I’ve expressed this before, so it’s certainly no secret: One of my favorite places to ice fish is the Great Lakes. The combination of diverse fisheries and legitimate chance for truly giant fish provide an air of excitement that’s difficult to match. Yet all too often, the trick is finding accessible ice. Not all portions of these immense waters freeze–most winters, ice formation is limited to confined, wind protected areas such as marinas and harbors–or, relative to main lake basins, semi-sheltered shallow water bays. Given a severely cold winter, however, this limited region of ice coverage expands…and the super harsh winter of 2013-2014 provided one these unique exceptions, creating a spread of ice cover and thickness rarely recorded on the Great Lakes.
Not only did a substantial portion of the Lake Michigan and even Lake Superior basins freeze—a rarity in modern history—but a number of tributaries froze over as well. Since these tributary areas feature currents, they’re not generally places conducive to significant ice formation—in fact, during periods of strong flow or mild winters, many of them won’t freeze at all.
But a number feature relatively low grades as they approach the big lakes, forming wide channels consisting of fairly deep water graced by only slight to moderate currents. Combine this situation with stable periods of calm, cold weather and they will freeze—enough, at times, to allow ice fishing access.
Continue reading this article at this LINK….
—–
Join ODU Magazine on Facebook here at this LINK…..
Join ODU Magazine on our Twitter fishing site here at this LINK…..
Join ODU Magazine on our Twitter hunting site here at this LINK…..
.