2018 Ice Out Progress

[ishoot308]

Originally Posted by MikeF-NH

Like many who begin getting anxious this time of year and check the webcams several times a day for "clues" of signs of a pending ice out...I am now on the constant web cam watch looking for the sign I find most telling. That sign is from the Black Cat cam where there is a set of rocks in the lower center of the shot. In general, when there is open water out to those rocks, we are on a two weeks to ice out phase. As open water begins...that shot becomes one of my focal points. To this point, there is NO open water even around the rocks telling me we definetly won't see ice out for the April 1 opener.

I'm wondering what others use to guage their ice out estimates and where they now think we are at. Are there any clues that recent rains and wind is accelerating our progress? Any hope for ice out in the first week or two of April???

The ice out watch has begun!

Based on what I have seen and experienced on the ice this year, I do feel the ice will go out much quicker than normal. For the past couple weeks old ice fishing holes are opening up to become 2’ - 4’ in diameter making the lake very unsafe to be out on without extreme caution. While this is a normal occurrence, it doesn’t usually happen as quickly as it happened this year. I believe there are a couple of factors that have caused this. The first is the lack of snow cover on the ice for most of the season. The suns rays have really been able to work deep inside the ice weakening it immensely. Digging a hole in the ice a week or so ago at my bob house I couldn’t believe how soft that 20” of ice was! The second reason I believe is the water in the lake is warming quickly. It doesn’t take much just a degree or two to really work at the ice from below and I believe that is happening.

I still think I will be at my Camp come April 1st just not sure if ice out will be declared by then...it will be close.

Dan

Here’s a pic of what the ice looks like today in the broads. Still has a ways to go but as you can see it’s getting that dark gray color....