Melt - thoughts

[shorthairsrus]

Dean this reminds me of 1997 --- that artic forecast has been wrong -- it shows april warm -- itshowed feb mar too --- were just plain fkd. I just hope i can get into those northern lakes with my trailer.

 

[WormWiggler]

Me thinks it's gonna be a good year for Creek chubs

I'm curious, are you catching them to eat, sell, use as bait? or is the health just a personal item you like to track?

 

[Bfishn]

Yes but remember when we are dealing with it being at near full pool at the start are the years they have to crank it up and we end up blowing the damn smelt out of her and destroy the fishery for a decade

It’s not at full pool, Sak has been drawn down to 1837 like it is every year. The snowpack on MT is average, nothing like last year. Should just be a nice normal runoff imo. Obviously huge spring snow/rains can change that but that’s impossible to predict.

 

[Kurtr]

Dean this reminds me of 1997 --- that artic forecast has been wrong -- it shows april warm -- itshowed feb mar too --- were just plain fkd. I just hope i can get into those northern lakes with my trailer.

We we are on the verge of having the most snow ever. Already passed 97 glad Mobridge never floods

 

[dean nelson]

Yeah think we are still about 50 inches shy of 97. The April blizzard that year was a hell of a thing. I was fishing fish creek the day before Open Water and I believe it was in the 70s with almost no snow left anywhere within 24 hours we were in the worst blizzard I've ever seen. Does anyone actually know our full total for snow this year in Bismarck? I'm sure Allen's got it.

 

[ndfinfan]

Serious question because I'm a far ways away and haven't drilled a hole - is the ice really that thick?

Less than two months ago there were conversations about open water on Sak and the river being open through Bismarck. And then it got a little cold and dumped snow on top of snow on top of snow and then finally the brutal cold moved in. Seems like the ice should have been very well insulated before the real cold hit.

I'm sure guys that are commenting on thickness have first hand experience drilling holes but it seems like from the outside looking in that it would be a less than average ice year (when we used to be driving on the ice no problem by Christmas and it was cold as hell from Thanksgiving to March 1).

Just curious. Regardless, hopefully it's a slow melt and not the disaster that was breakup 10 years ago where we had 100 inches of snow melt in 6 hours.

Yesterday on middle Sakakawea (Deepwater) ice was right around 30 inches...give or take...lot's of snow. Last year fished same area in mid April with nearly same ice thickness.

 

[zoops]

Yeah think we are still about 50 inches shy of 97. The April blizzard that year was a hell of a thing. I was fishing fish creek the day before Open Water and I believe it was in the 70s with almost no snow left anywhere within 24 hours we were in the worst blizzard I've ever seen. Does anyone actually know our full total for snow this year in Bismarck? I'm sure Allen's got it.

Think I saw somewhere about a week ago that we were at 38 inches, so I supposed we're pushing 50 now. Had around 100 in what was it 2009-10?

 

[dean nelson]

Yeah that's about I was guessing as well. Yep the two biggest are 97 and 09.

 

[shorthairsrus]

We we are on the verge of having the most snow ever. Already passed 97 glad Mobridge never floods

Bismarck should never flood either. Poor city planning

 

[CatDaddy]

This snow has been unreal in the Casselton area.....

 

[Kurtr]

this was before yesterday

 

[shorthairsrus]

After this storm and next wed they break the records. Darrell v rubbing his hands together. Specials out the ass it's over the big d will be built. Economy effected by this shit weather.

 

[guywhofishes]

Darrell V?

 

[MathewsZman]

 

[dean nelson]

Bismarck should never flood either. Poor city planning

Ah when is the last time bismarck actually flooded. Bismarck left huge amounts of ground undeveloped between the river and the town proper and has since put in a dike system to hold make a major flow. Now keep in mind they had to do so little to hold back water that nine times out of 10 you can't even tell there's a there is a dike there. Versus going to someplace like Fargo or Grand Forks where they have the Great Wall of China running through the middle of town.

 

[NDwalleyes]

See the forest through the trees boys...winters like this make for good year classes of fish and full lakes, bugs for pheasant chicks, and good waterfowl nesting. Couple more weeks of this crap...just hang in there! This is exactly what we needed.

 

[Big Iron]

See the forest through the trees boys...winters like this make for good year classes of fish and full lakes, bugs for pheasant chicks, and good waterfowl nesting. Couple more weeks of this crap...just hang in there! This is exactly what we needed.

Pretty sure yesterday’s storm is going to finish off a lot of birds in my area. You re right tho, silver linings. Fishing will improve from the last few years. Lakes levels will hopefully rise a +12”.

 

[dean nelson]

See the forest through the trees boys...winters like this make for good year classes of fish and full lakes, bugs for pheasant chicks, and good waterfowl nesting. Couple more weeks of this crap...just hang in there! This is exactly what we needed.

Ahhh you have to have pheasants left to make a good hatch in the first place. Sure Winters like this can bring some good things around especially if you're a duck but also don't forget that lake oahe is still scrounging around the bottom of the barrel for walleyes and it's directly because of winters like this! Or I guess more so the Corps of Engineers being stupid on where they put the intake on there water release structure at Dam but either way too much water in that Lake can lead to far too few fish left afterwards.

 

[NDbowman]

this was before yesterday

Where can I find a page like this for North Dakota?

 

[Brian Renville]

High water is always good for Sak. Remeber what happened in 2011? Fishing on Sak has never been better in the time since. The baitfish do incredibly well other than the smelt and there is plenty of forage.