What a difference a week makes!
We're just finishing up a wonderful week of weather here in Northwestern Ontario with very warm temperatures and strong winds. The result is the snow is gone and the ice on the lakes took a severe beating. Reports from Red Lake are that the ice is black and sick-looking. If the great weather would only hold for one more week the ice might be gone before the end of April. Unfortunately, that scenario isn't exactly in the cards.
Next week is supposed to bring day-time highs in the single digits on the Celsius scale and the nights are supposed to be below freezing. So, the big melt is going to stop for awhile. The week after next, however, is seen to bring a return of the sun and fun and my guess is that there is only a week or two after that before the ice will be finished. That would make it about the first week of May, probably right around May 8 which is the average ice-out date.
The summer-like temperatures of the past week, combined with the strong snow-eating winds, has meant most of the winter moisture went straight into the atmosphere through evaporation rather than sending stream and lake levels soaring. So things are kind of dry.
That should end this coming week. Lots of rain is forecast starting Sunday. Rain is also good for ruining lake ice but with the single-digit highs predicted, there is also a good chance some of that precipitation will turn to snow, at least flurries, but enough to whiten the ice back up. White reflects the sun and retards the melting process. So, overall, I think next week is going to put the melt into a holding pattern.
No matter, everything looks good for an on-time ice-out. After being burned with airplane costs the previous two years, we at Bow Narrows Camp aren't opening this year until the actual second week of the fishing season, May 23. It will be a real pleasure for us to get into camp a week or two before the guests and get everything running and into shape. It is utter misery for us to basically get there the same time as the guests which is what happened the last two years.
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3 comments:
Dan,
This sounds great for everyone involved. You, Brenda and your staff so that you can have the time to get camp ready for all your guests. For your guests, so that we can fish in our usual places (Sadler Bay, ha, ha)It should also help the Walleye fishing.
As always, we are looking forward to yet another great week of fishing and nature watching at Bow Narrows.
See you opening week.
Indiana Dave
Really appreciate your updates and enjoy reading your blogs.
Any updates on where you expect the water level to be in your neck of the woods once the ice melts?
Thanks - Kevin
Dave, you are right-on, as usual. It usually takes at least a week after ice-out at our end of Red Lake before the walleye start to bite. So, they should be available during our first week this year.
Kevin, I would guess the water level is going to be low for this time of year, but not terribly so.
We got a lot of rain in the past couple of days and with the ground still frozen, that will all end up in the lake. The snow from the winter, however, mostly just evaporated when the got the week of really warm, windy weather.
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