Question for the old timers

[Erb]

Moving home from unh on Monday was hoping to be ice fishing but seems like going to have to wait a few weeks.
So here’s my questions,
What’s the most amount of ice you have fished on?
Latest and earliest ice?
For me 10 inches and dec 25 and late March. Would love to hear about years ago.

[bassin212]

I’m not an old timer, but the last really good ice year I remember was 2018-2019. I was in the broads on Winni on the very last day of the ice season standing on 16-18 inches of ice.

[mowbizz]

Years ago…when I was young and my dad would bring me and my brother up from southern NH to Little Barndoor Is., at peak season there would be an arm’s length of ice (never actually measured) but I would guess close to 3ft.
That was on the edge of the broads in 40 fow. Took a while to chisel a hole with his old Laconia 3-piece chisel as sharp as it was!
Oh and I just turned 74 on the 6th! 😂

[jibbs]

It all blurs together..earliest is thanksgiving on a Pontook set back..how much not sure

[lowaccord66]

Nov 29th.  3" undisclosed location.

[iceman260]

Earliest was day after thanksgiving on Caroga lake. Most was jiffy model 30 almost hitting the handles. That was in the seventies.

[rmoody79]

In recent memory, 2015 the year of 120in of snow in February there were something like 29 consecutive days below freezing and I have never seen so much ice in my life, a foot as far south as Orleans Mass lower cape, I fished that year up to the 3rd week I march in mid 50 weather and anywhere in eastern Ma 20+ in.  I seem to recall guys that year up at Moosehead in Maine needing to get through 40in of ice w extensions.  Earliest I can remember is Xmas Eve 2009 4in of ice local to me.  I know this is a NH question but the mass page blows

[800stealth]

Not sure where I fall on the old timer chart at 47 but I've been out as early as the weekend after Thanksgiving though it was the small shallow 2ish acre pond behind my property where there is no risk other than a 500 foot walk back home in wet pants. The thickest ice I've seen was as Moody stated, that season around 15... One spot where I jig crappie near Mt. Monadnock bottomed out my 6" hand auger and I had to finish with the spud, must have been 30"-32"...

[TheCrittaC]

I'm only 31, but I remember almost needing an auger extension on Moosehead Lake circa 2012. There must have been at least 38 inches of ice. The latest was probably early April in southern Maine. The earliest I've been on the ice was the second weekend in December in the Monadnock region, in either 2016 or 2017, probably 2017.

[Jack978]

The most ice I can remember drilling through was 31 inches back in 1974 at a place called round pond.  Earliest ice probably the second week of December way back when and latest would be April.  My neighbor who is really an old geezer remembers ice skating on a foot of ice after Thanksgiving dinner in the 1960's in Maine.  At the risk of being called a liberal or Marxist it doesn't freeze like it used to and it freezes later and thaws earlier.   It seems like the average ice season is weeks shorter than when I was younger, and the quality of the ice isn't like it was.  More snow ice and less of the hard stuff.  I'm 66 and started when I was about 16.  Missed a few seasons over the years in the Army in places where it didn't snow or freeze but moved back to where I started in 2020 and it is not the same.

[lowaccord66]

Damn liberal marxists...

[Dirt23]

Not and ole timer but fished last 15 years Christmas Eve on at least 3inches and generally running a plank into second week of april

[lobstamindave]

The earliest I ever walked on ice was in 1980. This sounds unbelievable but it’s true!! It was on salt water in the fort point channel of Boston harbor. It was the first week in December and we had an arctic cold front that stayed for nine days. Temps hovered around 5 degrees. I had a wooden lobster boat tied up to what is now the barking crab. The ice got so thick it lifted boat out of water about a foot. I walked completely around the vessel. Of course I hung on to the gunwhale just in case but the ice was quite thick. Been lobstering ever since and haven’t seen anything close to that!! I’ve ice fished all those years also and I can tell you the planet is definitely a lot warmer!!!

