With the warmer than usual weather pattern that has descended upon us staying longer than we had hoped, IFM would like to caution all ice anglers to please stay off the ice.
While there had been some nice ice formation earlier in the month of December with the cold temperatures, the warming trend that is still upon us has made for very unsafe and unpredictable ice conditions. Already this year, we have had 3 unfortunate deaths resulting from anglers falling through across northern Michigan.
We understand the draw to get out onto the ice to get after those early ice biters, but no fish is worth falling though for. Tempting as it may be, the ice is softening and weakening to the point that we feel that anglers should just stay off the ice completely. As ice conditions will continue to worsen this week with warmer than usual temperatures, it is far better to play things safely and stay home than to risk falling through. It will take several days of below-freezing temperatures to re-firm the ice, and the long-term forecast has next Wednesday and Thursday back below freezing. With any luck, things will freeze solidly enough to hopefully entertain the thought of getting back out onto the ice by the following weekend. But as Mother Nature and Old Man Winter can be unpredictable, we will just have to wait and see.
In the meantime, please use common sense and extreme caution and stay off the ice. There are a whole new season of fishing shows getting ready to air and lots of tackle to sort through, so for us here at Ice Fish Michigan, that’s what we will be doing! Watching fishing shows and sorting tackle, waiting for safe ice.
