# Ice - Ice - Ice



## AtticaFish

I like the looks of the forecast! Was out and about on Wednesday to do a little fishing and was surprised to see some of the protected channels back in West Harbor had skim ice. The seagulls seemed to enjoy walking around on it. Stopped by Resthaven on my way home and sections of #8 that were protected by the wind were skimmed over also. With the water temps this close, shouldn't take too long!

BTW - fishing sucked off the docks in West Harbor. Tried 3 different areas and honestly got ONE bite over several hours of fishing. Had a couple suspended marks on the flasher from one dock that i would guess were crappie but could barely get them to budge. Tried shiners, wax worms and spikes.


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## bigbass201

AtticaFish said:


> I like the looks of the forecast! Was out and about on Wednesday to do a little fishing and was surprised to see some of the protected channels back in West Harbor had skim ice. The seagulls seemed to enjoy walking around on it. Stopped by Resthaven on my way home and sections of #8 that were protected by the wind were skimmed over also. With the water temps this close, shouldn't take too long!
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> BTW - fishing sucked off the docks in West Harbor. Tried 3 different areas and honestly got ONE bite over several hours of fishing. Had a couple suspended marks on the flasher from one dock that i would guess were crappie but could barely get them to budge. Tried shiners, wax worms and spikes.


You do much good in West Harbor through the ice? I've only been fishing East Harbor through the ice when I go that way.


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## AtticaFish

I did OK a few weeks back in WH but never really fished it through the ice. I have 2 different spots on back channels that are dead ends with no current. I won't go anywhere near open spots of the harbor though, waytoo much current. If we get decent ice..... I will let you know! 

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## AtticaFish

So far.... this weather sure sucks for ice fishing and the days are getting longer. Looks like... maybe... by the end of next week the temps might dip a little more, but hard to say if the cold weather will stick around. I checked the old reservoir South of town today. It's usually the first place to freeze near me. Only 6'-7' feet deep and kinda protected from the wind. Kids in town have been throwing lots of rip rap out, always makes me nervous I will try and drill on top one that re-froze android my blades. Ice is only about 1" or 1.5". No good. Hopefully next week I will have a better report.




















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## bigbass201

There have been some rescue reports from Northern Indiana and southern Michigan. Guys are gambling too much on thin ice if you ask me.


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## AtticaFish

Sounds like up around Jackson MI has iffy ice that a few guys are able to get out on. More options open up the farther North you go. Just have to know your personal limits.... spud, step, repeat.

My fingers are crossed for local ice but will make another 5 hour drive North in February if it doesn't pan out down here. 

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## bigbass201

3 guys on Big Turkey in Indiana, and I'm trying to remember the one in Michigan, but it's slipping my memory. Guys on the St. Clair channels say it's unsafe right now too.


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## 21579

I was out Tuesday, before the warm up, on a southern Livingston/northern Washtenaw County lake.(15 miles NW of Ann Arbor)
4 inches.....


















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## bigbass201

Very nice. Ice looked decent too. Keep the spud with ya.


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## 21579

bigbass201 said:


> Very nice. Ice looked decent too. Keep the spud with ya.


I have a striker suit, spud, and piks!


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## AtticaFish

yrick82 said:


> I was out Tuesday, before the warm up, on a southern Livingston/northern Washtenaw County lake.(15 miles NW of Ann Arbor)
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Nice! That is the general area I have been looking at for a day trip. Lots of talk about the shore ice getting soft this week. Hopefully everything gets solid again with the colder weather. 

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## 21579

It will for sure!

It was nice not to drive 3 hrs one way to fish....Been to Secord Lake twice already this winter. Crappy winter for an ice fisherman to be laid off 


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## whiskerchaser

Got a local spot that was froze up with very soft bank ice late monday night. Didnt check it tonight with nasty weather after work. Spud is in van will be checking it daily. If forecast stays good I'm ice fishing next friday on my day off


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## AtticaFish

I will be out this Saturday at least checking. May be a shallow lake close by that will be good on Sunday, but not too hopeful yet. My pond lost all its ice with the rain we had and has put about 1.5" back on now. Looking out 10 days, other places might start becoming a possibility. Fingers crossed......


