a few days ago.

Dandelions are blooming in my yard.

We sure could use some moisture of any kind.

Ice free as of yesterday evening. I caught and released about 10 yellow perch from about 11 to 12 1/2 inches and three bluegills from 8 to just under 9 inches. It was fairly mild at about 50 F. and my pier that goes all the way across the pond makes reaching any place on the biggest pond a cinch.

I need to catch three or four bluegills around 10 inches and over a pound. I know they're in there.

What are you catching your fish on?

Something called "butterworms" which seem to be a larger version of what we call "beemoths" here. I've never seen them before but I've been out of the loop as far as buying fishing bait for some time.

The fish are about a foot off the bottom in the deepest water or in the vicinity of what were thick sago pond weed when the water was warmer. I use my favorite rig which consists of a slip bobber.

I haven't fished yet, but my GSH have been hitting pellets even tho water temps are in the low 40s. Not a crazy feeding, but they are rising. I am amazed they are feeding in that cold water.

We have 50's for several days, I may head out this weekend and try the slip bobber approach ala Cecil. I do have pretty crazy blooms going right now - visability went from 6-8' to 24" in a matter of 2-3 days right after ice out.

Finally! The last of the ice left the pond today.

I live about 10 miles from esshup. Ice gone here too. No floaters. Happy is the word. I was getting worried with all the snow on the ice and the low water table.

We are still iced in pretty solid up here. Official "Ice free" day was March 21st last year.....so maybe the next 8 days or so will help. We are supposed to see some mild temps and a bit of rain this week.

I was out ice fishing on a small lake just 8 minutes down the road yesterday and there was a good 20" of ice there!

You must live in the Tropical part of Canada.

dap, how's the pond level? Some of the ponds along 30 to the West of you are full, but mine only came up 5".

I'm still down about 2 feet from where I would like the level to be but like we know its a water table pond and were at its mercy. Its been as much as 3 feet higher but that level is not sustainable. I was concerned about low O2 levels with the ice and snow cover we had and the length of time everything was covered. I did have my bubble stone running and had some open water most of the winter. I figured I was ok when things started to thaw and I would see thousands of minnows swimming around the edge of the pond. Since then I have been seeing a few BG too. Right now I am also up about 6-7 inches from where I was a couple weeks ago.

Yep, I know the feeling about groundwater ponds!
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=248722#Post248722
Glad that your fish made it O.K.

Ice fishing has been closed by the owner at Bremer Pond. Mud tracking and ruts through the lawn, if you were going out there now. We still have plenty of ice, but I am pulling the pin for the winter. Normally I like to fish late ice, but enough is enough when it comes to this winter. Time to sharpen those spinnerbaits!

I went down last evening and turned on the circulator full time 24/7. Running it full time when the weather is warming seems to clear the ice a little faster. More importantly, it keeps the ice pack away from the Barge area.

I should mention that I drove the Mule part way and then walked the rest of the way. The ground is frozen with the top couple inches being slick a snot mud. Backing up, the Mule slid sideways down the bank into a couple feet of wet snow. An hour and a half later I finally got out.

So you eskimos get anxious for spring too eh?

I checked the 5 day forecast today for my land at Bowie. Friday the hi is forecasted to be 90. Be careful what you wish for. No significant moisture since 10/1/10.

Mule....Stuck? Say it ain't so!

The arctic is a brutal place!

Yep, and every year it seems to get a little snower and a little colder. This couldn't have something to do with age, could it?

Rained all last night here and never got anywhere near freezing (like they inaccurately promised). As a result, I woke up to find the ice completely gone from the pond!

Time to ready the structure/habitat and get the pump running.

Could be the arctic oscilation is in a phase where it's dipping farther south than usual.

Unfortunately we seem to be in a negative arctic oscillation which has shifted more cold air and moisture south, we need more positive AO.

There must be an echoe in here.

Hey, be happy I didn't bring up Lunar and Solar cycles, not to mention the dreaded MMGW.

That's true. With you I was expecting the dreaded GWC!

Still iced in here in Ann Arbor. Hopefully the next few days will chase it away. Lots of rain has brought the pond back to full pool. The ice jacked up the dock for a couple of days, but it settled back down.

Hey Coach, if your having problems with ice around your dock try a small submersible pump.
I mounted a 20 watt pump on an 8 inch platform to keep it off the bottom, then put it under the front of the dock, it's worked great.

How safe is the ice around it? I thought about doing that, but was concerned about the open water and ice thickness. When does the ice head out for you and the floating islands rise?

Yeah I can see your concern about ice safety, I've been on the ice a couple feet away from the hole with no problem but it's only 4 ft. deep, and the pump directs a stream of water straight up from the bottom instead of a aerator with lots of bubbles in a wider pattern, the famous " it all depends" probably applies.

The pond has never had ice-out earlier than April and the islands don't reach full floating height till May.

