I haven't been out ice fishing in over 15 years... now all of a sudden, I am hit with the urge. I'll have to replenish all of my ice fishing gear... since I'd either passed it along to someone else when I moved south with work or I'd misplaced/thrown out during one my moves.

What I am waiting on more than anything are some reports of safe ice... I'd been driving around scouting out the local waters but I hadn't seen anyone on the ice prior to this last weekend.

Saturday I drove over to Lake McBride and saw a total of four ice shanty's on the ice (not all in the same area). I did talk to one fisherman on Lake McBride who was coming in just as it was starting to rain... he said there was a good solid 4" of ice on the lake. He mentioned that the crusty slush/snow layer which had been covering the ice had melted during the warmer weather and re-froze to a nice solid layer. Well the rain turned to sleet and then to snow... I think we were hit with about 6-8" of the white stuff along with drifting winds over night. I haven't been back out to Lake McBride since Saturday... hopefully after all the Christmas activity settles down I'll be able to get out there on the ice.

Monday (Christmas Eve day) I drove over to Mohawk Park to see if anyone had been brave enough to venture out onto the lakes ice... I saw three parked pickup trucks and one ice shanty viewable from the road. I made the mistake of driving back to the parking area and got hungup on a snow drift (the trail back to the parking area didn't look so bad). To make a bad situation worse, I'd forgotten to grab my cell phone before I left the house... this prompted a 2 mile walk back to the house.

Christmas day brought guests to the house... no fishing/scouting took place today. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get out and pickup the few remaining items required to at least get me on the ice and fishing.

If anyone has any fishing reports in the Cedar Rapids or surrounding areas I'd appreciate any information you might be willing to share... for safety reasons, I'd prefer not being the only one on the ice!!!

Hope to catch you on the ice...