Quality time with the wife.......now bear with me.....once you're ready to roll she can't say we haven't done anything together. Ask her what she wants to do, go to a place she likes then you are home free once we get good ice and you heal

If I was going for perch, I would roll the dice and hit Simcoe. Been to LSC and it is fun but alot better chance at getting jumbos at Simcoe. You will do alot of sorting at LSC. jmo Both are a blast though.

Me kpi joewallguy and 7 others also made the trip to LSC between the holidays. Been there a few times when the ice bug can't be cured here.
My suggestion would be like the others have said, hit sportmens direct for all your needs before heading out. Head just north on Jefferson and you will see ginos on your right. It is a banquet center on the lake. They charge 5 for parking on weekends 3 for weekdays. 2 bucks for trailer.
Pretty much its no real secret where to go. There will be 100 plus shanties out there. Just hit spots and move if not productive. We fished from the s/e to the farthest guys out to in close.  Our best bite was in the afternoon and was in 7.5 foot of water. However, I enjoy perch and they are small. Some of our guys pulled some nice pumpkin seeds and a few bass.
Best lure for me was beaded spoon blade others did OK with jiggin raps on pin mins with wax worms.
Ice was 6-7 and smooth and slick.
The best thing was to be on the ice with all the guys and having fun. Would it been great to get into some monster perch?? For sure!! But it was great to brush the dust off the gear burn some holes and pull any species of fish through the ice!!

Moved this from general discussions. Possible to add the lakes to specific lake report section???

Here is the quietest unit I used so far. I sold my vex and purchased this for one reason. Just to have my GPS integrated into an all in one unit. Loved my fl-18 and the thing is a workhorse. Noise never bothered me on the vex  and it always worked flawless. I have not used my bird extensively yet but have seen others and am very impressed with the screens I have seen with the ice ducer. I can tell you the base map blows and you really need to purchase a card. Will be pulling the card from my summer unit to use in this. I can tell you this has zero noise. YouTube hummingbird 597 ci HD ice fishing and you will see some guys who have really dialed these in for ice use on flasher and sonar screens.
The elite 4 or 5 or bird 300 or 500 series really expands the use of your unit by becoming a year around unit and all have built in flasher screens or 2d sonar which all pick up smallest of jigs with ice ducer

Glad to see people enjoy it as well. I used it this whole summer on Erie. Takes a bit to get down the buttons but once you do it is a great tool and really helps in planning. Don't think I will be using too too much on ice. Seems my fat fingers tend to drop things directly over the open hole.

seeing mixed forecasts but as we get closer to the weekend, it looks like we may have a pretty big ice killing event this weekend. Hope the weather folks are wrong but it looks like this early ice could be short lived.