HARRISON TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Local anglers and bait store owners are forecasting a long ice fishing season ahead with some saying it's the best one they've seen in years, even as the frigid weather has made it too cold for some to go out.

Despite an "up and down" start to this year's ice fishing season for some, specifically for those who fish Lake St. Clair, many said the ice conditions are good in several areas. All of Lake St. Clair was covered with ice as of last Friday, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, while 95% of Lake Erie had ice cover and 54% of Lake Huron did.

The ice fishing season typically runs from late December through early March, but some said they got a jump start this year because of the long stretch of freezing and subzero weather.

Austin Edick, a manager at Jay's Big Bass Outdoors in Waterford Township, said the season this year has been "quite incredible." He lives in Metamora Township, north of Oxford, and fishes in a variety of lakes in his area such as Lake Orion and Lakeville Lake.

"As far as inland lakes go, it has been quite exceptional this year," he said. "There hasn't been too many years in the past that you're able to get on the ice before Christmas, and it's the first time since I was 18 years old that I got to do that, and I turned 30 this year."

As temperatures plummeted into the single digits and below zero two weekends ago in Metro Detroit, that didn't deter fishermen on Lake St. Clair. Lakeside Fishing Shop owner Julie Beltowski in St. Clair Shores said her business was "really busy."

"They were still fishing, believe it or not," Beltowski said.

She said anglers came into her store to buy shanties, bait and augers, a tool to drill holes into ice. While business was slower last week as the Arctic air stayed put — "it's just too cold for people to go out right now," Beltowski said — she expected it to pick up.

Long-term ice fishing optimism

John Bacarella, the owner of Harrison Township fishing store Sportsmen's Direct, said the recent Arctic blast means "we're going to have a long season ahead of us." Elsewhere across the region, others agreed.

"This really cold stretch does give us some confidence that we're going to have a much longer … ice fishing season, and we'll probably be able to go all the way through February with some good ice," said DNR Fisheries Biologist Cleyo Harris of lakes in southeast Michigan.

The average ice cover across the five Great Lakes and Lake St. Clair was 38% through Thursday, the latest data available. This remains far above the maximum ice coverage of 16% in 2024 and 21% in 2023, according to NOAA's research lab in Ann Arbor. Those years saw warmer winters, resulting in abnormally low ice cover and unsuitable conditions for long-term ice fishing.

Across southeast Michigan, the previous warmer weather caused many anglers to put ice fishing on hold and wait for temperatures to drop, Harris said.

"But now, with this cold weather coming back, we're seeing a lot of people getting out on quite a number of the lakes," Harris said.

Michigan has roughly 11,000 inland lakes, and ice fishing is a popular winter pastime for many.

Harris said the cold period has made ice "even thicker" on a lot of southeast Michigan lakes, giving people "more comfort going out ice fishing." Lake Erie's ice cover rose from 75% to 95% recently.

"Some people wait until they feel very comfortable … to get out there," he said.

Harris added that people also feel more comfortable taking off-road vehicles onto a lake, which allows them to reach places that may be hard to walk to.

In northern Michigan, angler Heath Schlecht said he has been ice fishing in the Gaylord area since a few days after Thanksgiving. The Greenwood Township resident fishes for trout, perch, walleye and pike in the inland lakes.

A 'roller coaster' season

The ice fishing "started out strong" in December, Beltowski said. Lake St. Clair usually doesn't freeze until January, she said, but it did in the beginning of December this year. The ice cover ranged from 26% to 91% during a stretch of days that month, according to federal data.

Then the weather warmed before getting cold again.

She compared the ice fishing season to "a roller coaster."

"You sell stuff and then you buy it, thinking it's (the ice is) here to stay, and it's not," Beltowski said, adding that stores need to "really watch" their inventory.

Some people took snowmobiles and four-wheelers out on the lake during the recent cold period, she said.

Bacarella said that the western shoreline of Lake St. Clair lost ice during "some of the crazy windstorms that we've had." The winds can cause ice to break off the shoreline and float away, he said.

