Seeing the split personality of Chicago-area ice fishing

The Chicago area has a split personality with ice fishing.

In Lake, McHenry, Kane and DeKalb counties, ice fishing is a major sport. In Chicago and the southern suburbs, it might be as little as a few days.

Then there’s the wild weather ride. This fall was one of the five warmest, but ice fishing arrived in the last week, especially north.

‘‘I’ve had over 200 ice fishermen since [Dec. 2],’’ Dave Kranz, who runs Dave’s Bait, Tackle and Taxidermy in Crystal Lake, texted Sunday. ‘‘Small ponds, back channels (such as Nielsen’s), Island Lake, T Channel. Yesterday they said 4 to 5 inches; today they all said 4 inches. Panfish bite has been good!’’

Arden Katz seconded that with good bluegills on the front bay of Nielsen’s last week. He found even better bluegills (to 8 inches) on the T Channel with Tungsten jigs and wax worms.

The warmth Sunday and Monday stopped ice-making, but ice fishing continued in some spots north.

‘‘West of the Fox River is much colder than Cook County,’’ Kranz said. ‘‘Making more [ice] Tuesday through Friday.’’

Ken ‘‘Husker’’ O’Malley of Husker Outdoors has lived south long enough to take advantage of any ice fishing. He was out Sunday before the warm-up.

‘‘Today was all about hitting the ice at first light and getting off by lunch,’’ he emailed. ‘‘Yes, a 55-degree day does make for some comfortable conditions, I’ll admit. However, this is not ideal for the ice. We are down to 2 1/2 inches, and there were weak spots getting off. Another day of 50-plus will do it in.

‘‘I left the auger and flasher in the truck. My holes were still open from yesterday, so it was a stealth mission to target those shallow-water pannies. Sight-fishing at first ice is so cool with the object of locating those green weeds that hold active fish. Scouting prior to first ice makes this task much easier. The bait of choice today was an IJO Plastics Spider Monkey. . . . When will safe ice appear again? The extended forecast does look good for that.’’

Illinois hunting

Muzzleloader deer season runs Friday through Sunday. . . . A pheasant die-off at the Des Plaines Game Propagation Center led to a reduction in permits for the controlled pheasant-hunting program in northern Illinois.

Stray cast

Dick Allen should’ve been in the Baseball Hall of Fame before the Illinois smallmouth-bass record finally was broken in 2019.