your honest opinions

[beerduck]

i see alot of people on hear saying there wont be any ice then some saying very little and some saying only a couple of weeks of it.its only december 29th and im still modifying my gear for this season but talk of no ice is getting me down no motivation.honest opinons out there do we still have a chance to icefish this year i mean ill go to hills creek 20 times this year if i have to. what do you think?

[Dizzy]

It seems bad right now, but the weather pattern can change in the blink of an eye. The winter of 03/04 started out this way too... I think first ice in SE PA was around the middle of January (around 4" on Lake Towhee). Then it got seriously cold and stayed that way. By mid-February we were drilling through 22" of ice up at Promised Land! Towhee had over a foot of ice that year too by mid winter. So hang in there... winter only started last week.

[Fat Boy]

It seems bad right now, but the weather pattern can change in the blink of an eye. The winter of 03/04 started out this way too... I think first ice in SE PA was around the middle of January (around 4" on Lake Towhee). Then it got seriously cold and stayed that way. By mid-February we were drilling through 22" of ice up at Promised Land! Towhee had over a foot of ice that year too by mid winter. So hang in there... winter only started last week.

Exactly my opinion as well.  Having ice before Xmas to me is unusual and the past few years have spoiled me.  Usually I'm happy if we have ice in early January and very happy if it sticks around until late March.  What we don't need is a lot of rain and we do need some cold clear windless nights to get things started.  Even a good snow storm with no wind behind it and cold temps can change things in a hurry.

Be optimistic!

[C.C.]

I feel certain that we will all be on the ice by the 3rd week of january. Heck, a six or eight week season is longer than hunting season so what more could we ask for
     Jim

[gair-z]

glad to see some optimists out there!  with a science background (not a meteorologist), I don't see good things..  taking everything in, I see a bad year for ice.. not that we won't get on but I don't think we'll have much time..  just checked out a long range forecast (for what it's worth) and there will be no ice for another week..  Assuming it takes one week of 'colder' weather' to get 4" of ice we're looking at mid January if everything would be perfect..  and March ice comes from building ice in January..  I guess I'm just a glass half empty kinda guy..   I went a bought myself a geetar to kill time..    <strum>   duck, maybe I'll bring it out to Kinzua and play a couple a fish calling tunes..   (next year!)  <strum>

gair-z

[jayswimmer09]

just have everything ready to go. i say mid january we will be good to go may have to drive a lil but we will be fine

[1MOFISH]

there was ice in somebays at arthur today.water temps 38 degrees it can happen overnight         mofish