Metaphorically speaking, that is. I mean, don't go fishing yet because the season doesn't open until May 20. Nothing stopping you from cutting bait at this time though.
What I'm saying is, it's time to gaze into the crystal ball, throw a dart at the board, play a hunch, take a risk, stick your neck out and pick a date for ice-out in Red Lake.
So, here's my prediction: May 13.
We got a clear image from space today on Worldview as you can see above. It shows no snow on the ground from Duluth all the way north to Northern Manitoba. You can find Red Lake by finding the larger zig-zag lake about three-quarters up. That's Lac Seul. Its northwest end points to Pakwash Lake. To its northwest is Gullrock Lake and to its northwest is Red Lake, the horizontal lake with the hammerhead on the west end partly obscured by cloud. Trout Lake is the large roundish lake to the east of Red Lake.
Incidentally, Nolalu is well off this image to the northeast. We still have a foot of snow in the bush here and several inches out in the open. Most of this came in two dumps during the past two weeks.
If you want to load the above image into your computer so that you can enlarge it for better resolution, click here.
4 comments:
Dan, your original guess was 5/13 and you are staying true to that date. I'm usually a glass 1/2 full type but based on the 10 day forecast with no rain and above freezing temps I'm thinking closer to 5/18. Guess I'll unpack my equipment for opening weekend since it's unlikely the lake I was hoping to go to is 109 miles North of Red Lake. Time will tell but I hope you can arrive to your home at the time you had hoped to.
Sure enjoy your blog and thanks for the link to the satellite link.
Mike S
I just updated my model and...
I called snow gone on the 14th so our approach of using averages had 'standard' ice out (around Booi Island) as May 11th. It's been below average temps since the snow melted so the modifier, so far, is 4 days later which puts it currently at May 15th.
It's going to be interesting to see how accurate this approach is but so far I'm pretty impressed!
Have you seen any recent images of how Howey Bay is doing?
George
Haven't seen anything but I heard today, May 2, that there is 13 inches of ice.
Hey Dan,
I'm hearing most of the lakes are open except the big deep lakes (maybe that will leave Red Lake closed longer) I hope your 5/13 prediction is still on target. Have a great safe trip north and hope your home gets completed this summer and your cell booster works so we can see progress on how your build is coming and some of the fish your are catching.
Mike S.
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