[Hess]

Living north of the notches in northern NH, can often get on good ice sometime in December (we call them 'Xmas Bows'...) -- but, I will not venture out with less than 4" of solid ice under me (4" to account for the variability of ice on any given water body) -- been ice fishing since the mid 60s -- have fished on 24"-36" of ice during that 55 year+ time frame (southern Lake Champlain and Leech Lake in northern Minnesota...)!!

[MLBob]

Most ice:  25" mid March 2019
Earliest ice fishing: Nov 24, 2018 on 4" of ice
Latest ice fishing:  April 17, 2014 on 5" of ice. (ice out was 3 days later)
All of the above on a pond in the Lakes Region.

[jigmaster5]

What’s the most amount of ice you have fished on?

I've bottomed out my drill/auger a few times...once many years ago in Maine...that was solid ice...trucks driving everywhere...

...more recently in central NH...that was only ~5 yrs ago...had to chisel out the bottom of the holes....but that was 50% black ice and 50% white snow ice. (Late season).

So, that's 3'+ of ice.

Latest and earliest ice?

I've fished into April a few times...normally, I will switch to open water once it warms up....but if we get another cold snap, I'll drive north...

Earliest is somewhere around Thanksgiving.

[jethro]

I always used to be able to fish in Central NH the weekend of Thanksgiving. I'm not sure about late ice, by the time April comes I'm unwrapping the boat.

[Digs]

I've been at it for about ten years maybe and earliest was the day after Thanksgiving and latest was April 8-9 on a small warm water species pond.

[dunphy11]

I believe 1992 we were on the broads near Camp Is on 7” black ice with , wheeler and house, Dec 4 1992(or 94) . Back when we could fish ice in. I think around 2014-15 driving on ice last day of March from Gilford Beach to Long Is bridge

[djhornet]

over 25 derbys and it seems like around 2001 when we had some real thick ice.  trucks ran pretty much all over. I recall low 20s in thin areas

fished on 3 inches but wouldnt do it again

many turkey days on the ice and many late march days in the 70s. 

i feel winni was never an issue at derby time until around 2010 and we fish meredith every year

[Roccus]

Most years, ice fishing was back burner early season because we cod fished and trapped until January weather made boat  ramps off limits and open water trapping became difficult, that being said, Day after thanksgiving 1980, I caught bass after bass on Martin's pond in North Reading Mass... now it Rarely is safe.
Most winters in Mass we got to fish until the season  closed the last day if February, then we fished "up north" until April, I had a 6" auger extension  that I needed on Champlain most years.
2 ' of ice was a gaurentee.anywhere you went in March

[Erb]

Love reading all these. More I read tells me I was born 40 years too late. I haven’t even seen a truck or car on the ice yet. I have been checking the weather daily but doesn’t seem like ice is coming soon I’m southern NH thinking of making the drive up to family I’m Gorham nh sometime soon.

[Jack978]

Love reading all these. More I read tells me I was born 40 years too late. I haven’t even seen a truck or car on the ice yet. I have been checking the weather daily but doesn’t seem like ice is coming soon I’m southern NH thinking of making the drive up to family I’m Gorham nh sometime soon.

We don't get a choice when we are born and usually not when we die.  We do have the choice of what we do between those two events so make the most of it while you can.  My father was born in 1897 and when he talked about the good old days, we had to establish which centaury he was talking about. He owned and drove cars but regretted not owning a horse since they didn't need keys and every time mom lost hers, he threatened to buy her one.  Things change but you just have to adapt to it.

[skifisher]

I can remember fishing out of a VW van on 24+” of spudded ice back in the 70’s. This was across from the lake access ramp and near a spring. Along about 3PM, the ice started to“sag” and we had to “beat feet” back to the ramp. Fishing was “old school “, with just a spud bar, lead sounder, and no electronics. Raised hell with them lakers on a 1/2 ounce jig and sucker meat! Lol

[fishingidjit]

Earliest was Dec 7,never go until Vt muzzleloader season ends, latest was April 15th.

[chemit]

In the 70's and 80's we needed an extension on our Jiffy on Christine Lake. Ice in I remember in November. I can't remember specifics but we would fish late April.