Sgt! Haven't seen you on here for a while! It's good to hear from you. Perhaps we can get out on the ice some time! I hope you had a nice Christmas. Are you getting any rats? Last I heard, they were only bringing $3 on a big one.

thanks for the updates... let's all hope we get a season...  i'm going to hunt second archery in this cold just to get out of the house...

I've been fishing the river below the dam, up to the first snow fall.  I caught a few eyes and some perch on salted minnows and jigs. Water is to high for me now and flowing fast.

Drove by conneaut on the way home from work.  South end was skimmed over as far as I could see.  Hope those temps stay down.

Checked out Sugar Lake this afternoon.  3" of hard ice....some gray areas that looked iffy....skiff of snow on top.
Parking lot NOT plowed but should be plowed by Saturday.
South end looked better than North.

Pymy is completely locked up, I didn't see any open water. Going to venture out with the auger tomorrow to check thicknesses. I walked across a cove that was one of the first to freeze and not even a crack, so keeping fingers crossed and these temps they're calling for ill be fishing Tuesday and Wednesday (next days off work cause I doubt tomorrow will provide good safe ice). Ill update on what I find tomorrow evening sometime.

Slabdaddy nice to be back. Had alot going on. My son wanted to try trapping and dad got hooked again with him. We caught 57 rats, 25 coon, 1 mink and 6 beaver so far with one beaver going 51 lbs. I pulled almost all the traps getting ready for the ice. Here is a tid bit of info one of my friends called to tell me that they are fishing Golden run at shenango today it was 5 inches near shore and 4 inches out in the channel area. My first real days of fishing will be next week on Wednesday and Thursday. The plan for now is to fish pyme and if that doesn't happen I will be at shenango or wilhelm. I catch alot of real nice crappie at shenango. If I fish Pyme I will be at manning or tuttle point. Just look for the black and orange otter shantie. My buddy has the same set up so if you see two you know its me. I have not seen too many of the Team Wild Otter shanties around. Good luck and keep me posted.

That's a pretty good haul. I hope prices hold up for you.
I REALLY want to hit Shenango. I've been told stories about that place... SLABS
I wouldn't waste my time with Wilhelm. It's the new Dead Sea.
I can't wait to hit Pymie. I want to pull an 'eye through the ice bad. I won't  be out during the week though. That sucks. Hopefully I can hook up with you some weekend. Another good friend of mine offered to take me up there and teach me some things. I can't wait to get out with him. He's a member here too. Who knows, maybe we could put our heads together a day and really smoke 'em!
Please keep in touch Sarge. Missed ya. Glad you're back and glad you and your Dad and boy got to do some real man bonding. Nothing brings the generations closer than sharing the outdoors.

Slabdaddy,
I have taken my limit of slab crappies so my times at shenango it's hard to keep track. The key is to find a stump in the channel and jig just off the side of it. I have most of the stumps in my GPS and found them with my sonar and underwater camera. Shenango is fun. I like to take my Camera and set it up watching my jig. The water is pretty clear and you can see the crappies coming. The kids love it!!! They love watching the fish eat the lure. I have seen on the camera just about every inch of the sreen full of crappies. It got a little tough because you couldn't see your jig sometimes because of all the crappie.

WOW! I want some.