Made my last trip of 2010 south of the Gladstone harbor tonight. The rain and warm weather has melted all the snow, but the ice appears to be in good shape. I would say we lost less than 1/2 inch of ice, compared to just a few days ago, (still about 5 inches of good ice off the harbor.) I got a late start, and didn't start fishing until about 4:45 this evening. The current was really strong, running both north and south. Didn't mark as many fish tonight, but the ones that I did see mostly bit. Ended up going 5 for 8, with 4 of them being keepers in the 17 to 19 inch range. Most of the action was on a #9 Glow Tiger Jigging Rap. The 3rd fish I landed threw the bait on the ice, and broke the tail fin. I switched up to a #7 GT, and caught a couple more on that. It started raining pretty good towards the end of the trip, so I quit about an hour after I started.
The newer ice is really clear! First pic is my first fish of the night just before it got tangled up in my transducer. It's kinda hard to see, but there's another fish showing on the graph. After unhooking this fish, I dropped the bait back down and caught the second one.
Not a bad way to end the year, in my opinion. Good luck to everyone in 2011.