Well Dawson lake had 3.5 to 4 inches of ice today. We hand drilled about 15 different holes this morning checking the ice. We had 2 guys at the bank with a long climbing rope tied off to the guy checking the ice. After much debate we decided to give it a go and started fishin at 12:30. It was very slow all afternoon til about 4:30. We packed it up at 5:30 when the snow started to fly. The ice was good, better than I thought it would be. After 5 hours of fishin the 3 of us had caught a 12” bass, a gill and two walleye one 12” and one 15”. Fish were everywhere just not bitting till the weather got bad and it was getting dark and we didn’t bring our lites to stay and fish.
Now I will let everyone know that we didn’t think the north end of the lake was safe. It did have 3 to 3.5 inches of ice but would crack as we broke threw with the auger. Which we were kind of surprized by that since it has had ice for the longest on the lake.
We also had my climbing rope stretched from shore within arms reach of all 3 of us all day long. The ice never saged and we didn’t have any water on top of the ice.
We are all headed back out early in the morning to try for some more walleye and some crappie and what ever else we can catch.
I you guys are headed out to the ice please be careful. Better to play it safe and fish another day than push the limits of the ice.