Photo by Ron Sinfelt

One of the more underrated perks of the outdoor writing business is that we're required to complete magazine articles several months in advance of publication dates so that staff artists, advertising sales persons, editors and others can meet their production schedules. I consider it a perk, anyway, because it encourages me to think about warm weather when the sleet is rattling the windows and imagine winter snow and cold when the humidity has my T-shirt clinging like a second skin.

It so happens that this article was written when upstate New York was sweltering through one of its hottest summers ever, yet I had no problem remembering what last winter was like and anticipating even better ice-fishing opportunities during the 2005-06 season.

Given the right weather -- downright nasty in the eyes of the average New Yorker -- the Empire State boasts hundreds of productive hard-water fisheries ranging from glorified farm ponds to wide, windswept lakes. It's not easy to pick the best of those destinations for those who want to go fishing this month, but the 10 that follow almost always have safe ice soon after New Year's Day and are strong candidates for any hole-driller's little black book.

SILVER LAKE
On an acre-for-acre basis, little Silver Lake in Wyoming County is every bit as good a walleye fishery as western New York's Lake Erie and Chautauqua Lake. Too bad half of Buffalo knows about it!

That's an exaggeration, but the lake really is more popular than a high school cheerleading captain, and it's not uncommon to find 100 or so anglers watching tip-ups on its 760-acre surface on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon in January. Most of those folks are working on a panfish dinner, but quite a few are prospecting for walleyes in the 3- to 6-pound range.

Silver Lake is west of Letchworth State Park, where the Genesee River winds through the famed "Grand Canyon of the East," and I suspect many fishermen over the years stumble onto it while coming or going on a park vacation. You can find it on the map by tracing Route 20A east from the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park through Warsaw and then to the hamlet of Perry Center. Silver Lake Road veers south from there. When you make the trip, you'll see a right turn onto West Lake Road. That leads to Silver Lake State Park, which offers convenient access to the ice and happens to be adjacent to one of the better ice-fishing spots on the lake.

Along with walleyes, Silver Lake is home to numerous northern pike, including some double-digit dandies, yellow perch that frequently measure between 9 and 11 inches and numerous hand-sized bluegills and pumpkinseeds.

You can get a contour map of Silver Lake from the Region 9 Department of Environmental Conservation office in Allegany at (716) 372-0645. The Wyoming County Tourism Promotion folks at (800) 642-4443 can provide a list of area accommodations.

HONEOYE LAKE
A gem of a largemouth hole during the summer months, Honeoye Lake is a consistent producer of good-sized bluegills, black crappies and yellow perch over the winter. It also holds abundant walleyes in the 2- to 5-pound class.

Honeoye Lake is about 30 miles south of Rochester in southwestern Ontario County. To get to it, take U.S. Route 20 to the intersection of Route 20A about five miles west of Canandaigua. Follow 20A south to the village of Honeoye, which is at the north end of the lake.

Access is easiest at the state boat launch on East Lake Road near the southern tip of the 1,772-acre lake. Anglers may also walk in near the north end, at Honeoye Park, which is also off East Lake Road.

Although a snowmobile or 4-wheeler can be efficient for getting around here (as they would be on most medium- to large-sized lakes), they're not really needed because Honeoye has a relatively bowl-shaped profile with a maximum depth of only 31 feet and fish may be found just about everywhere.