Ice Fishing this season?

[West Basin]

"Artic Blast" starts tomorrow night and runs through next Sunday. Then it warms up the 22 through the 26. Then back into real cold again for the rest of the month, into early February. That four day warmer weather might be enough to stall ice formation and it won't be good enough for the January 27/28 weekend. Right now it looks like February 3/4 could be the first weekend of ice fishing. We;ll see.

I'm no expert either, but I do know that in order to get good ice, no matter where on the Lake, the water temperature has to be down at 34-33 degrees and then get several days of real cold temperatures and little to no wind. Get the first inch or two of ice formed in calm conditions. Best then to get at least a few more days of real cold with little to no wind to get a nice "locked in" 4-6 inches. Then continued cold to get 8"+ of ice to be able to withstand winds and a few days of warm weather. Even though the three week forecast is real good for ice formation, I don't hold out a lot of hope for February, as the cycle of warm and cold weather will probably start up again.

As for "safe ice", it's kinda like saying "there is no safe highway". If the conditions are good and you go to well scouted areas, there is little to no wind in the forecast, and no high water coming in from the rivers, it can be as "safe" as possible. But it's never entirely safe, just like a highway.

We shall see how the ice forms over the next two / three weeks.