Ice-In 2012-13

[mcdude]

Laconia Daily Sun 2/1

January thaw = bob house rescue time
GILFORD — Ice fishermen scrambled in mid fifty degree temperature early Thursday morning to rescue their bob houses from an ever-widening stretch of open water off from Ellacoya State Park.
''It's unbelievable. There's a seam in the ice right next to my bob house and yesterday I measured nine inches off ice there,'' said Jim Burgess of Gilmanton.
He was looking through zoom binoculars while sitting in the front seat of Al Bagley's pickup parked near the beach at Ellacoya, where a half dozen bob houses had been dragged close to shore, some with the aid a of a four-wheeler, and pondered whether or not to venture out to the edge of the ice some 300 yards away to try and bring in his bob house
Burgess' bob house was perched precariously on the very lip of the ice, right next to a 100-yard wide stretch of open water which extended from Dinsmoor Point to the south all the way north to Welch Island. A wind from the west was whipping up waves in the open water and was showing signs of gaining enough velocity to make any attempt to untether the bob house from its rope anchor and bring it ashore virtually impossible.
Burgess, whose bob house is well-known to other ice fishermen in the area for its excellent interior woodwork, had left all of his ice fishing equipment and ice augur in the bob-house overnight.
He put ice creepers on his boots, donned a life jacket and grabbed a coil of rope saying that he was at least going to try and get close enough to his bob house to better assess the situation.
He was joined in his journey out to the edge of the ice by Steve Powell and Jason DeCoff, both of whom live next door in Lakeshore Park and had been out earlier hauling their own bob house and several belonging to friends off the ice.
Burgess said that when they got to the bob house they could see water on top of the ice around and that Powell got right to the edge of the ice and was able to cut the anchor rope, allowing the trio to start pulling the bob house towards shore.
But there were some more obstacles on the way, including a strong gust of wind which nearly took the bob house over the edge of the ice, and the difficulty of the trio keeping balance on the wet surface of the ice.
''It took us awhile to get our technique down. I slipped and fell once because I was trying to get some traction and got my boots at an angle. Once you do that there's no way you can stay up,'' said Burgess.
As the trio got closer to the beach they were joined on the ice by two other men, who had earlier pulled a bob house belonging to Brad Cronin of Meredith ashore,and soon they were able to get the bob house safely ashore.
''I guess I used up my quota of bravery for the day,'' said Burgess, who then turned to Powell and DeCoff and said ''I owe you both one at Patrick's.''
He said that he will be putting his bob house back on the ice as soon as it the area freezes over again, which he expects will be within a few days.
At least one bobhouse is thought to have sunk when the water opened up during Wednesday night's heavy rain, an orange one which had been seen at dusk on Wednesday but wasn't visible Thursday morning.
The water opened up less than two days after ice-in had been declared on Lake Winnipesaukee by Dave Emerson of Emerson Aviation, who flew over the lake Tuesday morning and reported that the last open section of water near Welch Island had frozen over.
Emerson said he would be back checking on ice conditions after Thursday's high winds abate but expected with night time lows dropping to single digits it wouldn't be long before lake was covered once again.
The 4th annual New England Pond Hockey Classic will open this morning on Meredith Bay, where the ice is still 10 inches thick and the 21 rinks which had been created for the 1,400 players who have arrived for the tournament withstood the warm weather and rain.
Among those taking part is a team of eight players from Raleigh, North Carolina, who flew into Boston Thursday morning and showed up at mid-afternoon to check out the ice conditions.
''We just talked with Scott Crowder, who runs the tournament, and he told us things are shaping up fine,'' said John Rodgers of the Fun Unlimited team, which is competing in the over 35 Just for Fun group.
The players said none had has had any recent ice time and that they all skate in indoors roller hockey. One said that the last time he had been on skates at all was when he was 10 years old and joked that entering the tournament ''sounded like a good idea at the time.''

[Bear Island South]

A friend of mine sent this picture from yesterday, access getting on the ice at Cattle Landing may be tough.

[codeman671]

Todays picture from Mark- looking across to Camp Lawrence

[MAXUM]

Anyone know if there is a place to get on the ice between Shep's and Cattle Landing?

Thanks for posting that pic BIS, I am headed up tomorrow and I hope I can safely get on the ice somewhere in that general location. May be a futile trip but going to give it a shot anyways.

I know some folks last weekend were getting on over at Y Landing, but I don't think that area freezes to well and I'm not about to take any chances.

