The only area I checked was Blackhawk, there was a few places around the edges that were shaky, channels had 5-7” . Fishing was excellent in the morning for gills , wax worms seemed to do best with a green glow jig , the bite slowed down a bit in the afternoon I think mainly because the area was crowded, I hoped over to another channel and picked quite a few gills. I moved on around 3:30 and was headed to Long Island area but talked to a good friend and he said there was no place to park, he did show me some nice eyes he picked up in that area but left because he got crowded out, we fished the Blackhawk channel for eyes and panfish but left when the snowmobiles started using us as human pylons, inside of 10’ at full throttle is a little too close for comfort. The guy I fished with counted 95 cars just between Long Island and Blackhawk, he didn’t go into any of the nooks around the lake ..... off to Kiser tomorrow

Wife and I had our accounts and identity stolen right before Thanksgiving last year. The extent these people go through to ruin everything you've built for yourself is mind-blowing. They changed passwords, email accounts, stole money from our accounts, changed our overdraft protection so it would follow any new accounts we opened trying to escape their carnage. I was lucky enough to catch their theft's within days but the damage they did took several weeks and numerous visits to the bank managers office trying to figure out how to revert their actions. We were able to recover all monies stolen and all accounts hacked were closed. It seems the thieves were able to revert an ATM card I lost back in 2006 and open it up and recover all our banking information and were in the process of emptying everything we saved. After we found out how they did it, we then looked at our credit report only to find out the true damage they have done by opening up other accounts in my name, this is the hardest thing to repair and is still a work in progress. The bank traced their IPO's only to find out that they can scramble their address

I just saw our water rescue team was sent to Indian Lake tonight to get someone out of the water. They found the person and he was okay and refused transport to the hospital. I don’t know any more details and glad this person is okay. Sometimes you have to realize when it’s raining, 48 degrees out and the ice isn’t that great, it may be time to put the gear up and wait another day. I’ve fell through in 9’ of water and touched bottom, looking up through a hole is a life altering experience, lucky for me I was able to pull myself out of the ice but by the time I got out and walked to my truck that was less than 20 feet away my ice suit zipper was froze up, my hair was a solid mass of ice, boot laces were ice chunks and every muscle in my body was burning and cramping, you start to get tunnel vision and my body was shaking violently. I was in the water about 3 minutes but it felt like a life time.  We had 13” of ice on the main lake in St. Mary’s but it had rained the day before, the day I went through the temps had dropped to 15 degrees and I assumed all was good because I could see 20 or so guys a half mile or so away on the main lake perch fishing. When I stepped on the ice at the sail boat club, the edges had rotted up and I didn’t even look down because I was in a hurry to get out there , whoosh the ice broke, I fell through, touched bottom and was lucky enough to be right there by the wall where they lower the boats in, but trying to climb out expelled all my energy but I kept telling myself I couldn’t die this way , my finger tips were bloody where I was scraping the asphalt trying to grip anything and was screaming for help on deaf ears as no one could hear me or let alone see me from the road because the wall blocked their view. So yes I take ice safety seriously and won’t venture out on less than good ice, everyone is different and some will say we all gotta die some how, might as well die doing what I love, that sound like a ballsy statement and a John Wayne style to go out, until you’re in that situation. Stay safe fellas, there is always next season or we hope.

Went to the show Saturday and met a few of you guys at the ice fish Ohio booth,  it’s always good to be able to meet up with others who are on the web site and put a face to a name. The show was pretty crowded and made it hard to move around, but I still managed to find a few good bargains 

Did you get to Dunn’s by walking through mound wood or park over there, I guess I’m asking if mound wood is safe

I use braided line when ice fishing for saugeye, I used to have some issues with the line getting tangled in the hooks but I have since gone with a medium action rod, I used the usual snap up method but I always maintain feel of the bait and when I lower it, I do it slowly controlling the drop with my rod. The big issues with the braided line are,1) line freeze ups and 2) line slipping on the spool. To help prevent ice build up I used reel spray, it helps but doesn't solve the problem in extreme colds, and yes braided line will break, the ice builds up acts like a knife and it does shred the line. Line slippage or what some may think is the drag not working can be solved by adding mono to the spool 1st and then put on about 60-70yrd of braided line, the colder the temps the more braided line slips so when you 1st drop in the hole and find your depth, flip the bail closed and pull on the line to sinch it to the reel, otherwise if you don't, on the 1st hook set you could lose the fish due to a poor hook set. Hope we get ice back on, the flu bug hit me and I couldn't go out the past 2 weeks

I'm missing out on the ice fishing, flu bug is kicking my ass, hope to return Monday if it all holds up, in the meantime I'll have to sit and read about all your guy's success stories. Stay safe and hope to see ya'll on the ice