Groundhog saw his shadow!!!
 

YEAH!

Another month and a half of ice fishing opportunities!

i imagine him rotating on a rotisserie
getting golden brown and juicy

Only made it out one day so far this season. Hoping that the ice will still be good this weekend. 2 years in a row with minimal ice sucks.

Really?

I average at least one trip per weekend, but it does usually involve some travel....

At least 3 weeks of good ice fishing left... this warm spell got rid of the drifts and snow pack.. traveling is much better now... edges are still solid as of yesterday 12" hard black ice and another 10" of snow ice...long range forecast is favorable for some decent conditions lakes region north....the big lake is scary but the bays and intermediate lakes are good to go..

I think I saw our local ground hog frolicking in the back yard, stopping just long enough to flip me the bird!

Even though there will still be waters with lots of ice, the problem will be getting on the ice! What that ends up meaning is any shore ice that the foot soldiers would be using to haul their gear will probably get ripped to pieces by the sleds.

Probably need to plank it from here on out.

If worse comes to worst, I can always get some open water action, and when the sun is out there are some tidal waters that have held some "holdover" stripers in the past.
(Best part is that only a very few people know of these waters, and most of those only know it by boat. I fish it from shore and have had some very good outings. My earliest striper ever was on March 5, so that's also a possibility if the ice doesn't pan out.)

Drove my wheeler onto 18" of solid ice yesterday... edges not even close to breaking up... stopped and looked at several spots on Winni on my way home... same thing.. ice varied between 12 t0 15" good hard black ice..not air filled snow ice... this weekend will go a long way to keeping those shores nice for a bit longer... glad I'm on vacation next week...Personally .. I don't /wont use a plank... when I cant step onto solid ice... I'm done.