Leech Lake Ice Fishing Report for December 5th, 2024
December 5, 2024
Report from the Dock
Ice developed quickly across the entire state during the past week. The first cold blast of the season locked up lakes in just a few days, and ice depths have continued building. Anglers have started walking on small lakes and bays as far south as Fairmont, and there’s talk of ATV use across parts of northern Minnesota as early as this weekend. While there was still some open water on most big, deep lakes early this week, there seems to be walkable ice everywhere, and it developed in roughly a four-to-six-day window. Many reports indicated 3 to 6 inches of ice, depending on the lake or area within a given lake, which made for a quick transition to this year’s ice fishing season. Look to those traditional, first-ice spots, those lakes that capped earliest, and you should be able to find enough ice to walk on. As always, this time of year, check the ice as you go and use the contacts in this report for daily ice updates.
Leech Lake Ice Fishing Report
Walker Bay remained wide open as of Tuesday morning, but some ice had started to form in the small bays and main-lake areas. It’s likely that the small, shallow bays will see some fishing activity as early as this weekend, with up to 6 inches of ice being found on some of them early this week. Strong winds were expected on Wednesday, and that could have a negative impact on the main basin ice that is already in place.