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## fisher person

Thanks for the report attica. I want to get out somewhere soon also. Its killing me sitting around. Always like looking at the ice reports of those who make the effort to travel to the ice out of state. Don't see any super high temps in the next 10 days, but only 1 teenish night
Stay safe all.


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## whiskerchaser

Found almost 2inches off end of dock bank was soft and little opening but it survived the wind and sun melted the snow and I think I have a good chance of getting on the ice for a couple days. Next spot sw corner has been locked up and was still locked all way up against bank. Could put a foot down on it and no cracking or moving, that's were I left it didnt have my spud. Tons of huge rocks on ice. With the forecast I have two spots that just might give me a chance to ice fish for couple days with high Hope's it being thick enough to take my boy out for his birthday with his brother.


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## AtticaFish

Yes indeed.... the temps seem to be slipping lower in the 7 and 10 day forecasts. I like it. Would sure rather walk on 6" than 4". I already let it be known at work that i may have a sudden onset case of the ice flu by mid week. Still have waxies, spikes and some frozen shiners left over from my trip up north - I AM READY!


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## kanu

Ice Flu should be in order. River has too much ice to cast a lure. Maybe I'll get some work done. Be careful out there and good luck.


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## Bobofish

AtticaFish said:


> I like the looks of the forecast! Was out and about on Wednesday to do a little fishing and was surprised to see some of the protected channels back in West Harbor had skim ice. The seagulls seemed to enjoy walking around on it. Stopped by Resthaven on my way home and sections of #8 that were protected by the wind were skimmed over also. With the water temps this close, shouldn't take too long!
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> BTW - fishing sucked off the docks in West Harbor. Tried 3 different areas and honestly got ONE bite over several hours of fishing. Had a couple suspended marks on the flasher from one dock that i would guess were crappie but could barely get them to budge. Tried shiners, wax worms and spikes.


How's the ice up that way? Would like to up and fish East Harbor.


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## AtticaFish

Thanks @kanu - hopefully be walking on water soon.

@Bobofish - My mom sent this pic to me. That's looking out from EH state park launch. She said it just skimmed over last night.










This was beaver creek at around 1:00 on 1/23/21. I'd say 95% skimmed over with only a couple open spots.










Checked the old Attica res this evening.... FYI, shallow and somewhat protected from wind. The chunk i pulled out measured 2" but half and half of good ice. That was the shore ice, might be a little more of the clear out past the junk. Released pressure when I chopped the hole and ran a crack all the way across if you zoom in. 



















Ice up at the new res actually looked a little better. It was 2" along the shore but seemed a little harder ice.










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## 21579

The snow coming Monday night is coming at the absolute worst time! 3-5” of snow on new ice.

The temps are not forecasted to be cold enough to get through that insulating blanket. I see 38 this coming weekend and February is forecasted to be above normal temps. I don’t see us walking safely on NW Ohio ice this year......Unfortunately.


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## AtticaFish

Well.... looks like cold weather for only a couple days again. This flip/flop crap sucks! Temps go right back up next week according to the forecast. I know the temps are going to go down here for the next few days, but this rain and 34° today is going to weaken the top layer of what ice we have. Hard to say for sure. I am likely going to take off work on Friday and search around for 4" of ice to walk on. A few guys on Facebook say they are going to try to get on EH Friday, but the winds may change their mind. I can't fish on Saturday but will actually be up really close to EH so will most likely make a drive out to the beach and back just to take a look. If there is ice anywhere, i'll be back out on Sunday.


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## whiskerchaser

Just drove by one of my spots and its holding up to the weather really good. I will be on the ice friday saturday and Sunday


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## AtticaFish

Was up to Bellevue #4 on Sunday to fish. Beautiful smooth ice that is about 3.5" or 4" thick. Use your own judgement of course. Cut lots of holes and managed a whopping 2 bite. 1 small bluegill and 1 small bass. Could get a few fish to come in aggressive jigging a crank but reluctant to bite. Couldn't get hits on anything I tried. Maybe weather just had them turned off.










