What happened here?

[Nereussailor]

Fishing through a hole in the ice….. Really? Is that fun?

It's a blast if you do it right. When I lived in Wisconsin, we had a ice fishing shanty that was made from an old pop up camper. It was well insulated and had heat. It also had TV, VCR, DVD player, fridge, stove, and a grill. All of the electronics ran off of an inverter and a battery bank. We had pagers on our tip ups so we only had to go out in the cold if one went off or every hour to check bait and icing over of the holes. We kept the heat at 75* in the shanty . That's how you do ice fishing right.

 

[Ron20324]

It's a blast if you do it right. ....... That's how you do ice fishing right.

I think i saw that on an episode of Frasier?

 

[rgranger]

Fishing through a hole in the ice….. Really? Is that fun?

Only when the fish are biting.

 

[Panta Rei]

Are large crew showed up and broke the boats free. The lake had frozen over with a thin but very breakable thin layer. The ice around the boats was a few inches think and took chopping.
About the lake cop, Yes , a retired cop and his wife the just retired local judge. This is a small community. I play poker with these guys, they only ticket flatlanders (Chicago people).

The pier is still in. I will take a photo this spring. I've got $20 on it being splinters by then.
The photo is the near by launch ramp showing the trail of broken ice. Note it's pier has been taken in by the city for the winter. Makes for a very wet and difficult haul out.

The talk today is about a flock of swans that are in a small area that the geese have kept open. I'm told they winter ion the Chesapeake. Bad year for procrastinators.

 

[Panta Rei]

Fishing through a hole in the ice….. Really? Is that fun?

Is there any wonder why Wisconsin is the larges consumer of Brandy? The one day (with everyone in the shanty's)had 30 mph winds.

 

[Dalliance]

We've heard that

...they only ticket flatlanders (Chicago people).

:naughty: ....and down here, they like to ticket cheeeeeeeese heads (Wisconsin people).

 

[topcat0399]

:naughty: ....and down here, they like to ticket cheeeeeeeese heads (Wisconsin people).

 

[Scott T-Bird]

May as well go ice fishing ...

it's too painful to watch the Packers, that's for sure ...

 

[Garyvallen]

http://forums.sbo.sailboatowners.com/showthread.php?t=158284&#post1076658

maybe aliens got them

 

[Sailm8]

Only when the fish are biting.

Sucker fish?

 

[Caboteur]

Winter driving?

Our roads can be tricky in winter... this is a ferry crossing from mid-April to mid-November. It becomes an ice-bridge from late december to late March, weather permitting. We actually sail there sometimes in the summer!
Pierre

 

[Panta Rei]

it's too painful to watch the Packers, that's for sure ...

Won't watch the packers without Rogers. Now we watch the Ice fishing cameras. (A bit slow up this way)

http://www.cabelas.com/category/Underwater-Cameras/104664780.uts

If anyone sees Brett wondering around down south, point him north.

 

[rgranger]

Sucker fish?

Crappie

 

[davidpaulson]

I live near Madison Wisconsin which is in the southern 1/3 of the state. We have much the same temps as Chicago. We seldom have snow that sticks around this time of year. I don't remember our 1300 acre lake freezing over this early. Often it may be as late as January. It's completely frozen this morning.
Yesterday I took this photo at the north end of the lake. I don't know what happened but this is a first for me. Piers that remain in the water on this lake never survive the ice movements, heaves, and spring break-up. These boats are on the worst possible shore since strong warm Spring southern winds generally get the ice moving, breaking it up and driving it to the north shore.
The photo was taken yesterday. The ice around the boats looked to be an inch thick. This morning the lake is completely iced over with the exception of small opening keep open by a flock of procrastinating geese and mud hens.

I'm checking with my fellow sailors on the lake to see who owns these the boats. The Lake will likely open up again latter in the week and the thicker ice around the boats may be broken up with a few tosses of an anchor.

I do not get what the issue is. A little ice won't hurt the hulls and as reported (I guess) the owners showed up and pulled the boats out. Southern sailors posting had a knee jerk reaction the boats were damaged, and therefore neglected. As a sailor whose pulled keel boats out of the ice and skidded them over to open water I say its a fun part of the experience. So the weather got colder than expected and caught them off guard? Not likely they forgot about them and needed to be told.

AND If in fact if there is usually no winter ice on a lake near Madison WI that is more likely proof of Global Warming than the fact that one time it formed recently.

 

[WayneH]

I remember seeing a video from a very intrepid sailor. He had a hammer to break the ice off the sheets to go sailing. Now, I LIKE sailing but not that much. It was kinda neat to listen to the sheet ice crunching under the boat.

But like I've said before, I like my ice inside my highball glass with rum and a bit of coke.

 

[shemandr]

We used to motor a friend's J22 out by pushing it up on the ice, (Crew weight aft and full motor, then crew weight forward to break ice), for a New Year's Day sail. Another friend keeps his boat in all winter. It freezes around it, it squirts up, then it thaws and it settles back down. It has an outboard so no worries about thru hulls and all that. The hull is round so the ice doesn't really get a grip on it. Some years we have little or no ice. Some years the ice is more prevalent but in the twenty years he has wintered his boat this way there has been no damage. The greatest problem is trying to approach the boat on the dock when it is covered with snow and ice. He once ended up in the drink - a dangerous situation.
But we sail the boat at least once every month during the winter and they are some of the sweetest sails of the year. Everything about the experience is different than summer. The light is different. The clarity of the air (And water) is different. The density of the air is different causing the boat to react differently to the same wind velocities as summer. The sun angles make the water and sky look different. Instead of Osprey's there are sea ducks and seals. It's really a great time to go sailing. You just have to stay on the boat!

 

[Couni]

They just prematurely launched the boats for the ice boating season. Seriously, if the only ice on the lake is near the shore, it's not that thick and won't hurt the hulls. I've towed wooden boats off of Lake Geneva that were full of frozen bilge water and were fine. Considering the temps today and for the next week, though, it's good that the owners did get them out. Madison lakes may be frozen enough for ice boating within a few weeks.

 

[Jackdaw]

Our club on Lake Minnetonka ENCOURAGES staying in as late as possible, with sanctioned 'races' to the bar at the far side of the lake every sunday in October-November. Come November I have to keep a heater in the boat to protect the diesel in case it gets too cold. The week before Thanksgiving it looked like the season was up, so we went to the lake for one more sail and then pull the boat. The open lake was ice free, but the bays and slips had up to two inches of ice in them.

But with an ice hammer and some wave action, we overcame that. And made our way out to open water.

Best part is, memories of a final sail. Who cares if its only 19F degrees??

 

[Nereussailor]

Y'all need to move south if you want to sail. There's just something about ice and sailing that's not right.