Good or Bad Ice in Central IL.

[buck21]

Do we have good ice in central IL.

[Hsiftac]

I've been to 4 lakes/ponds in the last week from Peoria to Canton and all of them had 5+ inches of ice
fished a neighborhood lake near Peoria today that had over 6 inches everywhere.  Small gills were biting great.  Caught one decent bass

[VanderLaan]

As always, it really depends on the body of water.  That said, pretty much all of the ponds around Petersburg area are sporting 5"+.  Should be even thicker by the weekend.  Pond in the backyard was popping last night and this morning.

[spcsports]

Been some guys fishing Jim Edger State Park on 4-5 inches of ice but Prairie Lake still has some open water on it. I caught a couple small gills and somebody had left a few small ones on the ice. All the lakes and ponds there are low and need some rain this spring.

[Iceman Cometh]

finally got out today, had a BLAST! Local farm pond near Trivoli/Hanna City, 7 inches of ice. Only drilled 8 holes in 4 hrs! Not because I was catching a ton of gills out of each hole, just wanted to sit in my new frabill commando, wearing my new striker ice suit, and dial in my lowrance x67c. The x67 works great once you figure it out. I'm a newbie to flasher/sonar. Loved that you can put in sonar mode and see your jig  as a horizontal line. Caught ten fish per hole at least. Pre-flasher days might have been lucky to catch one! Anyway, good ice out there guys and growin'. By the way, get yourselves a striker suit if you can afford one. It was 10 degrees out when I went, took my Mr. buddy heater--never touched it. Only flipped over the hut once. Very warm, lite, and breathes well.

One thing about the ice though, (and I've never seen this before, maybe it's from the warm temps lately), it had small pinhole bubbles uniformly from top to bottom (I think). It kinda spooked me with all the cracking it was making, until I realized it was growing, (I hope)! It wasn't milky white with bubbles that I'm used to avoiding, it looked almost like clear, hard first ice, except for the bubbles, so I decided it was safe. Question: is this ice actually weaker than clear ice?

[calicoslabslides]

I noticed that as well, kind of speckled with what looked like tiny air bubbles.  It also sent cracks running through the first inch of  rotten ice that re froze. 

[Iceman Cometh]

think the ice will be safe after all this snow?

[blufloyd]

Ice is never safe it is not about thinking it is about doing.  Grab your spud bar and hike.

[harpenter]

11" of solid ice on Lake Storey in Galesburg yesterday.

[gillinator1]

7-8" in Pekin Il.

[Iceman Cometh]

lol blufloyd! Nuff Said! I'll get off my butt and get out--thanks for the kick in the pants!

[Iceman Cometh]

Sorry to keep asking this, but how much ice(around peoria, hanna city area) is there now after the deep freeze? I wouldn't ask again, but I can't get my truck out of the garage and down the damn alley behind my house because of the snow. Serves me right for buying an old 2 wheel drive F150 this summer!

[spcsports]

There is still a good 5-6" at JESP as of Sunday the 12th. My daughter and I caught over 20 gills on prairie lake but they were all small. We caught them from between 3-5pm.