"For its size, Summit is one of the first lakes to freeze up in central Indiana and see any ice action," Wisener said. "It offers anglers both quality and variety. Bluegills are the most commonly caught fish and the action usually starts with the first ice in the bays. Yellow perch, crappies, walleyes, bass and channel catfish are other species ice-fishermen commonly target and catch. It's also not unheard of for anglers to get into some nice white bass."

Daniel Miller of Miller's Great Outdoors said the lake is an all-around great ice-fishing destination.

"Ice-fishermen do real well on the lake for bluegills. When you find them, there's an almost endless supply," Miller said.

"Some big bass are occasionally taken through the ice, and last winter an angler took a largemouth that weighed 10 pounds."

According to Miller, a few diehard anglers fish through the ice for walleyes near the dam on the northwest end of the lake. Catfish, yellow perch and redear sunfish are taken along with some nice crappies. Crappies aren't especially popular in the wintertime on Summit, but the lake is loaded with them. The biggest winter perch that Miller is aware of was a 17-incher, though most will be around the 12-inch mark.

Miller points out that the Beaver Creek area on the northeast end of the lake is where most people start fishing, especially if they're not familiar with the lake. The lake is shallower here with plenty of submerged cover. This section of the lake is also the first part to freeze over and often has ice while the rest of the lake is still open water.

"Bluegills are usually pretty good during the first couple of weeks in the Beaver Creek area," agreed assistant Summit Lake State Park manager and fisheries biologist Dan Robinson.

"My son uses an Aqua-Vu underwater camera to find bass under the ice in Beaver Creek; he caught 15 of them one time, while I caught one. You'd think that bass wouldn't fight hard in the cold water, but they do."

Channel catfish will suspend in the deep water, sometimes as deep as 35 to 40 feet, Miller said. A few years ago, he helped one angler land an 18-pounder through the ice. They cut two additional holes in the ice to make a clearing big enough to get the catfish through.

When Robinson fishes the ice, spikes are his live bait of choice. If he's looking for largemouths, he'll tie on an orange or chartreuse jigging Rapala or a live minnow.

Summit Lake covers 835 acres and is northeast of New Castle at county Road 600N and Messick Road in Henry County.

Three boat ramps are available. Foot access on the ice is limited and Robinson recommends calling ahead to the state park to find out where it's being allowed.

For more information, contact District 5 at the Cikana State Fish Hatchery in Martinsville at (765) 342-5527; or the Summit Lake State Park at (765) 766-5873.

Miller's Great Outdoors is just outside of the park and can be reached at (765) 766-6300.

ROCKVILLE LAKE
"An option on the other side of Indy is Rockville Lake," Wisener said. "It doesn't offer the variety that Summit Lake has, but it does offer quality fishing. We just completed a fisheries survey there in May of this year and found many bluegills, the largest of which was 9 inches. There were also a good number of redear sunfish collected and a good percentage of them were from 8 to 11 inches. We also found a large number of crappies between 7 and 9 inches that should provide for quite a bit of action this winter."