But for most of the day, it was anybody’s guess.
As this issue was going to press on Monday, March 26, opinions differed wildly on when — or if — the ice went out.
On Monday morning, long-time angler and guide Steve Fellegy was at the Red Door on the north end of the lake. Fellegy often made the trip between Isle and Garrison in his boat in the 1980s and helped make the call.
According to Fellegy, there was still plenty of ice on the lake. “I’m predicting we have ice out today (Monday), or tomorrow at the latest,” he said.
By afternoon, Fellegy declared that the ice was out everywhere except the west side, from Pike Point to Cove Bay, where ice had blown in from a southeast wind.
On the south side, Eddy Lyback, another venerable Mille Lacs angler, said he thought the ice was out when he got up Monday morning and looked toward Garrison with a spotting scope. He posted on his website that by the traditional method of calling ice out — when a boat can be driven in a straight line from Garrison to Isle — ice was out Monday morning.
Enter Terry McQuoid — resorter, guide, pro, and the third person of the Mille Lacs angling Trinity.
McQuoid called the Messenger at about 3 p.m. from Myr Mar on the northwest side of the lake. He had driven up the east side and had seen nary an ice cube, and he was prepared to agree that the ice was out. “I can’t believe how fast it went,” McQuoid said, referring to a satellite image from Sunday that showed most of the lake still ice-covered.
And then the plot (or the ice) thickened.
McQuoid called back a few minutes later from Garrison concourse, where he was standing with his high-powered spotting scope. “I may have to change my mind,” he said.
At his feet was open water, but looking east toward the mudflats and Agate Bay, McQuoid could see ice three or four miles out from shore. “There’s no way you could drive a boat from Garrison in a straight line to Isle,” he said.
Fellegy begged to differ. From his vantage at Myr Mar, he could see only open water looking south.

Debate rages
On Monday afternoon, Terry Thurmer of Terry’s Boat Harbor on the west side said, “I got ice as far as I can see.”
Linda Eno of Twin Pine’s Resort, which is located on St. Alban’s Bay on the south side of Garrison, said she had ice going out at least a mile. “It’s in front of Garrison Bay, too,” she said.
At the Blue Goose in Garrison Bay, Ginger Okeson looked out her window Monday afternoon and said, “You couldn’t launch a boat from the Garrison public access right now. There’s open water in front of the Blue Goose, but you’d have to go a little north to get around the ice.”
Some folks were speculating that the Isle Bay/Garrison passage was open on Sunday, and they might have been right.
On the east side of Mille Lacs Lake, George Nitti of Nitti’s Hunters Point Resort said there was ice as far as he could see on Sunday, but it was gone Monday morning. “I think it all blew over to Garrison,” he said. “I’m guessing by tomorrow the lake will be open, or pretty danged close.”
Paul Waldowski, general manager of Appeldoorn’s Resort, was predicting a new ice-out record, even taking into account the 1910 data.

“With the wind and rain, it’s going to be a new record for sure.”
Rain was in the forecast for Monday afternoon and evening heading into Tuesday, with winds predicted between 20 and 30 miles an hour for Monday and gusting up to 50 miles an hour on Tuesday. History made
The Messenger has consistently kept track of ice out since 1979.
The earliest ice-out since that time was April 2 in 2000.
A Mille Lacs Messenger article from 1982 reported that a 1910 newspaper said the ice went out on March 31 of that year. The article didn’t say which newspaper, and the Messenger does not have it, but the information is consistent with what Weather.com reported this weekend: that the warmest March on record occurred in 1910 — and that this year may turn out to be even warmer.
By Monday afternoon, as the deadline approached, Messenger staff members were frantically trying to determine if the ice was out, and which authority to believe, and which to offend.
Fellegy stood by his guns, unequivocally stating that a boat could be driven from Garrison to Isle.
McQuoid stood by his, swearing that his spotting scope didn’t lie, and the ice was not out.
Messenger reporter Rob Passons finally brought the legends together at Fellegy’s perch at Myr Mar.
The trio concluded that whatever ice may have been present on the mudflats was certainly gone by late afternoon, and a passage from north Garrison Bay to Isle would have been possible.
The conclusion: 2012 ice-out occurred between noon and midnight on March 26 — smashing a record that has stood for over 100 years.