I've been fishing round for about the same time as walleydan. I haven't been fishing the gills but I did have very good results fishing for perch two weekends ago. Last Sat. the bite was off and when we tried to get at the big deep flats towards the middle of the lake we ended up finding only 1.5" of ice and backed off ever so carefully. By now the lake will be fishable anywhere! With that said, so will another perch lake and that is where I will be.