With the weather as it is, not going to bother opening the shop so gonna head in a different direction today. 

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## addicted to fish

Hey Attica, it’s been a while. Hoping to get out to Marblehead soon. Shoot me a p.m. if you want to hook up sometime.


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## Derbyfreak230

I stopped there yesterday after checking res 5 and planned on fishing but after a 1/2 hr realized I forgot my tackle bag at home. I've never ice fished it before so I drilled a few holes to check depth. What's the deepest that the res gets I was by the ramp and the deepest I got was 7 ft. And res 5 only had about 2.5 inches on the left side of the ramp. The right side of the ramp was all messed up cause I don't know why people think throwing big rocks on the ice is a good way to check it


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## AtticaFish

Well worth the day off! 2 Fish Ohio crappie and a FO bluegill. 





































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## Bprice1031

AtticaFish said:


> Well worth the day off! 2 Fish Ohio crappie and a FO bluegill.
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Nice catch and good beer!


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## AtticaFish

@Derbyfreak230 - Thanks for the update on #5. I would love to get up there this year and sounds like it should be getting close. With the snow and wind yesterday though... it may be about impossible to get back the access road unless you have a snowmobile. With the amount of little dink a$$ perch in there, there HAS to be some bigger perch somewhere. Or there is just some trick to catching them that i have yet to figure out.

@addicted to fish - It has been a couple years now! Glad to see you are still checking in here. I'd love to hook in to some more of those beautiful green and gold fish. I still talk about that to my wife every once in a while. I've been wondering how your spot is coming along since it is a little more sheltered than others. Quite a bit of open water still in the wide open spots coming across the bridge over the weekend. If you plan on giving it a try, i'd be more than happy to tag along!


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## AtticaFish

I forgot to mention.... the place i fished on Monday was a small city reservoir that tops out at about 13 or 14 feet deep. It had 4" (on the nose) of nice clear ice about 2" of snow on top. When i spudded my way out, every spud hit where i busted through was pure slush when i left. Weight of the snow was pushing the water up through. Some spots on the reservoir the snow was completely blowing off though.

By the looks of the forecast for the rest of the week..... i think more and more places are going to become available. Has anyone been out to check on any of the bigger reservoirs - Willard - Beaver Creek - Findlay - Fostoria - Bucyrus?


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## thistubesforu

Fished beaver Friday and Saturday Friday ice was 2 3/4” by Saturday it was just shy of 4”. There was 2 open spots Friday that were froze by Saturday probably only putting them at an inch thick if I had to guess. Caution advised if anyone heads out there both spots were southwest of the boat launch. Marked very few fish and missed the only bite I had! Havnt checked on it since the snow so don’t know what affect it has had on it.


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## Bvil

Stopped by Beaver Creek on the way home yesterday. The thin areas thistubesforu mentioned looked to be very slushy. I didn't check any ice but there was a lot of it still clear of snow.
The parking area was a circus. Several families sledding down the hill from the ramp parking. People parking in the lane, minivan stuck in the ramp exit to the lower parking area. I had to wait about 30 minutes for people to get pushed out and move vehicles to leave.
Better have four wheel drive if it hasn't been plowed.


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## Bvil

Drove past BC yesterday and it still was not plowed. Cars parked in the lane to the ramp again as well.


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## BFG

Hopefully the rain we have coming on Thursday evening will melt off some of the snow. It's all gonna be good to go by the middle of next week. Haven't seen cold like this in awhile. Glad to be able to get out.


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## Bvil

Stopped at BC yesterday and checked ice at the ramp. 2.5" of white ice on top, 4" of water and then 3.5" of clear ice (at the one place I checked). I certainly wouldn't trust there to be good ice everywhere under the white. Didn't have time to do any fishing.
There were a few fishermen on the SE corner.
Still not plowed but I was barely able to get up to the ramp.
The lane to the parking area at the SE corner was better but 4x4 would still be a good idea. Of course, this would require walking up a short but steep hill and then down across rip-rap.


