Great season??

[jebra]

Sorry, but I can't bring myself to say "Great season" when again it was cut short by unusually warm temperatures.

We have lost over 15 lake ice days since those records were first kept. Just think about that for a moment....15 lake ice days.

If this trend continues future generations will only be able to read about ice fishing, instead of doing it.

I don't mean to rain on the "back-patting parade of good times", but for me climate change and how that is eating away at ice fishing takes precedent.

I am emailing state and national legislators to express these environmental concerns and would hope others will do the same. We are already late in fighting globing warming. But as the old saying goes, "better late than never". 

[Global Warming in CT]

Couldn't agree more jebra. Being a dad of 3 and working two jobs, I don't have a ton of free time to fish. Not being able to icefish anywhere close to home is starting to become the reality, not the exception. I used to be able to fish on snow days (I work in a school) right down the street, or hit a local pond for the sunset bite after work. It seems as if those days are over, and road trips are the norm. I haven't even set up my bait tank the past two winters.
While I got out a half dozen times and enjoyed the hell out of those trips, each trip was a minimum 45 minute drive (with one long yearly trip to VT). I can't seem to bring myself to celebrate this ice season or fishing open water in mid-February because I see what's coming for my kids. I even have considered moving north away from the coast that I love, but they're having the same problems up there, just not on our level.

[Fisher Kat]

I'm with you guys.  I keep reading the reports on the arctic sea ice and I'm way past concerned - I'm scared - for our kids.  They are going to have to deal with problems that are much more dire than not being able to ice fish on our local lake.  There are January thaws, but this is ridicules.  I heard peepers driving home from work tonight!  In the words of our new Commander and Chief-Denier: SAD...

[ESOX FIX]

2014-2015 I ice fished  six straight months in CT. 

[Global Warming in CT]

I got out a million times that year too, but years like that are becoming the exception. I feel like it used to be the other way around.

[lowaccord66]

2014-2015 I ice fished  six straight months in CT. 

Yes you did.  You also get a prize for not whining.  The posts complaining about global warming were around prior to that epic season....

Ever since I was a kid I've been infatuated with being on the ice.  Fishing or otherwise.  I can remember winters like 96-97 (before the global warming hype) where it was 70 in December and no ice.  I was catching bass open water.  This state being a coastal state has always had winters with temp swings and the ice has always been subject to those swings.   

[Global Warming in CT]

Admittedly I have only been seriously ice fishing (and hence REALLY paying attention to winter weather and patterns) for the past 12 or so years, so I'm working with a small sample size I guess. I'm also in the SE corner of the state, right on the coast. Great for saltwater, not so much for ice season. Cod fishing and open water have been secondary options the past few winters, but I too prefer ice fishing over all others.

[Global Warming in CT]

I should also add that my site name is a joke, kind of like a Dear Abby type of thing. The year I joined the site, it was abnormally warm and I was just looking for some info on ice conditions and places to fish/stay up north (still the main two reasons I use the shanty). I'm not some big climate change activist, although like most of the rest of us, I am a tad concerned about it.

[Velcro]

I should also add that my site name is a joke, kind of like a Dear Abby type of thing.

Maybe if you changed your SN we can get some decent ice next winter?   

The past couple seasons have had disappointingly little ice. I love ice fishing, open water is so boring after chasing flags and pulling up fish by hand on the ice. 15 lake ice days... over two weeks of what could be good fishing.  I remember one season where I was on the ice the weekend after Christmas, and when March rolled around the only thing restricting my icefishing were certain places closing because of the trout so I fished Halls and had a blast. I'd really like to have a season like that again.

[fishoninct]

Just trying to be optimistic when so many are not.  I know that it could have been better.  It also could have been worse.

[Spoondangler]

I'm no expert on weather/ global temperature, but am I correct that there is a global warming trend happening? I thought that it is only the cause of the warming that is in question? If we can agree the planet is warming, that's not awesome from a ice fishing perspective regardless of the cause. 

Two seasons ago was awesome, hope we get another like that soon, or a mini ice age.

[androux]

remember one season where I was on the ice the weekend after Christmas,

I was on Highland a week and a half before Christmas, in 2016....like three months ago. Sort of weird humming Xmas tunes while watching flags, but hey. That trip I was fully invested in a 4 month fishing season, then La Nina reared it's soft, chubby cheeked face, and blew out the jetstream, ensuring us a mild, rain filled winter. It could be worse, shovelling your driveway on a chalet in the Sierra Nevada's, they picked up over 500" of snow, some places pushing 600", BEFORE March started. That's 50 feet of snow. That snowmelt should be fun for western Cali, with their already overflowing dams....

[frenchy]

some of these NW/NE CT lakes might lock up again soon.... not gonna lie, the weather in northwest CT is looking brutally cold

[Spoondangler]

Took a look at East twin today, Whitecaps and wide open.  If it wasn't so windy it would have locked.  unfortunately looks like that wind is gonna continue.

[Velcro]

A week after I emptied my sled it got so cold the water froze in my shower. Too late (and windy) to make ice fishable but it's freezing cold. 
I'm taking the weather very personally now.

[WILLYTROUT]

Some people were ice finshing on opening day 2 years ago. this year i was on the ice before christmas. first time in years. only missed 2 weekends due to ice.
the sky is not falling everything is a cycle. we had 4 0r five really cold snowy winters in a row and now we have had a couple of mild winters. i don't see whats so strange about that.

wt

[lowaccord66]

Was on 18-20" of ice tight to shore about 4 hours from home this weekend.  There is ice an hour and a half from me in mass...a surprising amount.   Granted it's not CT but if anyone's itching it's out there.

[Spoondangler]

Was on 18-20" of ice tight to shore about 4 hours from home this weekend.  There is ice an hour and a half from me in mass...a surprising amount.   Granted it's not CT but if anyone's itching it's out there.

How'd it go up there?

[androux]

How'd it go up there?

Curious too if you headed where I think. Found ice in western VT on Sunday, lots of wind, not a lot of fish. Product of the high pressure I'd guess, ended my year on 7" of bubbly black, good to get out one more time.

[lowaccord66]

Went to winni.  It was slow but pikemaned and I found some fish and had a good trip despite mind numbing cold. 

[Fishermen]

Winni can tuff place to fish butt once you find the fish I find they are plentiful butt it definitely took a while

[lure loon]

Great