Today one of the guys I was walking out on the ice with took the polar plunge, luckily it wasn't deep and he was able to roll out on his own, even though we spudded all the way, the ice still gave way with what seemed to be " good ice" What amazed us the most, as careful as we were there were at least 6 guys who jumped on the ice, crossed at will without using a spud and eventually figured out.. the ice wasn't safe, scary part, they crossed 10' of water unknowingly. So this is a heads up to those making the trek to Indian, Blackhawk has an area across the entire bay that has less than 2" as of Thursday noon, Moundwood was unsafe with about an inch on the edges, North Fork from the bridge on Long Island was unsafe and 2 large areas of open water from aerators,  Achesons was unsafe, Tilton Hilton was unsafe to get on and I'm sure there are more areas. We did find good ice from 4-7", but the fishing wasn't that great. Be safe all and spud your way out!

Is there any good ice in Ohio, I have Monday & Tuesday off, then Friday- Sunday off.... I really don't want to drive 3 hours and fish off a dock, I can do that local.. any info on any lake would be greatly appreciated. I went through all the lake reports but with the diminished ice seasons the past 2 years, no one is reporting anything.. Thanks in advance

Hopefully we haven't forgotten the Indian Lake Home page issues, I still can't load, read, or post anything for that lake and that lake only .... I've tried everything with no resolve.. any info or updates would be appreciated

I've been ice fishing since the late 70's , watched my dad make a lot of his own baits, rods, etc, I eventually progressed the same and took it a notch higher, made my own molds to inject plastics, poured the leadheads , made my own bobbers just about everything to do with ice fishing I've made, now I've decided to try another hobby and add that technique to ice fishing and that's tying flies.  They won't be the fancy ones you see posted on trout fishing magazines but rather little nymphs and maybe a little flash on crappie jigs to make it a little different from other baits we've become normalized with ice fishing. All that just to ask this, how many other guys or gals have tied their own flies for ice fishing, if so, what is your best go-to fly you make?

these rods are a blast to use

went to luthmans bridge, didn’t fish, just checked water clarity and see if I could mark fish, water was stained and no marks, so I went to Earls Island, quite a few guys spread all around, I fished on the east side in the 5-6’ of water, marked all kinds of fish but only managed to catch a few crappies and gills, the bite was super light, I tried all colors , waviest and spikes , chartreuse seemed to be the better color, I moved in closer to the island in 3-4’ of water, the fish seemed to more willing to bite but were hanging about a foot off the bottom. Guy next to me was doing good on both crappies and gills, I left fish to find fish.... always a mistake, went back to luthmans and did manage to catch 2 eyes.... but the 2 combined length might have been 15”

I took my wife out for dinner last night , We started out with the normal conversation about how our days went, I told her I took Friday off to ice fish and let her know what lake I was going to, from there on, my mind was on fishing and fish was on my mind.... she started talking about, actually I don’t know what she was talking about, I was just nodding my head and saying, yea, okay , and giving a smirk smile as I bobbed my head thinking about what color I should start out on, “ yea sounds good” ... should I target eyes first before sunrise or panfish, “ ha, yea that sounds good babe” do I wanna take a chance on parking or just tough it out and walk a mile , ha, with a smirk smile, “ okay babe”.... all of a sudden my wife got up and started walking out the door before we even ate, I jumped up and said, “ where you going?” , she looked at me, along with 15 other people in the restaurant and said,” I just asked you if you wanted me to get up and go home and you said , “ okay babe” .... I could hear forks drop and people laughing as I tried to plead  my case and get her to sit back down without too much static..... she did, but I had to listen very attentively the rest of the evening as she ripped my ass and told me how many times I’ve done this before..... oops, I can’t help it, I’ve got IFADD .... Ice fishing attention deficit disorder... tight lines fellas... lol

Went out after work, the lake didn’t look very promising to get out on, the edges looked almost impossible to walk out on. I found 1 guy fishing off of Oak Cove so I followed his trail to the ice, once you find a good place to walk out , the ice was 5-7”. I don’t fish the lake very often so when  you’re only in 3-3 1/2 foot of water you know you gotta be super quiet so you don’t spook the fish. From 3:30 - 5:30 I caught 16 real nice gills and 1 keeper crappie, I was using a 2 mm firetiger tungsten jig tipped with a waxie, just a reminder to those who aren’t from the area, the bait shop by the spillway is closed on Mondays. Water clarity is stained