Ice Fishing this season?

[Rog87]

If its good ice would love to go out of wild wings Saturday. Kinda new to the whole ice fishing thing so any advice/tips would be great. And if anyone else is thinking the same I’d love to tag along and learn. Got my own equipment, and your bar tabs on me afterwards.

[Gpettegrew]

As expected the winds today broke off the main sheet of ice off Catawba. Looking like heading out this weekend is out of the question, but I'm still hopeful for late next week.

[West Basin]

Nobody else is reporting as of 9pm Saturday so here's what little I have heard. First hand - solid ice west nw of South Bass. Fishing off Rattlesnake Island not much success for keepers, but lots of shorts. Don't know how those closer to South Bass did. Second hand reports: off Crane Creek, fair to good catches of walleye, about 3 miles out; off Catawba decent catches of both walleye and perch. There were a lot of people out and around today. I'm reporting a small amount of what happened. No matter where travel was very difficult with the deep snow and lots of ice shoves.

Quarter mile off Rattlesnake Island, looking back at South Bass.

[olouttt]

Personally I’m a crappie guy. This season has turned out to be the best ice season I can remember. Both for numbers and size. Have even caught a few bonus walleyes. I have been fishing shallower than I usually do this time of year (last year college took much time - I'd have better used https://www.topwritersreview.com/reviews/wisеessays/). One of the highly pressured lakes I fish I have noticed the crappies are not biting in the community holes like usual. The afternoon bite has been much better than the night bite, which is opposite compared to most years. This is perfect because the wheelhouse guys stay parked over the negative fish.

[Lucky Duck]

How long will the ice last with temperatures above freezing for the next week and this rain coming?

[Capt Juls]

How long will the ice last with temperatures above freezing for the next week and this rain coming?

The latest satellite picture from yesterday shows big cracks opening up in the Western Basin (west side of the islands) and really broken up ice and open water east of Kelly's.

With the warmer temps this week, and big SSW winds forecast for the next few days, we might see a lot more open water west of the islands later this week. The winds will break off chunks of ice and blow it away from this side of the lake.


The temps will be above freezing most of the week and hit a high of almost 50 next weekend. I don't think we're out of the winter mode yet though, but I doubt very much that any more ice will be forming on the lake as we head into March.


I'm just 4 weeks away from the first scheduled trips, so hopefully, it will be all open water by then. Fingers crossed!


Stay tuned...


Capt Juls

[Lucky Duck]

Four weeks away from the first trips is exciting!

[pimplepounder]

Yes Capt. that wind is what will do it in for sure, sheets of ice lap right over another segment and open right up.. Normally I would be all about getting out there. But with January being so warm, the ice is not good enough to tempt me on to it.

Bring on the open water!

[West Basin]

Yep, wind shifted around to the south south east today and is moving ice around. SW high winds through Saturday morning forecast. NOAA:

"TONIGHT...South winds 15 to 25 knots becoming southwest to
30 knots. Snow and rain showers.
.FRIDAY...Southwest gales to 35 knots becoming west. Mostly
cloudy.
.FRIDAY NIGHT...West winds to 30 knots diminishing to 15 to
25 knots. Mostly cloudy. "

That ought to mess everything up pretty well.

We'll have to see how the calmer winds and real cold temps ice up the Lake next week.

[West Basin]

Took a look around the Internet for Lake Erie ice fishing info. Not much being posted. From what the webcams show and the few posts I read, the ice has moved around and been packed in at places, with some open water here and there. Hardly anyone out except in Put-in-Bay Harbor. Looks like we'll have to wait for this coming week's real cold temps and not so much wind and see what the ice conditions are come Wednesday through next weekend. The pack ice / jumbled up ice that is already there isn't going to change, so travel conditions will be tough when ice fishing does start, except out on the newer ice.