I ran up to Fish Lake to see how the ice was holding up and how anglers were doing. It was a very scenic drive up the Tumwater Canyon, and the gauge in my truck was reading in the high 30s. I was actually surprised to see quite a few people out on the ice when I arrived there at about mid day. I went over to the dock and noticed that the snow and ice was deeply rutted where people were people were walking out onto the lake. There was a group coming off the lake and I could see them doing the soft snow shuffle. That means that with each step they were breaking through the thin top layer of crust and sinking into the softer layer below. This can wear you out if you want to travel far to get to your favorite fishing spot. I asked them how they did, and the answer was that for the six of them they had less than 20 perch. They said the bite was pretty good first thing in the morning, but it didn’t last very long. “All of this for maybe three bites of perch,” one of them said.