The recent cold and snowy weather isn't bad news for everyone.  Ice fishing isn't far off now with temperatures consistently in the 20s and 30s over the past week and temps expected to drop to the teens for highs over the weekend and single digits expected overnight.  Glen Schmitt from Outdoor News joined me on WJON.  He says if the cooler weather continues some locations about an hour north of St. Cloud and beyond should be safe for ice fishing.  He says some skinny lakes and some that are sheltered from the wind have been ice covered for about a week.  Schmitt says Central Minnesota is a bit further behind with only a few bays and ponds ice covered around here.

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Schmitt explains he's familiar with a few people ice fishing on small bodies of water in North and South Dakota earlier this week.  He says locations like Red Lake and Leech Lake in Northern Minnesota are popular destinations for ice fishing early in the season.

Updated deer hunting harvest numbers are a bit down.  Schmitt says the most recently reported numbers from the Minnesota DNR show about 109,000 deer harvested for just the gun season which is down about 11% from last year.  He says combining all the deer harvest numbers so far 138,000 deer were shot which is down 20% from last year.  The reason for the decreased numbers can be blamed on cold and windy weather during the first weekend and less deer licenses purchased. Schmitt also says many locations in the state appear to have less deer than what was forecasted.

If you'd like to listen to my conversation with Glen Schmitt from Outdoor News it is available below.

 

 

Behind the Scenes: A WJON News Series

 

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