Being from the syracuse area, it is usually frozen up north well before we have ice that I concider safe in this area. So, first ice(and a lot of middle and end ice as well cause i like it so much) is up in the 1000 islands area. Eel bay, Lake of the Isles and Chippewa bay. Eel bay is fairly shallow and ices up really good as soon as anything else in the area even though it's part of the st lawrence river. Lake of the Isles is probably my favorite, but quite a bit deeper and generally not as quick or thick as eel bay. I'm not a big perch fisher, but eel bay is a decent spot for those of you that are. I release 98%+ of what i catch, so I look for the fight....pike, bass and whatever else will take LARGE shiners. I have caught my biggest and smallest pike through the ice in LOTI.....39" and a whopper that topped out at about 5 +/- inches...lol poor guy was nothing more than bait himself. Chippewa is a very large area and is a big channel separated from the main river by a large string of islands. It is actually part of the river itself, so is much deeper than even LOTI depending on how far you go out, so would think it would be the last up in the area to freeze up good. However, that is where I believe the best opprotunity is for larger pike, so i like to hit that a couple times each year too. Eel bay will general give you good flags all day, but most are smallish. At LOTI if you go in at the state park...i think it's wolf point...and head straight across to the opposite shore, i know guys are always doing pretty good with sunfish, bluegills, ect over there.
mike
