Early reports from points north already have anglers trundling out onto frozen lakes, and you can be sure that by now, someplace out in southern Minnesota, a few eager anglers already have tested the ice as well.

The early ice bite is, after all, usually the best.

Frankly, the early birds are welcome to it.

It’s only been a couple of weeks since we could still float a boat in most of the waters in these parts.

Besides, I’ve already had enough icy soakings this fall, courtesy of the wily rooster pheasants that always seem to migrate into the cattails when the first ice cover creeps into the edges of wetlands.

Funny how they know when the score is advantage-rooster — the ice is but an inch or two thick, strong enough to support them, at times strong enough to support a pursuing bird dog, but rarely strong enough to support a gun-toting hunter.

And as any hunter knows, under the best of circumstance, even after an extended cold snap, there is nothing that remains quite as untrustworthy as ice that forms in the tangled vegetation of a slough.

An uncertain step here, a cautious step there — just about the time one’s confidence in the ice conditions builds ... but at least it is only knee-deep.

To push the envelope of common sense by venturing out onto an area lake to fish nowadays, is to risk far more than wet, cold feet.

This is the time of the year when law enforcement agencies dutifully issue their annual statements of the obvious of unsafe ice conditions, hoping we’ll protect ourselves from, well, ourselves.

In the meantime, barring an extended warm period, some heavy snow or rain, ice conditions this year seem to be shaping up nicely.

For the record, four inches of clear ice is the minimum experts recommend for walking, says the DNR. It takes a minimum of five inches of new, clear ice for snowmobiles and eight to 12 inches for a small to medium-sized automobile, pickup or SUV.

We’re not quite there yet. What we need to really firm things up is a few daytime highs that remain below freezing and some lows in the single digits.

Over the last couple of years, I have come to truly enjoy the heart-stopping excitement of gazing into a hole through the ice, hoping a fish might swim by.

But as much as I like ice fishing, it takes more than just a couple of inches of ice to inspire me to pull down the portable-fish shelter from the garage rafters.