I haven't checked everywhere on the lake, but the spot i'm fishing tomorrow has 8 to 10 inches. Spud your way out, Alum is a tricky place to ice fish, I have spudded my way out, one spot would be 6 hits, 10 feet away 2 hits and I hit water. If you do find good ice set tip ups shallow too deep, and drill a lot of jigging holes in different depths. For eyes I prefer raps or pimples, clear water blue and silver, cloudy water gold. Crappies jig and wax worm with a minnow and bobber in the next hole. I usually put a jig and waxy at the end of the line with a minnow and hook 1.5' above it under a bobber, 1ft off the bottom, this lets the minnow do the jiggn for you. Others might do something different, but this is what works for me. If your looking for a panfish bite, walk straight out of the Howard rd. boat ramp turn left or south, you will see a cove on the left or east side, if you line up the cove with the bridge, find 10ft, you should find some panfish. I fished the spot earlier this year and did fair. Good luck and be safe.
