I went by Indian on Saturday and people were fishing everywhere I went. I didn’t fish i was just driving by.  Surprised there’s no fishing reports.  About 60 fishermen at Long Island.

Glad to see a little activity on the site. I plan to hit Indian as much as possible with a few Alum Creek trips thrown in. Of course if we get good ice plan on hitting Erie again. I'm from St. Marys but never really ice fished it that much. Heres to a long ice season. (Right after deer season)

Drove around south section of Alum today. Lot of open water on the lake. There were about 5 guys fishing the bay west of Galena ramp. Didn't stay long enough to see if they were catching anything. Didn't see anyone else fishing anywhere except below the dam.

I plan on hitting Indian this weekend Jan. 22-24. With the weather predictions it should have fishable ice somewhere on Indian.
As far as parking at Long Island I was talking to a ranger by the first pull off at Long Island and I asked him about parking near the bridge and he said all he does is check licenses and fish. I asked him if parking was ok there he wouldn't give me a straight answer. Real nice guy but like he said all he does is check licenses and fish limits. Wink wink.
He also said the state looked into buyin that property and putting a ramp in but he said the owner didn't want to sell. That would be a great place for a kayak launch.

Looking at the temperatures for next week and its looking good for ice making. In Columbus the lows starting this Thursday is 22, Friday 23, Saturday 34 Sunday 35, Monday 19, Tuesday 16, Wednesday 23, Thursday 28 and next Friday 27! I know it won't be safe ice but its a darn good start!

Four of us went to St Clair over the weekend. We fished at Selfridge. It was slow Friday and Saturday. We ended up with about 15-20 keeper perch, with the biggest around 12.5". Water was a little murky but some places you could still see 6-7 feet. Untipped beaded spoons worked best. I fished a spear hole around 2x3' and could see the perch but we just couldnt get them to bite. I saw at least 4 of them over 14"and one bigger than that. They would come by in schools of 8-10 fish but most would not even look at our baits. We tried minnows, wax worms, vibees, spikes, jigs and tungsten jigs. They just weren't interested. Most of the ones we cleaned had eggs. Did see a few bass with 3 of them over 5 lbs and one easily over 7. I know the watermakes them look bigger but I compensated for that. Surprisingly we didnt see any pike, sturgeon or muskies or many gills. Ice was a good clear hard ice that was over 1' thick everywhere we fished. And we fished at all depths with the best luck around 7-8'. I don't see that ice going anywhere for a week or two. I'm done for the year. Put my ice gear away till next year.

I fished Blackhawk last Saturday without a problem. I want to fish Long Island Friday but I'm getting reports that people are getting ticketed for parking near the bridge on both sides of the road. I know this has been beaten to death just trying to avoid a ticket. The guy working at pro bass shop said he heard people were getting towed at Long Island. Any new information? Thanks.