I got word that there was safe ice on Fish Lake, near Lake Wenatchee, so I drove up there to check it out. I want to mention that there are flaggers and pilot cars on the Chumstick Highway, but my wait in line only lasted about five minutes going and coming. I headed out on the ice and noticed that the anglers were fishing quite a distance out from the Cove Resort, in about the middle of lake. This is actually where I usually look for perch when fishing in the Bob Feil Boats and Motors Smoker Craft. I stopped to talk to two anglers who were hunched over their holes in the wet snow that was falling. One of them was from Everett and the other from Marysville. They had a great time the previous day, taking home lots of perch. There was over five inches of clear ice under the snow that had fallen that morning. They said that the perch were bigger than usual this year and released one while I was there. I measured one on the ice they had kept for bait, and it was over 9 inches long. We always used to keep those!