As the weather turns toward spring, ice fishing in the Coeur d'Alene area is just about finished.

Hayden Lake is melting away, and Fernan's shoreline is getting swampy. The shallow bays on Lake Coeur d'Alene - frozen solid at the end of February - are now ripe for open-water angling.

Following mild temperatures and rain earlier this month, ice conditions have become dangerous. The Kootenai County Sheriff's Department reported two weekend accidents on nearby waters: On Sunday, a man fell through thin ice on Fernan Lake, but was able to scurry about 300 feet back to shore. The day before, another fisherman broke through on Cave Lake, near Medimont; he also rescued himself.

"If a person decides to risk venturing out onto the ice, they should be wearing a life jacket and carrying a pair of ice picks with them, in the event they fall through," a sheriff's department press release said. "Obviously the water temperature is very cold, and a person who falls through will quickly become exhausted trying to rescue themselves and suffer from hypothermia."

Farther north, however, Old Man Winter is hanging around. A few spots are still ice-bound, and fisherman are still drilling holes.

"The conditions (are) day-to-day. You never know," said Jim Fredericks, Idaho Fish and Game regional fishery manager. "But, that said, there's still plenty of ice at Mirror Lake, and plenty of ice at Cocolalla. I would head to (one of those lakes), but I would certainly be cautious."

Currently, the ice is about 12 inches thick on both bodies of water, he added.

North of Athol on the west side of Highway 95, Lake Cocolalla is fairly shallow and quick to freeze. Mirror Lake, southeast of Sagle and not far from the western edge of Lake Pend Oreille, is more sheltered than other lakes in the area, a natural characteristic that helps protect the ice.

On Cocolalla, bottom-hugging perch are snapping at rubber-tail jigs, Fredericks said. The fish are holding in about 30-40 feet of water.

"They're not all that selective," Fredericks said, and surprisingly, the perch have been larger than normal this season. Anglers fishing for dinner could do worse than a bucket of big Cocollala perch.

Kokanee salmon and trout are tugging on lines at Mirror Lake. Fishermen are hooking kokanee on Swedish pimples tipped with maggots, about 10 or 15 feet below the surface, Fredericks said.

"By and large, the ice fishing has been good (this year)," he said.

According to Dale Odenbaugh of Fins & Feathers in Coeur d'Alene, local anglers are gearing up for open-water fishing, but a few are still traipsing the frozen lakes.

"Everybody's got spring fever," he said Monday. "They've been doing some ice fishing up north. Fernan, I don't know if I would recommend anybody going on it. There's still quite a bit of ice up north, until the weather changes."

In addition to Cocolalla and Mirror, Gamble Lake is coated with thick ice, Odenbaugh reported. It's an out-of-the-way place, 11 winding miles east of Sagle.

"You gotta watch right now," he warned. "You gotta watch where you're going. This time of year, it's fairly dangerous."

On tricky ice, he recommended drilling multiple holes to check the thickness. Slamming a heavy bar probably isn't the best tactic, because if the bar breaks through, the weight might pull a fisherman forward toward the open water.

Stepping off a dock is also ill-advised, Odenbaugh added - wooden planks can hold heat, weakening the surrounding ice. Plus, the water around a dock is normally deep.

"If it happens to be weak and you step through, you step through into 6 or 8 feet of water," Odenbaugh said.

Usually, by the time the calendar hits mid-March or so, the frozen fishing peters out. Anglers are ready for warmer weather, bass, pike and crappie.

"I think people are just kind of tired of doing winter things, if nothing else," Fredericks said.

Some anglers are already shore fishing on Lake Coeur d'Alene, Odenbaugh reported. They're dropping lures into Cougar, Wolf Lodge, Squaw or Blue Creek bays, hunting for northern pike in shallow water. Fishing on smaller lakes should heat up just after ice-out.

"As soon as the ice melts off, I would go after the trout," Odenbaugh advised. "We pulled some really nice trout through the ice. Pretty much all the small lakes - the bluegill, the perch, the crappie will start livening up, getting ready to spawn. That's what we've got to look forward to when the ice leaves the lake."