The only change in conditions lately is that the ice is thicker. That still shouldn’t stop anyone from fishing, even for Steelhead. I’ve never been one to think of winter as a time to “reflect on the past season” or spend day after day tinkering with my tackle, or tying loads of flies and jigs for the Spring. I spend the same amount of time doing all of that no matter what month it is. More than reflection is my desire to continue fishing no matter what the conditions are. I don’t have much time to reorganize and think about what I’ve caught lately as the only thing on my mind is when is the next trip, what for, and how am I going to catch it? 20 degrees or 90, some combination of rods and tackle are about to leave my garage and go into my truck at any second.

I think of life as very short overall when you factor in how our time is divided up. Because of this I need to fish hard and fish often every day I can get out. Being frustrated at the hard winter and no real prospects for open water any time soon is energy wasted that could be used to go out once again, drill a hole in some ice, trek through the snow, catch fish, and enjoy the sport we’re supposed to love 12 months a year instead of 9.

My focus of course now is ice fishing for Steelhead, as we don’t often get frozen streams this long to really develop better patterns and techniques. Usually it’s a couple days of fun and we get enough of a melt to make stream ice unstable. With this sustained period I’ve not only been able to experiment with baits and lures but also had plenty of time to use the underwater camera and focus in on fish behavior, movement, and favored holding locations of fish under the ice in deep holes and long stretches of water where they are more spread out. I’ve also had a ton of fun and I’ll be doing it until ice out. I love ice fishing for any fish, but 25-30″ Steelhead on a 27″ or 4.5 foot rod is too tempting to spend my time fishing for anything else. Also, I didn’t name my guide service and website “Erie Bluegill and Perch Experience.”

If you’re itching to get out and want to take a trip shoot me an email or give me a call. I have available days this week for trips and it’s a guarentee we will have safe ice.