January forecast, if it holds up, should produce more than enough consistent cold for the nearshore Western Basin shoreline areas and the Islands to form ice for ice fishing. I was up at Port Clinton on Christmas eve, and Sandusky Bay / west harbor were all open water. Buddy was up yesterday / this morning and said west harbor and Sandusky Bay now had ice. We all know (or should) that “safe” ice conditions depend on a lot of factors. But we do have a long consistent cold spell that is here, and that’s the factor that all the others depend on. The open water (“soft water”) fisher folks will wait until spring. Those of us who enjoy the “hard water” fishing (ice fishing) should be getting excited with the current forecast.