How Far Away is Ice-Off? Looking like about Mid-April.

It's a common things for local resorters and Mille Lacs Lake area residents to predict when the actual ice-out will happen each spring.  This year, it appears we might have an early ice-off.  I was once told by Kevin Anderson at the Messenger that ice-off is defined when you could drive a boat from Isle Bay to Garrison Bay.  That sounds pretty rational to me.

We know that last year, ice-off was April 27th.  We know that the latest recorded ice-off is May 7th and that the earliest ice-off is April 2nd.  I like George Nitti's prediction.  He predicted ice-off would occur about April 15th this year.  I talked with George briefly at his customer appreciation day on March 20th, which was also the same day the Mille Lacs Poker Run stopped by his resort.

Earlier ice-off might mean that the tribal netters can get out and get their quotas earliers, allowing some time for the remaining fish to return to some normacly in time for this year's May 15th Minnesota Fishing Opener.