Originally Posted by
steveinsene
Went on a scouting mission tuesday afternoon and checked both the sabetha lakes and brown county state fishing lake. All 3 lakes have open water spots and they also all 3 had areas I measured 6 in of pretty decent ice.
Did not drill holes all over pony creek but it looks as if the upper timbered end of the lake is the safest and had ice that survived the last 2 warmups (the stuff that is now 6 in.) I would not venture past the bluff face area to the dam area where there is open water and be very careful around trees and check the thickness frequently. I have not fished it yet.
The old Sabetha city lake is very sketchy with lots of thin ice and open areas but the dam face and specifically the southwest dam corner area had decent 6 in ice with the usuall very dark water color. Did not fish this area but fished it about a week ago before the last warmup and could not find any of the real nice white crappies that are in there but did catch about a dozen dink blacks that i did not keep. Also caught lots of huge green sunfish and smaller ones. Don't know where the bigger crappies are hiding. Be very carefull if you go and don't venture too far from the dam. Ice on the upper end by the boat ramp was 2 inches at best.
Brown county dam area 1/3 of the lake had 6 in ice with open water areas near the boat ramp. Fished the dam area Thursday afternoon and caught a dozen bluegills (quality was not that great compared to most yrs) and went home with 6 10 in black crappies with some dinks thrown back. Be very careful here as well and I would stick to the dam area only. Upper lake and boat ramp area is very sketchy with thin ice and open areas.
Not sure how much of this good ice will hold up during the warmup coming but I will probably try Pony creek tomorrow before the warmup and coming rain.