Prior to last year’s ice fishing season, veteran Department of Natural Resources conservation officer Joe Frear gave rookie CO Robert Geving — who previously had been a deputy in sunny California for 22 years before relocating to south central Minnesota — some advice about checking ice anglers during his first winter.

“He told me that when the ice fishermen are walking out on the ice, I should wait on shore and check them when they come off. When they’re driving their ATVs on the ice, I can walk out and when they’re driving their trucks on the ice, I should drive out on my ATV,” Geving said.

Frear, who has patrolled Waseca County for decades, was alluding to the propensity of eager fishermen to push the safety envelope in their eagerness to cash in on the first-ice panfish bite.

Of course, the official view from law enforcement agencies is that there is no such thing as truly safe ice.

While allowing that the vagaries of nature preclude any guarantees, ice conditions this year are as close to perfect as they can be.

“Freeze-up on Madison Lake this year was, to the day, the same as it was last year,” said Matt Elfert, manager of Reel Fishing and Tackle in the community of Madison Lake. “The difference is that when it froze over last year we got a lot of snow at the same time.”

As a result, the first ice was cloudy and not very strong. To compound the problem, additional snow that fell then insulated the ice, hampering further ice formation.

As a result, for much of the ice fishing season, lake traffic was limited to travel on foot or with ATVs and snowmobiles. It wasn’t until well into January that ice conditions were consistent enough to permit car and truck travel.

This year, area lakes iced over on calm, cold, snowless nights and ice on area lakes is glass-smooth and clear. “The nice thing is that with no snow out there, we’ve been making the best ice Minnesota can have,” said Katy Winkler, an employee at the Madison Lake store.

She said interest in ice fishing already is running high. “Everybody has got the itch,” she said. “So many people bought new shelters and electronics and they can’t wait to get out — probably a lot of them already have them propped up in their garages.”

Indeed, the first ice shelter actually appeared on Lake Washington, a perennial panfish hotspot, on Dec. 8, when anecdotal reports put the ice thickness on Mud Bay at about two inches. “Now that,” observed Winkler, “is just crazy.”

However, after four more days of freezing temperatures, the half-dozen ice fishermen fishing the same area reported about 6 inches of clear, solid ice as they fished for bluegills.

Dave Krings, an MSU student, and Brian Lenzen of Cleveland, were on their first ice fishing trips of the season, drilling holes through the ice with their hand auger.

After last year’s poor ice conditions, they welcomed this year’s good freeze since it will be possible this year to get their 22-foot permanent shelter — equipped with all the comforts of home including bunks — onto an area lake much earlier.

Lenzen, who is a concrete worker with spare time during the winter season, said he virtually lived on the ice for most of last February. In the meantime, the pair had dragged out a portable shelter on this mid-December day, hoping to catch a mess of early ice bluegills.

Wearing cleats to gain purchase against the smooth, slippery ice, Geving also was on the ice for the first time, working his way through the group of anglers checking fishing licenses, shelter licenses and catches.

He even checked one angler who had a fresh beaver pelt tacked to his shelter and a skinned carcass outside his door for a trapping license. The fisherman/trapper had caught the animal earlier in the day in a nearby shallow bay before heading out to fish.

“Forgetting to buy a new shelter license is the most common violation we see early in the season,” he said.

All the anglers passed muster, producing all the necessary licenses.

Perhaps more important, during this, their first fishing forays of the season, they all were pleased to have hand-sized bluegills swimming in their fish buckets.