# Ohio Ice?



## AtticaFish

Does it actually exist??? If so, please let me know and post here when it happens. 

Finally made it up to my Dad's marina for my annual dock trip. It was on fire! Got out on one section of 15' or so dock and never needed to venture to any other part of the marina.

Started off the bat with a bunch of nice 8" and 8.5" gills. Simple waxie on a jig head did the trick.










Marks moved to the bottom and stopped getting bites. Switched up to a mini spoon and minnow head and started getting in to some perch. Mostly small but did hit a nice 12" fish!










The bottom marks moved and started seeing suspended marks. Moved up higher and caught a couple black crappie, but they were all small and moved on quickly. The gills showed back up and some were slabs. Caught the bigger gills on the spoon combo. Couple over 9". Great day to get out!




























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## Jmsteele187

I think it’ll be a couple weeks before we see ice in Ohio, but the forecast isn’t looking too bad. Hopefully the cold sticks around for a while.

Nice catch by the way!

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## justbobber

Nice fish and great choice on the beer😀


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## Bprice1031

AtticaFish said:


> Does it actually exist??? If so, please let me know and post here when it happens.
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> Finally made it up to my Dad's marina for my annual dock trip. It was on fire! Got out on one section of 15' or so dock and never needed to venture to any other part of the marina.
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> Started off the bat with a bunch of nice 8" and 8.5" gills. Simple waxie on a jig head did the trick.
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> The bottom marks moved and started seeing suspended marks. Moved up higher and caught a couple black crappie, but they were all small and moved on quickly. The gills showed back up and some were slabs. Caught the bigger gills on the spoon combo. Couple over 9". Great day to get out!
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> Sent from my SM-A515U using Tapatalk


That Dank Demon will go good with those fillets you got there. Nice catch.


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## DHower08

I think the issue is going to be that we will freeze but not enough to safely get on the ice. Alot of very warm days still in the extended forecast but cold nights. Going to end up being fools gold


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## Raylaser

Nice job there Attica, also a great report! That bandit is a true fatty, very nice and tasty looking. "Safe" ice in Ohio I don't think is going to happen with this current freeze due to the warm up scheduled later in the week. But there should be some in the not too distant future. That's why I always buy a MI license. 90 mins north of Toledo and there will be ice next week I'm almost certain.


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## Weekender#1

fFI heard this weekend that Houghton Lake in Mid north Michigan has safe ice but for walking no machines on ice yet.


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## AtticaFish

I think we will get some ice.... but most likely limited to some small waters. I can only remember 1 year since I got into ice fishing that I did not make it out the whole season because of no ice.

I do follow some Michigan sites and Facebook pages. They just started getting on Mitchell/Cadillac in the last 2 weeks.

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## Raylaser

AtticaFish said:


> I think we will get some ice.... but most likely limited to some small waters. I can only remember 1 year since I got into ice fishing that I did not make it out the whole season because of no ice.
> 
> I do follow some Michigan sites and Facebook pages. They just started getting on Mitchell/Cadillac in the last 2 weeks.
> 
> Sent from my SM-A515U using Tapatalk


Yeah, currently you have to go that far to find safe ice but I think there will be some good ice closer to home next week. I usually fish in the Waterford, MI to Howell, MI M-59 corridor. My nephew lives in Howell so I get boots on the ground updates from his as to when it's good to go. I'm hoping that a nice 2 week long freeze comes to Northern OH soon so we might get a good freeze on Erie. Been a couple years since I felt safe to hit the big lake. Other than that, most of my hard water fishing is done in MI due to more options and since I'm from that area originally, I know the lakes well. Good luck and be safe out there if/when OH freezes!


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## ErieEye

Ice in Fostoria. Reservoirs 1, 4 and 5 are pretty much covered. Didn't check 2 and 3. Reservoir 6 is wide open.


