More snow may be good news for people who like snowmobiles, but it is not good news for anglers who like to go ice fishing.
The snow is also bad news for anyone who still has a permanent fish house on one of the area lakes.
Anglers in the northern one third of Minnesota, which includes the Bemidji area, have until midnight on Wednesday (March 15) to remove their fish houses from the ice.
Heavy, wet snow like we received this past week adds a significant amount of weight to the ice.
Pressure can build up and be released when anglers drill holes in the ice, with water gushing out of the holes and flooding the ice.
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The ice on the lakes is actually floating on the water and when a large amount of heavy snow falls on the lakes; the ice rides lower in the water.
When melting snow runs off the lakes, the water level in the lakes rise and the ice begins to lift away from the shore. As it does, the water begins to drain off the lakes and run down the old fishing holes or any other cracks in the ice.
Whirlpools can be created when the water runs down the holes, which can create large holes in the ice.
The speed of the snow melt will determine how much longer anglers will be able to access the lakes. As long as temperatures stay below freezing at night, the lakes have a chance to re-freeze and slow down the melting process.
Once temperatures stay above freezing for more than a night or two, all bets are off and the ice fishing season may come to an abrupt halt.
The reason some anglers are so disappointed to see more snow is they are worried about missing some of the best ice fishing of the season.
Prespawn fish need to feed more heavily to provide the nutrients their bodies need to complete the last stages of gestation, which usually makes them easier to catch.
The amount of food available in the lakes is reduced by the end of winter and fish have to search for sufficient amounts of food to get their bodies ready to spawn.
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The finicky behavior of fish during much of the winter changes on late ice and they become more aggressive and less likely to reject anglers' presentations.
The diet of fish often changes as spawning approaches.
Perch have been satisfied eating insects in the mud basin most of the winter, but they will begin to move closer to structure to take advantage of the greater variety of potential food sources located there like minnows, crayfish and eelpout eggs.
Walleyes and northern pike are also approaching prespawn and anglers can travel to one of the Canadian Border lakes to fish the extended gamefish seasons there.
Fish like to stage up near the areas where they plan to go once the ice is off the lakes. Fish on larger lakes usually have further to travel to reach spawning sites and are more likely to make pre-emptive moves to get in position for ice-out.
Fish living in chains of lakes may also move into position to move into another lake or river to spawn.
The Pine Island area on Lake of the Woods is a classic staging area, where walleyes stack up by the mouth of the Rainy River, waiting for the ice to go out.
Crappies and sunfish will also start to move towards the shoreline and begin to stack up at the base of the shoreline drop-off.
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Even though crappies and sunfish don't spawn until water temperatures reach into the 60s, they make a feeding movement into the shallows that can begin before the ice is off the lakes.
Anglers wanting to do more ice fishing better get busy. There is already enough snow on the lakes to create a problem.
The ice conditions are likely to be wet and sloppy for the rest of the ice fishing season unless there is another drastic change in the weather, which is certainly possible considering this is Minnesota.
Paul A. Nelson has been a multi-species fishing guide in the Bemidji area for more than 24 years. He can be contacted by calling 218-759-2235
