Vic Attardo

If you look around Pennsylvania, you’ll see that we have Indian names attached to many of our most iconic natural features. Rivers, streams, mountains – even entire regions – have the honor of carrying nomenclature derived from the Lenni Lenape, part of the Delaware Nation.
But an unfortunate side effect of this cultural respect is the uncertainty, often a controversial dispute, surrounding their translation.

If Mother Nature would only follow deadlines like outdoor writers must, then we all would know if there’s going to be fishable ice this season instead of it remaining a guessing game.
Point of fact, I was right up against this issue’s deadline and I still didn’t know if we’ll get enough ice to walk on water. So, unlike Mother Nature. I had to fudge it and choose a lake that is both good for open water and ice fishing.

Hands down, Lackawanna Lake in the northeast region of Pennsylvania, is one of the best, if not the best panfish impoundment around.
I’ve been thinking and saying that for years and now a new Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission survey proves it.

I have to start with the truth regarding ice fishing last year at Hills Creek Lake.
It just wasn’t the greatest of seasons – for two reasons.First, because it was the start of an El Nino phase, 2022-23 wasn’t the best, or longest, of ice seasons. That wasn’t the fault of the lake; thumbs down went to the whims of Mother Nature.

Unlike the stalwart servicemen and women at the Tobyhanna Army Depot on the cold Pocono Plateau, I don’t have to get up at reveille to start my day.
At the adjoining state park and Tobyhanna Lake, it’s common see the air temperature far below freezing first thing on a January morning and for hours afterwards.