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## Raylaser

That's good to hear!!! Unfortunately the forecast is calling for upper 30's for daytime highs 4 out of the next 10 days. Let's hope those overnight lows keep making ice!!


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## bigbass201

Some ice out on East Harbor today. Seen some open water mixed in with gulls, geese, and some eagles hanging around the open areas.


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## ErieEye

Just drilled at reservoir 5 in Fostoria. Found 3" of nice clear ice. Water's cloudy though.


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## AtticaFish

Looky looky what I found! Was busy pretty much all weekend and finally had a short window to get out at the end of the day today. 1 good bluegill and a couple smalls. Local deep upground had 4.5" of about the best looking ice I've seen in years. Could have ice skated the entire lake! Snow started falling as it got dark and have prolly an inch of snow on the ground now. Hopefully can get back out next weekend. 



















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## Bucket Mouth

Congrats. That fish has some great coloration. Nice glomits!


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## Bass knuckles

Hope you had your cleats, that puppy looks slick! Gonna be a banner yr for ice


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## AtticaFish

Made a trip to a different upground on Saturday and the fish whooped my butt. Landed 1 bass and lost another fish on the way up. Could see movement right on the bottom but could only get a few marks to even come up and look. Tough day. Ice was beautiful though. 

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## Raylaser

Hey Attica: That's been the story just about everywhere. I do most of my ice fishing in MI, and after two trips this year it's been a tough bite and same for all the guys I talk to. Lots of dinks for every one nice fish. Either very few to no marks, or even lots of marks but very finicky bite. The screenshot attached was from last Fri in SE MI lake. You'd have thought with the screen lit up like that it would be one after the other brawl, but could barely get them to bite and all the bigger fish would just swim by, sniff and swim away. Very frustrating start to the hard water season this year. I think there's been too much fluctuation in the barometric pressure and that has the fish unsettled. If/when the weather stabilizes, I think the bite will pick up and become more consistent.


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## AtticaFish

Finally had a good day. Been taking some beatings this year. I've mostly been out for quick early morning trips since it has worked out a little better with my schedule. Decided to try a place I got blanked at last early morning trip... but fished last light today. At about 5:30, the marks finally started willingly coming up out of the deep weeds. Brought home 6 nice gills and threw back a few smalls before it got dark. Only fish I caught before dusk was a roaming bass that I spotted up high and it chased my jig for a while before biting.

No on the ice pics, it all started and ended too quick. Wife texted me around 6:30 to let me know supper was done a little early. I stick around till 6:45 when it was actually getting dark. Left them biting. May have to see if I can leave the Mrs. In charge at work and sneak out early before we get the 50° weather and rain later this week. 










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## Raylaser

That's a good looking meal there Attica, nice job!


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## 1MoreKast

Checking in on NW ice - you guys still out there? Anyone fishing tomorrow? I might get out there...


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## Trouthunter

1MoreKast said:


> Checking in on NW ice - you guys still out there? Anyone fishing tomorrow? I might get out there...


Not sure they fishing there in the NW. barely a peep from those gents this year. Why hold back, everyone knows about east Harbor and hardly a word about it this year.


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## AtticaFish

1MoreKast said:


> Checking in on NW ice - you guys still out there? Anyone fishing tomorrow? I might get out there...


I have had pretty limited time to get out on the ice this year. Wish I had an answer for you. I was thinking about checking a place either this afternoon or Sunday afternoon if I get a chance. I watched the shore ice on my own pond and several local ponds (drive by on way to work) deteriorate last week so not a ton of hope on my end. If you do get out, would love to hear what ice conditions you find.

As for EH, you are correct Trouthunter..... EVERYONE knows about it so that is the reason I figured there is never much discussion. If you go pop some holes there, you have a really good chance to catch some decent fish. When the discussion does come up, the doom and gloom trolls come on to say how it was in the good old days and how terrible it is now.


