I was headed up to Coulee Dam to check on some of the fishing, and I was curious to see to if there were still any ice fishermen out at the bottom end of the lake. I was actually relieved to see there were no ice shacks out there, and I didn’t see any sign of recent activity. If you are familiar with the fraternity of anglers that like to fish for whitefish on Banks, you know these guys will be looking for another way to get at them. I turned into the Northrup boat launch to see if the ice had cleared off. I found a thin sheen of ice at the ramp and about 30 feet out a band of what appeared to be just slush. The wind had come up and it wasn’t going to be cold enough to freeze that evening, so I figured it wouldn’t last long. I stopped by there again on my way home the next day and all that was left was a bunch of slush. You can bet that there will be boats launching here very soon to get after the whitefish. The ice is off the north end, and I saw one boat out there.