Did you ever decide to build a floating island?

It's 68 F. today with the wind howling to 35 mph. The big pond being in the open will have it's temps increase dramatically.

One day a few years ago with similar conditions, but a little warmer in the 70's, the pond went from some remnant ice to 50 F. by afternoon from top to bottom! I kid you not! That's how exposed this pond is to the wind.

I fed the larger perch in the large pond today even with temps dropping again. They seem to be cruising the shorelines at about 4 feet probably nailing small bluegills. (I had some female gills escape a cage last year.)

Well, the big day is tomorrow (March 21st) and there is no sign that the ice will be gone this year. I have a small opening near the artesian well inflow and the pond is really overflowing in general, but the cool weather this week-end was a disappointment.

We did catch a glimpse of the two Goldfish that wintered in their cage. They seem to be doing fine near the warmer water inflow.

Rattletrap,

What latitude are you at up there?

Cecil,
Coordinates here are 43 deg. 54' 55" N and 80 deg. 6' 31" W approximately. That is for the nearest town South of us. Our elevation is approx. 1700 feet.

You're not as far north as I thought you were. I used to live at a 45 degree latitude in Michigan.

Yes, Minneapolis is actually North of us from a latitudinal point of view. Sometimes hard to put it all into perspective.

Just got back from the pond and spring is nowhere to be seen, there was 5 more inches of snow on monday and back into the freezer, 13 degrees this morning and predicting 2 to 4 more inches tonight on top of the 31 inches still on the ground.

Stream pump keeping the pond level up, only 4 inches below full.

I hear ya AP! 6" of fresh snow here today put any visions of Spring to rest for a bit!
On a brighter note, I did see a nice Perch and one of the RT yesterday before things took a turn for the worse. We had a very small open water spot that has closed up again today. No mild weather in the forecast for a week or so.

Yeah RT, they're predicting temps. to stay below freezing until next Tuesday, hopefully spring will arrive then.

Caught my first LMB of the season out back on the pond today!

That is crazy! Why do you live where its so cold? Im about to stock tilapia with water temps approaching seventy degrees and air temps approaching eighty!

James I guess it depends on what your use too, I remember years ago being in flight training at FT. Wolters Texas with the tornadoes and damaging hail storms plus those man eating Armadillos.
I love it here in the mountains but as I get older I can't wait for MMGW, then it will be tropical here.

AP, can't wait to hear about your floating ponds rising again. Question for you as I follow your posts: What is your normal open water season? Based on your ice report, it doesn't seem like you will be ice free for a while.

I am sure you have heard this, but in case you haven't. A good global warming song.

Search "Minnesotans For Global Warming Song" on youtube (I don't know how to imbed a video).

Hey coach that's a great video, thanks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJUFTm6cJXM

Yeah our soft water season here is usually from mid April till mid Nov.

nope - still iced in 3-22-11

Maybe in 1-2 weeks

[

F-H I see most of the snow on the land is gone, that should really help the thaw when it warms up next week.

Ice still holding on, here's photo of the pond on april 3 2010.

Here it is april 2 2011, the island is still buried under snow.

Ugh. Pretty. Pretty depressing.

3 feet of ice here still but it should be getting thinner.

I won't know for sure until I get home tomorrow night, but from the reports I'm getting from home, the ice is definitely on the way OUT!! About half the pond was open two days ago and then we had another cold snap. Woo Hoo!

While the ice hasn't returned, I went from running my lawncare operation to sitting inside for the past 3 days because it just kept snowing and snowing...

My poor fish have got to be so confused...

Maybe in a week.

81 and sunny today. Had to turn on the AC

About the same here JKB but windy has all get out. I'll bet the big pond is 60 F. now.

Go ahead, rub it in.

Our ice succumbed to the sun and wind and finally went out yesterday noon. That would be about 6 hours before the first spring storm ripped through with tornadoes, hail, and .8" of rain in an hour.

Picked about 200 dead frogs out this weekend. Rocky edges without any muck to bury in does them in every year. They park under rocks, but apparently they need a little more insulation than that.

Ice is rotting but it's been cold here, last 3 nights in the twenties, and when I left the cabin this afternoon it was 35 with rain and hail.

Mine finally came off 4/10 and 4/11



No floaters - hope its as good as it seems.

It has been a long winter. The MN DNR is delaying the opening of WE/NP for two weeks on some lakes in central and northern MN. They are still iced up so their reasoning is to delay the opener until the WE have spawned. I bet that is making some resort owners real happy.

Still have ice, 31 degrees today with snow.

But looking up!

Cold Duck.

Open water once again wow it feels good.

I take it you went swimming in it?

Well at least my pond wasn't the last one with ice, it went out last Saturday, Blair it looks like your the winner of the frozen fish trophy.

I was wondering if yours was maybe still hanging in there.