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## thistubesforu

I’ll be checking some marinas on the bay tomorrow morning to see what things look like. Kicking myself in the a** right now sitting at delta reservoir eating lunch. Youngest son has a basketball tournament at the high school today with a couple hours in between games. Not sure what’s in the res but ice looks fishable as heck to me just didn’t bring my gear! Debated it all night and figured shoreline would be a no go since the res closest to my house shoreline is trash. Definitely would be throwing some baits in holes if I had my gear.


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## ErieEye

Trouthunter said:


> Not sure they fishing there in the NW. barely a peep from those gents this year. Why hold back, everyone knows about east Harbor and hardly a word about it this year.


As a lifelong resident of fostoria I have seen the quality of the fishing locally go to complete crap. There's really nothing to report. The 9 white perch 4 catfish and 2 crappies I caught in the 5 ice fishing trips I made locally doesn't, to me, seem like much to brag about. If you remove lake erie and it's adjoining bays and harbors from the equation I honestly don't know of a truely quality fishery to go to in the northwest portion of this state. There is a reason why the northwest ohio section of the site is the least reported on and its not because we're keeping everything secret.


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## 1MoreKast

AtticaFish said:


> I have had pretty limited time to get out on the ice this year. Wish I had an answer for you. I was thinking about checking a place either this afternoon or Sunday afternoon if I get a chance. I watched the shore ice on my own pond and several local ponds (drive by on way to work) deteriorate last week so not a ton of hope on my end. If you do get out, would love to hear what ice conditions you find.


Fished 4:30a - 9:30a. Wanted to get the low light hours in. Ice was pretty good. Getting a little over 6” still. Edge was a bit light but managed to get on without a plank. Marked a lot of fish but couldn’t get them to commit until about 8a when the smallies were getting hungry. Landed 2 and lost one at the hole. Swedish pimple.


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## AtticaFish

Thanks for the updates!

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## DeathFromAbove

X2 on that. If it wasn't for the Maumee I wouldn't have anywhere to fish around Toledo. And here lately the Maumee is too high to wade most of the time. As high as this end of the lake has been, the river has a hard time emptying


ErieEye said:


> As a lifelong resident of fostoria I have seen the quality of the fishing locally go to complete crap. There's really nothing to report. The 9 white perch 4 catfish and 2 crappies I caught in the 5 ice fishing trips I made locally doesn't, to me, seem like much to brag about. If you remove lake erie and it's adjoining bays and harbors from the equation I honestly don't know of a truely quality fishery to go to in the northwest portion of this state. There is a reason why the northwest ohio section of the site is the least reported on and its not because we're keeping everything secret.


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## AtticaFish

I did make it out for a short trip on Sunday evening. Just tried a small reservoir not far from home. The first 4 or 5 feet of shore ice was junk.... but I planned on that so brought about 6 feet worth of plywood to lay down. That got me out to the main sheet of ice which was still 9" or so. It was crappy/punky ice that chipped into cubes instead of shaved ice. The thickness made me feel safe at least.

Unfortunately, it was a disappointing trip. Managed to catch 1 bass and a half dozen dink bluegill. At least it wasn't a skunk. Kind of nice to fish in the warmer weather though. With the forecast..... assuming i can put up the gear for the year.

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## thistubesforu

Made it out Sunday morning to a marina on the bay had 4” of ice. Managed a few keeper crappie plus a few throwbacks. Missed a fair number of hits which may have been attributed to the bent hook on the spoon I was using. Told myself that when I figured it out shortly before I left but filed it sharp and continued to miss 2 more hits so idk! Fished 8am to 1pm.


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## thistubesforu

Made it to a marina on the bay again tonight surprisingly had 5” of ice! Don’t get me wrong edges closest to docks were open but one step and on! Onto the fish report not good had zero hits! Only fished an hour and a half starting just before 6 but it was good to be out for probably the last time in Ohio with high 60’s forecasted for this weekend. Onto Michigan next week to drag the season out!


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