Is there anywhere in Pennsylvania to ice fish in this slightly cold weather?
Even though it’s the heart of winter, ice anglers in most of the state are still waiting for safe ice conditions.
“There’s no ice fishing right now. Everybody is pretty much steelhead fishing in the creeks or lake or are perch and crappie fishing in the (Presque Isle) Bay,” Anthony Campanella said Tuesday about Erie County.
He and his wife, Brittany, are co-owners of Poor Richard’s Bait and Tackle in Fairview.
“I guess our winters have been a little more on the mild side the last few years. There hasn’t been vey much good ice recently. The steelhead fishing is a lot better than expected this time of the year. The creeks only froze over once this year and then they thawed out in a few days a week later," he said.
He’s still optimistic for ice angling though.
“Starting Friday, we are to get 1 to 3 inches of snow. It looks to be pretty cold this weekend and into next week. The water is definitely cold, where if you get a couple cold nights, it will freeze over. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see some ice forming after the weekend. It’s not over yet. There’s still a chance to get out there and ice fish. It just depends on what type of cold front we get," he said.
The Erie area had ice over Christmas, when there were subzero wind chills to make safe depths of ice. However, heavy snow blocked off angler access to popular places like Misery Bay and the Presque Isle Peninsula, where there was suitable ice fishing for a few days.
“Misery Bay and Horseshoe Pond usually freeze over first, and that’s where most guys go,” Campanella said.
For those waiting for the ice to form, go steelhead fishing instead, he suggested.
“There are big numbers of fish in the creeks, and as far as the size goes, they are a lot bigger than average, probably the biggest average size that we’ve ever seen," he said. "It’s a really good year for the steelhead guys, not a good year yet for the ice guys yet, but there’s still hope for ice.”
Tim Tomlin, 52, of Erie is one of the ice anglers anxiously awaiting colder weather.
He’s been ice fishing for about 20 years and operates the Presque Isle Bay Anglers Facebook page to create a network for people who are interested in fishing in the Presque Isle Bay and Lake Erie, and waterways in Erie County.
“My primary focus is panfishing in the winter, through the ice, and in the spring and then walleye through the rest of the year,” he said.
“We got about a four-day window where some of the inland lakes we could walk on water and drill some holes,” he said about the brief cold spell over the holidays. Lake Pleasant had about 7 inches of ice, “but that was short lived,” he said.
“Small windows of opportunity,” he said is what ice fishing season tends to be each year.
“I don’t know if it’s global warming or climate change, but we just don’t get the consistent ice around this area that we would like,” the Erie native said.
When the cold weather arrives, anglers need to be ready to enjoy the great opportunities that are found around Lake Erie.
“The main draw is Presque Isle Bay," he said. "The perch fishery is phenomenal, and the bluegill fishing is off the charts at times, and we’ve got a really good population of decent size crappie for this area.”
Tomlin encourages people to try ice fishing as it’s growing in popularity. “The modern huts have improved in functionality and weight,” he said make ice angling a fun, comfortable social time.
“If the main bay freezes, you’ll have four or five major groupings of fishermen where it looks like little cities out on the bay.”
When you have a heated hut on the ice and have access to an underwater camera to see the fish swimming near your bait, he said it creates fun memories for kids and adults alike.
“It’s even better than open water fishing. Trout fishing is one thing, stocked trout get the kids excited, but I don’t think anything compares to drilling a bunch of holes over a school of bluegills and letting those kids go to town," he said.
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Northcentral Pennsylvania
Amidea Daniel, Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission North Central Region Outreach education coordinator, held ice fishing programs over the weekend in Hills Creek State Park in Tioga County. There was about 4 inches of ice that could support individual anglers, but the staff didn’t feel it was quite thick enough to take a group of anglers on.
“We like to have at least 5 or 6 inches to get whole groups and individuals out,” she said Friday evening about it being just under 5 inches. “We erred on the side of being safe,” she said about improvising and having some of the demonstrations on the shoreline.
“Although our participants did not ice fish this weekend, they received lots of hands-on experience," she said.
They learned how to fillet; how to prepare, freeze, unthaw and cook fish; how to put on crampons and a life jacket; the importance of safety and fishing with a friend or family member; how to assemble, secure/anchor, and disassemble an ice hut and much more.
