George, the ice on our pond is 9-11" thick right now! Open water fishing is still a ways off. I was out on Sunday, the ice fishing was slow but we did manage to cull a few of the smaller largemouth in the 14-15" range. Big fish was an 18-1/2" LMB caught on a large FH rigged on a tip up. You Texas guys do know what a "tip up" is, don't you?