The Castle Country area finally received snow in the valleys, bringing several feet of snow to the high-country, making ice fishing conditions ideal for anglers. Division of Wildlife Resources Conservation Outreach Manager, Brandon Behling spoke about the current ice fishing conditions.

Conditions are not ideal at Millsite State Park so their annual ice fishing tournament that was scheduled to take place this month has been canceled because of the condition of the ice or lack thereof.  “A couple of weeks ago Millsite was seeing three to four inches, it was all but capped over, just the little hot springs that’s there that keeps the water open, that was all that was opened water, but we’ve seen the winds kick up, a little bit of warmer temperatures, and Millsite is probably 90 percent open water now. There is potential that it could freeze up, but Millsite kind of tends to once it opens up, it doesn’t go to good ice after that,” said Behling. If you do venture out near Millsite please be very cautious.

Another area that is slowly forming ice this year is Huntington North as Behling explains, “There’s a lot of people I know that want to get out there to try and catch Wipers and different things like that, that Huntington North offers, but again, you got another week, maybe two weeks, before that really hardens up. There’s still open water on the east side, up by the inlet, and even out in the middle.” Joe’s Valley is another body of water that has yet to freeze up, they are currently at about 30 to 40 percent open water.

The Energy Loop has received lots of snow and ice fishing conditions are ideal. “The Energy Loop is looking really good. You’ve got good ice up there. The only thing you’re going to be fighting there is snow. There are feet of snow up there, from a couple of feet to several feet of snow so plan on having to walk through the snow, through the deep snow to drag your sled out.  You might want to pack a little shovel to kind of clear a spot once you get out on to the ice, that way you got somewhere firm and you’re not sinking through that snow the whole time you’re fishing,” said Behling. All of the lakes like Electric, Cleveland, and Huntington Mammoth are all great for ice fishing at this time.

If you have an ice fishing report you would like to share, please call the DWR Office at (435) 613-3700.