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The ice fishing programs held by the agency across the state are popular, and some participants drove five hours to participate. The agency’s website, fishandboat.com, lists upcoming programs, including virtual, opportunities to sharpen your fishing skills. She also recommends anglers to visit the agency’s YouTube channel to watch how-to videos about various types of fishing.
She said the ice varies across the state, and anglers should consider the options around the state to find safe ice.
“Usually mid-January to the end of January things normally get better, depending on the weather,” she said.
The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources' webpage, dcnr.pa.gov, provides updates on ice conditions across the state park waterways.
One of Daniel’s class partners is Don Kelly, who owns the Tackle Shack in Wellsboro.
“Overall, it has been a great start to the season here in Tioga County, Pa. We have been ice fishing on at least some of our lakes since just before Christmas, and we had a blast fishing in the first few days of the new year. We did lose some ice cover during the early January warm up and conditions are not ideal, but some of our lakes and ponds have remained fishable, particularly Hills Creek. Small tungsten jigs tipped with wax worms have been the most popular bait for panfish. Fathead minnows are also working well,” he said.
Kelly said the best days for ice fishing may soon be here,
“I've been doing this for about 15 years in this county, and the ice season varies every year, but late January through February usually tends to have a few major cold snaps. Last year we kicked off the ice season around the middle of January and around the third week of the month, a bout of -20 degree weather moved through. Our lakes in this area and much of the northern tier are primed and ready for a major cold snap. If we get one without a ton of snow mixed in, the lakes will build ice quickly again," he said.
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Southwestern and central Pennsylvania
The lakes still have open water in the southern part of the state.
Don Anderson, a commissioner and deputy waterways conservation officer with the Fish and Boat Commission, lives in Somerset County, and his board seat also includes Bedford, Blair, Cambria, Fulton, Huntingdon, Juniata, and Mifflin counties.
He uses High Point Lake near Mount Davis, which has the elevation in Pennsylvania as a gauge for when it’s soon time to ice fish.
“If there’s not safe ice on High Point, it’s no use to check anywhere else in the western part of the state,” he said.
On Jan. 13, the lake was open water without any ice.
“I don’t know what the future holds for ice fishing there this year,” Anderson said. There was a brief layer of ice on the lake for two or three days around Christmas. “And then it disappeared. There was a very short ice season so far, probably two or three days.”
The weather is unpredictable as he recalled a past year where he checked on fishing boats in February.
“We’ll just have to wait and see,” he said about there still being time for cold weather in the coming weeks. “It may wait until we start stocking trout toward the end of February,” he said with a laugh.
He reminds people to wait until there’s at least 4 inches of ice to walk on the water and have your safety gear like a float coat.
Eastern Pennsylvania
“We only got maybe an inch or 2 (of ice), and that’s not safe to be on the water,” Mark Sweppenhiser, waterways conservation officer, said about the brief Christmas cold snap. He covers Dauphin and Northumberland counties and part of Cumberland County for the Fish and Boat Commission.
He likes there to be 4 to 6 inches for ice angling.
“You need a solid seven to 10 days of below freezing temperatures to get the ice thickness you need. While we had a cold snap, it only lasted about three or four days and then it started to warm and we got rain on top if it," he said.
With the water being open, anglers can use their summer and fall fishing gear to spend time along the water or in their kayak instead of an ice hut.
“The water has been open all winter long,” he said.
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Some of the common lakes for ice fishing in the region include F.J. Sayers Reservoir in Centre County, Allen Holman Lake in Perry County, Gifford Pinchot in York County and Memorial Lake in Lebanon County. You don’t have to wait for cold weather to fish in the winter.
“There’s no ice on them now. Just get your regular old season poles out and enjoy it,” he said.
Brian Whipkey is the outdoors columnist for USA TODAY Network sites in Pennsylvania. Contact him at bwhipkey@gannett.com and sign up for our weekly Go Outdoors PA newsletter email on this website's homepage under your login name. Follow him on Facebook @whipkeyoutdoors.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Ice fishing in Pennsylvania, Fish and Boat commission Lake Erie