If it stays well below freezing, the lake will have ice "well into March," Bacarella predicted, which "would give us a really long, extended season" for ice fishing.

Anglers profit from conditions

Dearborn couple Rob Parenti, 37, and Julia Schenning, 36, went ice fishing earlier in January in a "fish trap," which is an insulated tent with two seats, at Lake St. Clair Metropark just as the freezing temperatures were really starting to settle in. They were the only people fishing by the metropark beach at mid-afternoon that day.

When they were done using the shanty, they collapsed it and pulled it back to shore on a sled to which it is attached. The lakefront was bitterly cold and windy as they walked back to shore.

"This is cold," Parenti said of the conditions that day. "The wind … definitely makes ice fishing more uncomfortable, because, like, this structure here is like a giant tent, and it wants to blow away like a sail."

Parenti said this year and last year have had "some of the best ice conditions we've seen in a really long time." Last year's 96% maximum ice cover on Lake Erie and 71% ice cover on Lake Huron were the best marks in the past six years, according to federal data.

"I get excited when it gets cold," Parenti said, "because I love ice fishing."

Schenning said she goes ice fishing about two to three times per season because of her husband.

"I would not be here without him. So I'm bribed with a toasted sandwich," she said, adding that they use a heater to make sandwiches with meat and melted cheese. They also sip on hot cocoa.

Schenning described ice fishing as a "different experience." She said the noise of the ice cracking "makes you kind of nervous sometimes."

"But like the color is very different than it is in the summer," Schenning said, adding that the water is a green color.

Around 4 p.m. on a day earlier In January, five shanties were set up on nearby Black Creek, which is connected to Lake St. Clair. A few people were sitting on the lake without tents, including Clinton Township resident Chris Wood. He said it was his first time ice fishing this season.

"I'd like the cold weather to stay around and stick around so I can actually go out more," said Wood, 32. "But, I mean, if it does, it does. If it doesn't, it doesn't."

Bill Garl, an Indiana resident, was also fishing on Black Creek and had caught a perch. He was in Michigan for a long weekend of ice fishing with his friend. They went to lakes St. Clair and Huron, and they had a guide on the latter.

Garl, 68, said they ended up going home last Saturday, a day early, because of the strong wind.

"We caught some fish out … out of Lexington harbor," he said, referring to a harbor on Lake Huron. "And the guide was nice enough to put a shelter up for us, so we could get in and out of the cold, and he heated that up for us."

Ice fishing across Michigan

Harris, the DNR fisheries biologist, said southeast Michigan has had "decent fishing opportunities" this winter, even in December. Anglers don't typically get out on the lakes in the region until January, he said.

People ice fish for yellow perch and northern pike on Lake St. Clair, Harris said. Anglers commonly fish for bluegill, northern pike and black crappie on inland lakes in Oakland County, such as Cass Lake and Pontiac Lake, he said. Fishermen can catch trout in Maceday Lake in Waterford Township.

The current cold period is building ice "that's going to stay here for a long time," Harris said. If there are a few days of warm weather, the ice isn't "going to just go away," he said. It will stay firm, allowing people to still feel comfortable going ice fishing, he said.

Jay's Big Bass Outdoors' Edick, who also films fishing content and posts it on social media, said he and his friends caught a few trophy walleye this winter on inland lakes.

"If the predictive weather forecast stays on track, then we're looking to have a much longer ice season than normal," he said.

Schlecht, the fisherman in the Gaylord area, said this ice fishing season in Michigan has "probably been one of my best." He said he is in the middle of the northern Lower Peninsula, which is far from the Great Lakes, so inland lakes in his area freeze early.

"I probably fish 50 lakes up here. … And I fish pretty much every day that I can, depending on the weather," Schlecht said.

The season started earlier than normal, and the fishing has been "really good," he said.

For trout, specifically, this year has probably been his "best year, ever," Schlecht said.

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