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## AtticaFish

Thanks for the update. I hate it when the ice gets layered up like that. Once we get the deep freeze coming, I assume those layers should all get solid. Might actually have to break out the gas auger this year.

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## whiskerchaser

Went to check some ice tonight still got good ice around but there are some sketchy areas. Forecast for the next week is golden just about everywhere I fish will have good ice. Might even be able to try out new water I've never ice fished


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## AtticaFish

whiskerchaser said:


> ...... Forecast for the next week is golden...... Might even be able to try out new water I've never ice fished


I will be out tomorrow trying a spot i have never sat on the ice. Have a bucket of minnows bubbling away in the basement. Hopefully have a picture of a saugeye or 2 at some point.

Good luck to anyone getting out this weekend!

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## ress

Had to give up ice fishing myself. Boy this bright blue skies and 10 degree temps brings back some good memories. Could get a sun burn on a day like today.


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## Bvil

Went to bucyrus #3 (Riley) and there is a sign in the parking area saying pumping in progress. We decided not to fish there but wanted to check it out. Looks like it has dropped 2-3 feet since icing up. Checked with spud bar from shore and had at least five inches of clear ice and no air under it. Walked over to where there was an obvious crack under the snow and gave it a good whack. Sounded like thunder across the res.
Went to Crossway Ind. Park pond. 4" of clear ice but much of it has slush on top. Spudded our way out at the SE corner and fished a couple hours. Only seen a few gills on the camera. No takers.
The new 949i shelter works great. Didn't even have to fire up a heater.


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## AtticaFish

I think that sign about pumping is always up at Riley. Ive seen one over at Outhwaite also. The industrial park can be good during open water but I have heard that there is a spring somewhere in there that keeps the ice thin. That could be wrong though. Never tried it on the ice.

I wasn't planning on getting out at all today but ended up running up to the new Attica res for a couple hours in the afternoon. Had about 4.5" of good ice.... but it was under 4" of slush. Very top of the slush was frozen so every step would break through. Hopefully that all freezes solid because it makes walking a SOB. Even on the short trip, the bottom 6" of my bibs were froze solid. 

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## Bweber1117

Does anyone know if these towns that have up-groups have pumping schedules? There’s a couple I want to hit late this week and would hate to be on the ice during a draw down.


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## fisher person

Bweber1117 said:


> Does anyone know if these towns that have up-groups have pumping schedules? There’s a couple I want to hit late this week and would hate to be on the ice during a draw down.


Great ? There. I wonder myself. I may make a call to 1 city Ns see what kind if reply I get.


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## Bvil

Did a search to see if Clyde had a posted draw schedule for Raccoon Creek and Beaver Creek. Didn't find anything.

However, not ice related, I did find this rule regarding boats on Raccoon Creek Res. that I'm pretty sure nobody follows:
Boats shall be permitted on the Municipal reservoir between the hours of 4:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. only. All boats shall be of the type authorized under the laws of the State and must be duly licensed and operated pursuant to the laws of the State. Prior to the launching of any boat on the reservoir, the operator shall, each time such boat is launched, register at the Police Department. The police officer on duty may prohibit the launching of any boat if, in his opinion, the boat is not seaworthy.


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## AtticaFish

Ice is looking good, hope everyone is getting outwhile they can. Early out of work today and fished up till about 7:00... target species was walleye. Tried out my newly built smitty sled and it work pretty good!










Got a nice big cat that I was sure hoping would be a walleye.



















Did end up with a 17" walleye at about 6:30 though! Small spoon (chartreuse) tipped with a whole salted shiner in 12 to 15 FOW. Tried some deeper water and didn't mark much.



















Enjoy the ice while you can!

