Been a cold & snowy week.

Far more typical for this neck of the woods than the past few years.

These are the ones that make winter seem more like an occupation than a season.

With both the holidays and the winter solstice in the rear view mirror,

I'm feeling a bit better about looking forward.

Sort of like getting over the hump.

While January can still be a long cold month,

I'm hoping it's all downhill from here . . . .

89 Days and a wake up ~

A-Jay

 

People are now driving full size trucks and ice castles on our lakes here, as I have heard there is about 14-16 inches of good ice now.  Whole lotta beer is gonna be consumed in the next 2 months here.

@gim here in west central mn it has been cold and windy, pretty typical January weather - not much snow at all - and the ice is plenty thick (16 plus inches) yet multiple people have successfully found ways to have their trucks go thru the ice (ie, they are not paying any attention to where they are driving)....that is a costly mistake for many reasons

1 hour ago, gim said:

  Whole lotta beer is gonna be consumed in the next 2 months here.

So does that mean lots of yellow ice ? 

🤓

A-Jay

this was at my local lake this weekend (I did not take this picture, it is from local newspaper)

39 minutes ago, WaskaCrank12 said:

this was at my local lake this weekend

 

Not that surprising.  Most people just assume that it's safe because of the time of year.  Not because they actually checked it themselves.

I intentionally stayed away from this thread hoping it would stay warmer than it’s supposed to be (I was in denial). Winter is here and isn’t going away.

 

I’m predicting March 19. 
 

I hope I’m right. 😁

The kids are playing ice hockey on the local park pond and have been for over a week now. The township won’t let them on unless it’s at least 4” and that was over a week ago. I bet we have 8-10” if I had to guess. With negligible forecast over 32 and lows in the teens or lower the next 10 days, my prediction isn’t going to age well. 
 

On 12/16/2024 at 9:04 AM, casts_by_fly said:

We are getting a couple days above freezing and then a couple days below.  If it were to do this all winter, we wouldn't have anything more than skim ice for a few days.  Who knows what's actually going to happen, but given that this is NJ, I have to predict that we won't get a proper ice because in the 5 previous winters we've only had proper ice twice and one of them (2 years ago) we iced up in December and were clear in January.  January is going to be bowhunting for me mostly, so I'm going to say that I'll be fishing by the 22nd Feb.

 

Ice fisherman fell through the ice on his ATV yesterday and passed away about 40 minutes north of me. Very surprised the ice wasn’t thick enough given this winter has been absolutely frigid and this lake is higher in latitude and altitude than where I am. It is a very large lake though. I’ve been seeing a lot of shanties and guys on the ice. 

Move north they said.

It would be fun they said.

 

Old Man Winter seems very determined to make up for the past few 

mostly meek & mild winters.

 

As Bitter cold and more wintry weather is expected Sunday into early next week.

Wind chill temperatures as low as -25 degrees are possible, leading to rapid frostbite times of 30 minutes or less.

 

 

A-Jay

Ugh.  That sucks. 
 

just drove to my father in laws and he has 18” of snow. We’re going to get some of it but I don’t need this much. 

Well this area is most definitely going to be earning the 2025 summer.

Because so far this winter has been and continues to be a bear.

Crazy cold with plenty of snow & wind.

Quite unlike the pic below. 

(which was actually from Oct 24)

83 Days and a wake up ~

A-Jay

Just spent the better part of the late morning and early afternoon

performing some much needed snow removal operations.

Super windy but air temps were almost 30 which was nice.

All & all, it went well.

Renewed my state watercraft registration on line today.

Now all set thru March 2028.

That felt pretty good knowing the Pro-V Bass will be remain legal 

in the eyes of the those folks who care about such things.

Meanwhile it's down to 74 Days and a wake up ~

A-Jay

9 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

Renewed my state watercraft registration on line today.

Now all set thru March 2028.

 

I renewed mine earlier this month too.  I'm good until Jan 2028 now.

48 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

Renewed my state watercraft registration on line today.

Now all set thru March 2028

My goal is to use my existing registration before it expires at the end of March. I gotta get my monies worth. 😁

21 minutes ago, 12poundbass said:

My goal is to use my existing registration before it expires at the end of March. I gotta get my monies worth. 😁

We all need goals.

Good Luck with that one.

#icebreaker

🥶

A-Jay

1 hour ago, gim said:

 

I renewed mine earlier this month too.  I'm good until Jan 2028 now.

Mine was renewed last year, so I'm good through the end of 2026.

The susky is locked up solid. They are warning people to stay off the ice I haven’t seen this in a few years. We are going into our snowy time of year with highs in the low 40 s

4 hours ago, Susky River Rat said:

The susky is locked up solid. They are warning people to stay off the ice I haven’t seen this in a few years. We are going into our snowy time of year with highs in the low 40 s

 

we drove I95 down past Baltimore this weekend and the susky was even iced over down at Northeast. All of the slower backwaters on the susky and delaware both were iced.  Ice was impinging on the main channel on the susky as well (not on the delaware).  I was surprised considering how brackish the Delware is that the backwaters were frozen.  This week's temps should help both clear, but certainly won't warm anything more than that.

22 hours ago, Susky River Rat said:

The susky is locked up solid.

Its been completely frozen over left to right here for the past few weeks.

 

Have only seen it like this once before, it was years ago and one of my friends was able to walk out on it. Weather sure is odd this year, it went from 0 degree nights and 10-15 degree days to 40 degree days and 20-30 degree nights for the upcoming week.
My dad wants to go ice fishing, but this weather is way to bipolar for me to trust it.

 

I really thought for sure id be fishing through winter at the creeks and rivers but everything is frozen over. Wouldve loved to fly down south and fish, but somehow Florida got more snow than we did?

@MediumMouthBass it’s been probably half a dozen years but, I have seen it like this before. I went ice fishing MLK day we had 5-6” of ice at that lake. I’d never do it on the river that’s suicide. 

I posted earlier that Cape Cod was still open. Sadly that’s not the case anymore. The ponds I ice fished had 5-6”.

 

I’m placing a bet on February 20th for open ice.

On 1/28/2025 at 4:30 AM, Susky River Rat said:

The susky is locked up solid. They are warning people to stay off the ice I haven’t seen this in a few years. We are going into our snowy time of year with highs in the low 40 s

The Ohio River would be locked up solid if it weren't for the barge traffic. 

Widespread snow continues across northern Michigan into this afternoon.

Additional snowfall is expected today with highest amounts Right over Lake Menderchuck.

Looking ahead Active weather is expected to continue this week with a growing potential for widespread accumulating snowfall Wednesday night into Thursday morning as low pressure moves across the region. Accumulating lake effect snow showers may follow for Thursday afternoon into early Friday. So I'll be busy.

Last few years lake levels have been noticeably low for the first time since We've lived here.

Negatively affected a couple of my really prime areas, especially early season.

I don't think it's reasonable to expect it all back in one winter but it sure would be nice.  Either way, this mess might mean we're headed in the right direction.

68 Days and a Wake up ~

A-Jay