Re: Ice Fishing Western basin
If you are not familiar with ice fishing the western basin, then I highly recommend hiring a local guide. The lake has a ton of current, and some areas are more dangerous than others. Usually, the best ice will be up between the bass islands, and there are several guides that fish there. However, that usually means a plane ride across, to get there, if the ice isn't locked up from the mainland.
Every year is different....sometimes it locks up, and you can go out from the mainland, and sometimes it doesn't.
Every year, people will go out without checking the wind direction, and head out with an offshore wind, and if strong enough....that opens up what we call the, "911 Crack" off of Catawba Island, and people have to be rescued. If that happens, they bring humans back, but leave all the gear out there. Salvage guys with air boats will go out and bring the gear back, but you will have to pay them to get it back.
The shipping lanes north of the islands is usually kept open by ice breakers, as long as the ice isn't too thick.
The last time the lake froze completely over was back in 2014/15.
Last season, I think they only got two or three weeks of ice in February, but it was sketchy...and, again...18 people had to be rescued off of Catawba towards the end of that small window of opportunity, due to an offshore wind.
There are several very good guides who put safety first, and some that will take more risks to make some money, so choose wisely.
I won't ice fish out there, but if I did, I would do the fly over and go with the guides that go out of Put-in-Bay. There's usually a good population of fish in that triangle, and they do very well. It would be the safest area to fish, in my opinion. But, that's just me.
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