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## Derbyfreak230

I got a question for anyone who knows much about bellevue res 5. I heard that there's an old roadies that runs through there. Does anyone know if there is any truth to this


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## addicted to fish

AtticaFish said:


> Ice is looking good,gope everyone is getting outwhile they can. Early out of work today and fished up till about 7:00... target species was walleye. Tried out my newly built smitty sled and it work pretty good!
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Nice catch on the “eye” perfect size for eating!


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## robinsonb05

Derbyfreak230 said:


> I got a question for anyone who knows much about bellevue res 5. I heard that there's an old roadies that runs through there. Does anyone know if there is any truth to this


Never heard of that. I hear there is a rock in there that was too big to move when they built it in 42.


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## AtticaFish

@Derbyfreak230 - I've never heard that one before and i have fished there since the late 80's! I have heard some odd rumors about #5 though. The one that tops it is that a car ended up going in, and they never pulled it out. I had an old-timer tell me this and he claimed that if you found it, it was the best spot in the lake to fish. I chuckle about that still, but hey.... maybe? They allowed vehicles to drive up around the top when i was younger. If anyone ever knew how to fish that lake, it was the owners of Woody's bait shop!

If you are looking for a "spot" to target ice fishing, good luck! I have been all over that reservoir in my kayak (with a fish finder) and have never seen anything but a flat bottom. I have gotten hung up on bottom out in the basin on the East side a couple times. I wondered if i was getting stuck on the pipe they use for pumping in/out.

At one time, someone did dump some pine trees along the North side. That spot always had fish but those eventually deteriorated and i can't find any remnants of them now. If you look on Google maps and zoom in on the Southern most point of the lake, there is a little hump of stones that goes out into the water farther than the rest of the shoreline. That spot is always good for panfish from shore. For ice fishing though.... it has always been a crap shoot for me.

Last thing, sorry, long winded. Not sure if the road back there is accessible at the moment with all the snow and wind. I heard there were some large drifts. Would be nice if someone who had a plow on their truck would just make one swipe down and back.


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## Derbyfreak230

Thanks for the replys. It was a couple years ago when an older guy told me about the road bed and I wasn't sure if he was just pulling my leg or telling the truth. I will probably just stick to my usual spot I go to which is only 15 to 20 ft from shore. It'd be nice to find one of them supposed saugeye they stocked in there lol
I fished it last Saturday and it wasn't too bad getting in with my lil ranger in 2wd getting out was another problem. But I don't think a car would be able to get back there since they sit alot lower. I plan on trying to fish it tomorrow morning when I get off work so I can let you guys know how the road to get in is


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## AtticaFish

Good luck on those saugeye, they evade me as well. Thanks for the info on the access road!


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## robinsonb05

AtticaFish said:


> Good luck on those saugeye, they evade me as well. Thanks for the info on the access road!


Been fishing it the last few days and only getting little crappie. The drive to get in is open.


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## mmeyer1977

The car is true. It's down by the pumphouse access. It's about a 3rd of the way from the ramp on the left. From what I remember. I've had a john boat in there before and marked it.


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## Bvil

Fished a couple hours at Beaver Creek. Nothing on the camera or on the hooks.
Seven shanties on the ice. Only one person we talked to caught anything. Said he was there all day and caught four crappie. 
Might try Bucyrus tomorrow.


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## mmeyer1977

Try fishing at night. I've done well at the end of them drop offs in the past. The one off the ramp to the right and at the back. All fish were suspended 10ft off the bottom. Nice crappie and walleye. 5th oz Swedish pimples tipped with a minnow. Bright led lights in my shanty. Occasionally a cat too.


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## Nemo7

Bvil said:


> Fished a couple hours at Beaver Creek. Nothing on the camera or on the hooks.
> Seven shanties on the ice. Only one person we talked to caught anything. Said he was there all day and caught four crappie.
> Might try Bucyrus tomorrow.


I was at Beaver for an hour and a half today and never so much as a sniff. I’m considering heading to Attica or Riley Res in Bucyrus tomorrow. Probably will base that decision on what time I finally roll out of bed in the morning. Been a slow ice season for me thus far.


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