BY SHERI TRUSTY

Larry Weiss, who has been ice fishing for 30 years, said the ice on Lake Erie is better than it’s been in about 15 years. (Photo by Sheri Trusty)

PORT CLINTON – On Feb. 4, Larry Weiss drove to Port Clinton from his home in Sheffield Village to join hundreds of other people to do what seems on the surface as impossible: fish Lake Erie in the middle of winter. But that “surface” is frozen solid, and ice fishing has been incredible this year.

Weiss, who previously lived in Oak Harbor for 11 years, has been ice fishing for 30 years. His family had a cabin on Saginaw Bay when he was growing up, and he often joined his father and friends for ice fishing adventures on Lake Huron. Three decades later, he still enjoys digging through the ice for fish.

Ice fisherman return to Waterworks Park in Port Clinton. (Photo by Sheri Trusty)

“We fish for walleye primarily,” he said. “I only caught a couple today, but the guys I’m with did very well.”

Weiss said he usually ice fishes around Put-in-Bay, but thick ice conditions this year brought him closer to Port Clinton. On Feb. 4, the Waterworks Park parking lot was filled with trucks and trailers hauling snowmobiles, including the ones Weiss owns.

“This is better ice than we’ve had in years. It’s the best ice on Lake Erie in 15 or 16 years,” he said. “Everyone likes to fish Lake Erie because there are so many walleye.”

Ice fishing in Ottawa County is so popular this year that the weekends have been packed with winter anglers.

Larry Weiss hauled his snowmobile to Waterworks Park to fish on the frozen waters of Lake Erie. (Photo by Sheri Trusty)

“I came during the week because the weekends are too bad,” he said. “They’ve been closing some of the parking lots early in the morning on the weekends because they’re full. There’s just no parking.”

But on Wednesday, Feb. 4, Weiss snowmobiled onto the ice, set up a shanty, dug a hole in the ice, and waited for the walleye to find him.

“It’s heated in the shanty, so it’s pretty comfortable,” he said. “I ice fish to get rid of the winter blahs. I fish all summer, and this is something to do now. It’ helps me get through the winter.”