I took the week before Christmas off, hoping to get out to Cold Lake. Finger's crossed for some early ice.

I don’t see any steam or clouds did it freeze last night?

Cold Lake 2022/23 Hard Water Season.
 

Nope still bucking

Looks like boiling water steam

Has its own cloud over top but wind picked up from the west today


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Any idea on how Pierce Lake ice is setting up so far? Thx.

Sorry not at all


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This is what is happening regarding what I like to call the boil up which it looks like but it’s the lake loosing heat real quick.

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Awesome!


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:happy0180:

Great pics!

Living up there as a kid, we always said that steam was pulling up the ice from the bottom.

Most appropriately named lake in the province.

BW

-30 this morning

:sHa_shakeshout:

Just gotta keep the winds down so the lake can make smooth ice, hate that jagged ruff crap, hard on equipment and the body to cross over:)

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Provincial park boat launch looking out into centre bay, not iced over yet and the wind kinda made a mess of he launch area, hope when she freezes over a few trucks can smooth it out a bit!

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French bay looking out from the md campground boat launch, frozen over now with a few ruff areas of jagged ice.
All still far from safe ice but looks good so far, hoping for more -20 weather.


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I guess I have the honor of posting the first lake trout porn this year! Went out this morning for a few hours. Fished about 60 feet of water, ice was about 4-5 inches depending. Fishing was fairly decent between 8:45 and 10, slower before and after those times. Did well with a chrome pink airplane tipped with a minnow. Had two great fights with the fish I'm posting, lots of other smaller ones. Its tough pulling aggressive lakers up when the ice is so thin. Cheers!

Awesome!
Did you walk out from the French bay boat launch?


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I did, a few jagged pieces early on but easy after that. I was actually quite surprised with how smooth it is given our latest weather.

I've only been up there once in the summer, does the road to that MD campground with the boat launch stay open all winter?

Yes they make passes through there but don’t open the areas up for parking which I will talk to someone as not everyone wants to park on the ice.


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Out again this morning for a quick fish on French Bay. Ice was about 7" where I was, little amounts of snow on top. Fishing was great between 8:30-9 and then it died right off. 2 others out fishing, everybody walked on. Cheers!

Great to hear!
Might check it out soon.


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Huge dump of snow forecasted for Cold Lake. I hope it doesn't cause ice issues.

I've been watching the weather all week, as I'm heading back to Northern Saskatchewan on Sunday. I wouldn't be too alarmed just yet about a forecast for heavy snow in Cold Lake on Sunday...they've been changing their minds every couple of hours all week long.

Sitting on Ethel lake right now, slight snow, foggy and a bit of a breeze.

Looks like all hell is gonna break loose but ya never know.

Fish don’t mind the weather though.

[emoji38]


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Well it’s snowing pretty good and supposed to all day too.

Went for a drive yesterday, a few brave souls took there vehicles out off French bay MD campground boat launch but only ventured along the shore, perhaps looking for pike etc.
A fella was at the marina and was looking to go out on his quad but decided not to.
This weeks cold temps are going to do the lake well so here is looking towards the after Xmas new year time frame to get out at least on the skidoo.
No fish is worth a dip in the lake.

3" or less on the west side of the main lake today. Spud goes thru 2nd poke. Only made it out to 6 FOW


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I meant to post this report a little earlier but the 15th before the cold snap started we had 6” of ice in french bay walked out to the first point where it starts to drop off. There was bait moving around and the fish were fairly active ended up landing 10 or so in a few hours and a lost a few as well. Did see a moose cross the bay farther out toward garnett and birch point. Hopefully this Cold snap here gives us the safe ice we need to access the whole lake with no
worries

Be safe out there!

Thanks for the report Mat, the only thing that scares me is crossing over from the MD French bay boat launch is a little further out to the right the ice in past experience gets thin quick, there is a current coming out of what I call pike bay into French bay that creates thinner ice, a few years back we had a solid seven inches of ice out into French bay but decided to try for pike more towards the launch and drilled into two inches of ice in areas, was on the quad, huge pucker factor, buggered off real quick.

I am going to wait until after the Xmas holidays but please keep us updated as I know you got bigger gonads.:)

Tight lines.

I did walk out I wasn’t chancing the early unpredictable ice. Just had to get out to scratch the itch. I do agree that after the break it will make things have much more of a safety factor to get out on the snow machines

I saw a dude fishing straight north of the marina late last week. He was about 200 yards out.