Ice Conditions – December 29, 2012
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I am impatient with Mother Nature’s slow process of ice-making to this point. I want to go ice fishing! We’ve had a few cold nights so Darrell and I decided to visit two our regular ice fishing spots today to see how they were shaping up.
Fairy Lake (Acton, Ontario)
The first spot Darrell tested at Fairy Lake was right off the dock – there was a very thin layer of ice that was easily broken by his boot. The next spot was in front of the splash pad where he found 3-inches of ice, but at least 1/2-inch of it was very poor ice.
There wasn’t too much snow on top of the ice, suggesting that the lake is only just setting up because the area has had more snow than what we found on the lake (and not enough wind to blow it away).
Water on the ice? Or open water? This is one of the last areas to freeze over in this part of the lake.
The view of the lake from our usual access point by the Legion.
Heading out onto the lake. It’s very shallow here by shore, but this is how we get out to our spot so if it’s no good, we don’t go anywhere.
Definitely not safe yet. When Darrell drilled through he found 4 inches of ice, but at least 2 inches of that was very poor quality. There was at least one spot that looked open. It will be another few days before Fairy Lake is close to safe for ice fishing.
Guelph Lake (Guelph, Ontario)
Guelph Lake sure looked pretty today from our access point on Wellington Road 29.
Three inches of ice at the first hole.
Three inches of ice at the second hole. The ice quality looked better here than at Fairy Lake, but Darrell said it felt even more unsafe than the ice in Acton. It shifted a lot. There is much more snow on the ice here than at Fairy Lake.
So unfortunately, there’s no safe ice on either of these lakes yet, but we’ll visit them again in a couple of days. There are plenty of cool nights in the forecast so I hope it will be perfect ice-making weather.
I would like to point out that in these pictures Darrell is not wearing a floater suit. We know these lakes extremely well and he only went out so far that if he had fallen through the worst thing he would have encountered was chilly knees and wet feet. If the ice had been more promising in these first few spots he would have headed back to the truck to put on his floater suit and ice picks, while I would have had a rope ready to toss to him if necessary. Take care out on the ice and always be safe!
argosgirl
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