From Cook's experience, the shallow-water fishing around Ruebke and Fisherman's coves normally falls off around midmorning, and it remains lackluster until late afternoon.

During midday, Cook moves down lake to probe areas as deep as 18 to 20 feet. He likes to fish on the south point of Graber Inlet, where the point falls into the river channel. He has also found some fruitful ice fishing around the north point of Wenzel Inlet, where a submerged secondary feeder creek joins the main river channel.

Across they years, Cook has observed that for some unfathomable reason, windy days are more fruitful for catching stripers under the ice than calm days.

During those winters when Cheney is iceless or its stripers become difficult to find and catch, anglers on the southern plains can travel several hours to the northwest of Cheney and test the waters of Wilson Lake, which lies seven miles north of I-70 and about 47 miles west of Salina, Kansas.

In comparison to Cheney's 9,537 acres of water, Wilson's 9,100 acres is significantly clearer and deeper. Moreover, its striper population is larger, and many of the specimens are bigger than those that roam Cheney. Since Wilson lies above the 39th parallel and Cheney lies below the 38th parallel, Wilson's winter weather is traditionally colder, its ice is thicker, and its ice-fishing season often lasts longer than Cheney's.

During last winter's ice-fishing season, Jack Hoskinson, a striper guide at Wilson, reported that hundreds of stripers were caught on January 25 and 26. Most of them ranged in weight from 4 to 15 pounds, and one weighed 25 pounds.

Before that 2-day bonanza, Hoskinson reported that ice anglers caught a 15- and 17-pounder in the Gravel Hill area of the lake on January 19. Besides those two brutes, anglers tangled with scores of 6- to 8-pounders, as well as a goodly number of white bass and white perch.

On January 21, Hoskinson warned anglers that a spell of warm weather had made the ice too precarious from him to traipse across. But he predicted that an approaching cold front would thicken the ice in the Gravel Hill area to 4 inches, and that prediction was on the mark.

Last winter, a 1/4-ounce white-and-chartreuse bucktail jig lured the most fish on Wilson, but in winter's past, a jigging spoon has been as effective as the bucktail jig.

For more information about ice fishing at Cheney and Wilson lakes contact Mike Cook , 316-945-0511, email: fourlakes@cox.net; or Jack Hoskinson, 785-658-3811, email: jack@maddjackstriperguide.com.