[Hamiltony]

Originally Posted by Bear Island South

A friend of mine sent this picture from yesterday, access getting on the ice at Cattle Landing may be tough.

I assume this is the shoreline just to the south of Cattle?

[Bear Island South]

Originally Posted by Hamiltony

I assume this is the shoreline just to the south of Cattle?

yes, adjacent to the dock.
apparently the circulator is eating the ice away

[Hamiltony]

Originally Posted by Bear Island South

yes, adjacent to the dock.
apparently the circulator is eating the ice away

Did they take any images on the north side of Cattle? Someone in this thread already mentioned that the ice was more stable in that direction, hopefully cutting through the small stand of trees on that side will lead to some solid footing.

[fatlazyless]

You know the new $125,000 Cattle Landing town dock, about one to two years old, is a floating concrete dock, and supposedly according to its manufactorer's website, using an ice-eater/water circulator is not really needed to protect it from the relatively thin ice present at that location, so maybe you could bring this to the attention of the Meredith D.P.W., and they would not need to be using the ice-eater there.

www.tmpmarine.com/pages/docks/docks.html

[Island Girl]

The power appears to be out on Rattlesnake Island. This means no Snake Eyes for a while. I hate when that happens.

IG

[brk-lnt]

Originally Posted by Island Girl

The power appears to be out on Rattlesnake Island. This means no Snake Eyes fora while. I hate when that happens.

IG

FWIW, I'm pretty sure it's out on Welch as well.

Bear Island appears to have power.

[Slickcraft]

Originally Posted by brk-lnt

FWIW, I'm pretty sure it's out on Welch as well.

Bear Island appears to have power.

The Welch Island Cove weather station is still operational:
http://classic.wunderground.com/weat...p?ID=KNHGILFO9

[Merrymeeting]

Took my first real walk out on Merrymeeting today, and talked to a few of the ice fishermen who were out (first time seeing them too).

Most areas seem to be 10+". Once the sun came up, and with no snow cover to absorb it, the ice began sounding like crazy.

[snowflake]

Looking at the various cams I can't tell if I see water or water on ice. Looks like a lot of open water to me. Massachusetts ground hog, Miss G, says 6 more weeks of winter. I hope she's right. Thanks for all the pictures of bob houses. Can't see them on web cams. Hope fishermen/women are having a great time out there.

[brk-lnt]

Originally Posted by Slickcraft

The Welch Island Cove weather station is still operational:
http://classic.wunderground.com/weat...p?ID=KNHGILFO9

Thanks. I was basing that on the fact that I haven't gotten any updates from ishoot308's web cams today, so I figured power must have gone out on the island. Maybe it's just a DSL issue, or something else.

[SteveA]

Still open on the Broads in front of LSP, in fact it looks like it's more open than yesterday.

Took this pano this morning just before sunrise looking down towards Diamond and Rattlesnake. Lot's of open water and what ice I could see looked like Slush Ice.

[DRH]

Originally Posted by SteveA

Still open on the Broads in front of LSP, in fact it looks like it's more open than yesterday.

Took this pano this morning just before sunrise looking down towards Diamond and Rattlesnake. Lot's of open water and what ice I could see looked like Slush Ice.

Attachment 7432

Gorgeous photo, Steve!

[codeman671]

Originally Posted by brk-lnt

FWIW, I'm pretty sure it's out on Welch as well.

Bear Island appears to have power.

We had power earlier this morning on Mark as I checked my cams, it is out now.

[codeman671]

Originally Posted by codeman671

We had power earlier this morning on Mark as I checked my cams, it is out now.

I guess I spoke too soon, I am back online up there.

[Mink Islander]

My wife and I made the trek out on foot this morning.

Looked a little tricky getting on the ice at the Cattle Landing docks so we went about 100 yds to the left where there is easier access just beyond the parking lot and cross street. A good 9 inches straight out from Cattle Landing BUT as you head into the channel (heading east) it gets very treacherous. The ice thins out to 3-4 inches or less and you will ultimately find open water and 3 inch thick plates of ice floating around spanning the entire distance between Dolly Island and the mainland. The effects of the recent high winds and warm weather very evident in this traditionally tricky area. We cut in behind Dolly Island and the other one there near Bear to avoid the channel area altogether and the ice was much better on the other side. Consistent 7-9 inches all the way to the north side of Mink from there.

Safe travels and hope to see some of you next week at the Derby!