No ice good?

I have a feelin that the 'eyes are gunna bite slow atfirst but then they are gunna just go nuts

Finally, the weather is taking a nice turn. Even colder than they thought. Still not "cold", but we'll take it. And today and yesterday didn't get as bad as they thought either.

That's the thing, sometimes when people see it's going to be 40 degrees, (people that don't ice fish), the automatically think the ice is going to be shot.

But, what they don't realize is that it might get down to 25 degrees at night, and during the day, it doesn't get above freezing until about 10:00 am and lasts until 5:00 PM, a 7 hour stretch. So, the freeze/thaw effect kind of negates itself.

Sunday morning, on the way to church I noticed that everything looked really solid from Saturday night's lows. Really dampened some of the melting thank goodness.

Good to hear the knee is better, cds, but dont worry ,with this warm weather, you will be falling thru again soon, ha ha!

Good thing you didnt name one of my "secret" little lakes on here, or Beaver lake wouldnt be the only thing getting "pounded"

With the warm weather,many people are afraid to test the ice out of fear for their saftey, so numbers are down on the lakes this weekend. I was out on one of those pounded lakes yesterday. There was only one other group, and they stayed at the far side of the lake where we never fish anyway, so it was like having the lake to ourselves.

On the other hand, yes, the small lakes in SE Wisconsin have been hammered when it is safe, but almost a whole month was wiped out earlier this year. And if the ice continues to deteriote, walking on will be the only option, and that will limit numbers too. By the end of the season, even the small lakes around here won't have seen what they normally see in a regular year in my opinion. The weekends of 50 people on a 250 acre lake will be limited to just a few this year, rather than the 12 or so weekends where it is usually possible.

If lakes in the north get a ridiculous amount of pressure because they have fishable ice it won't matter....tribal spearing will bear the brunt of the blame anyway.

As much as I love to ice fish, I would like to see a few seasons that the safe ice period is short. Help protect the fish from the "Bucket People"

lol,Jaybee.

Knee healed up enough to walk within 36 hours. Still uncomfortable,tender and swollen after 8 days....Think waking all over a couple of the county's biggest lakes has anything to do with that?

Naw. Me neither.

(edit) The biggest lakes are the ones that can withstand the pressure....I've heard of illegal parking at Moose. MOOSE! My gawd - they're gonna cream every legal-sized pike out of that lake....beaver - lot's full most days by 7am. heck,fishing hasn't rebounded much since the LAST time that lake got pounded....Forest lake has consistently had more vehicles at the access point than I ever remember.

And those are 3 lakes I betcha Jaybee's not counting among the "three" he mentions.

Yup. Bad for the little lakes that are receiving tons of pressure because they have safe ice. Never seen so many people on 3 of the small lakes i have fished compared to other years. Good for big lakes with sketchy ice that few people are fishing. Not too many people creep out on thin ice over 60 ft of water like cds! Did ya heal up from falling thru the ice the other day, Chris?

Um,Berger - did you read the original post?

The gist is that some lakes will not see nearly the pressure that they will in "normal" years. The title "No ice good?",meaning is this season good for the fisheries?

Good for some,bad for others.

What do you mean no good ice? I live in the southwest suburbs of Chicago and have been hitting the ice 3-4 times a week all with-in an hour and half. Do the home work, use common sense and be safe-life spikes, spud & PFD. You must work with-in your comfort zone. There's OK to Good ice out there. I have yet to get wet and dont plan on put myself in a position to do so. Some lakes still have 3.5-5 inches of fish-able ice. Shore lines are the issue now used planks. Spread out travel lite and have a good time. Fished the chain yesterday all day and was the best day on the ice this year for me..

or drive north

I'm looking forward to getting out on Big Muskego this year. Excited to get some big bass on my new reel

I knew it. Sure enough, temps for the weekend and early next week are steadily climbing from what they were just 2 or 3 days ago. Almost all winter, when one looks at the end of the 7 day and compares it to what actually happens, it's warmer than they originally thought. This is sick.

Robollio: According the the DNR Biologist in charge of Big Muskego, "There hasn't been a winterkill there since 2000-2001." Yes, that is verbatim what I was told earlier this year.

Obviously that wizard wasn't out there the winter of '08-'09 when there were thousands of dead pannies & bass under the ice. Obviously wasn't out there the winter of '06-'07 either when there were dead fish littering the bottom.

I saw this with my own eyes.

You are correct that many lakes will get a much needed reprieve, which is good in some respects. The downside: some lakes that could use a thinning out of any species, won't get that.

I think its great!

Warm,and windy when there's a spot of open water. The wind eats away at the break,when the spot opens farther then current sets up beneath the ice.

Warm wind sucks. Warm wind is what we got today....hosed the salt of the snowmobile trailer this morning,adding Sta-Bil to the tank. I may not take the sled out again this year.