WOODRUFF, Wis. (AP) -- Think spring.

Until recent cold temperatures descended from Canada, those words were being heeded by a surprising number of Wisconsin ice anglers, considering it is only mid-January.

This winter's unusually warm weather put ice fishing on hold in many areas, produced hazardous conditions on some of the state's larger northern lakes and sent walleye anglers searching for spinning gear instead of ice augers.

"It's been a very different winter up here," said Kurt Justice, fishing guide and owner of Kurt's Island Sport Shop in Minocqua.

While ice thickness approaches 10 inches on sheltered bays of some shallow lakes, open water was visible this past week on some of the deeper lakes in Vilas and Oneida counties.

Despite uncertain conditions, Justice feels fortunate ice fishing has been available in his area since December.

"We're seeing as many ice fishermen -- if not more -- than last year," he said. "We're getting people from southern Wisconsin coming up here to ice fish because they don't have ice where they live."

Fishing has been good, Justice reports, with walleyes active in the evenings and during the day under cloudy conditions. Crappies are being taken during daylight hours, and good catches of perch have been reported from a number of lakes, particularly Big Arbor Vitae.

The key has been to fish around upright weeds in 6 to 12 feet of water, Justice said. By the end of January, those fish probably will be found in deeper water off mud flats, he adds.

Justice advises anglers to avoid the main body of deep, clear lakes, such as Tomahawk, Trout and Fence, which have been slow to ice over.

Before heading north, anglers should check with local bait shops on ice conditions for specific waters.

Ice fishing is on hold in the Waupaca area, reports Tom Bodenheimer, an employee of The Minnow Bucket, a bait and sport shop in Waupaca.

The area's famous, deep, spring-fed, clear chain of lakes are sporting a thin layer of dangerous ice in spots.

"I can't remember a January where we had such bad ice conditions," Bodenheimer said. "People are getting out on a few small lakes, but the Department of Natural Resources is telling people to stay off the ice."

If it weren't for archers itching to shoot their bows on The Minnow Bucket's lanes, there would have been little business thus far this winter, he added.

It was much the same elsewhere.

"Ice conditions in the Wisconsin Rapids area are terrible," said Bob Stoiber, owner of Sunrise Bait and Tackle in Nekoosa, who was contacted before the cold weather arrived. "Some people are getting out on the smaller lakes, but I tell them to take all the safety equipment they can get their hands on. There is not much ice and it's been pretty soft near shore, which makes it difficult to even get onto some lakes."

Knowledgeable anglers have been taking advantage of warm days by launching a boat in the Wisconsin River and fishing walleyes.

A wave of 40-degree days in January "kills the ice fishing," Stoiber admits, "but the river fishing is just getting started."

The Wisconsin River offers open-water fishing opportunities below numerous dams along its course, as does the lower Fox River at De Pere, along with possibly the Wolf River at Oshkosh and portions of the upper Fox River.

"Most of Lake Winnebago is open," reported Kendall Kamke, DNR fisheries biologist at Oshkosh, just before freezing temperatures set in.

The area's famed February sturgeon spearing season could be in jeopardy unless the cold front lingers.

"It's going to take a deep, cold snap to salvage a portion of our ice fishing season this year," Kamke said. "We may be in for a real early spring."