“We have been continuously operating the Jenpeg control structure at maximum outflow since July 2010 in response to high inflows into the lake,” said Bob Brennan, Manitoba Hydro’s President and CEO. “Manitoba Hydro will maintain maximum possible discharge until the level of Lake Winnipeg is below 715 feet above sea level and the threat of flooding has passed. Flooding of communities along the waterways downstream of the lake is also a concern.

Southern floodwaters have arrived in the Nelson River. Communities downstream of Lake Winnipeg, including Norway House, Cross Lake, Split Lake, York Landing and Gillam are experiencing high flows and elevated water levels. Water levels are at their peak and, with normal rainfall, are expected to remain high for the duration of the summer.

The elevation of Lake Winnipeg last Aug.10 was 716.8 feet. Inflows into the lake were twice the average for the spring period.

Manitoba Hydro is licensed by the Province of Manitoba to operate LWR for power production purposes when the lake is between 711 and 715 feet above sea level. When the lake reaches 715 feet, it must operate its facilities to maximize the discharge from the lake. When the level falls below 711 feet, control of Lake Winnipeg outflow is under the direction of the Minister of Water Stewardship.

“The whole point of the Lake Winnipeg Regulation project was to help minimize flooding around Lake Winnipeg and improve outflows for better hydro production at plants downstream,” said Wes Penner, Manitoba Hydro’s manager of Hydraulic Operations. “The benefit of LWR is that water levels do not stay as high for nearly as long and are lower than they would be in a state of nature during flood events.”

Lake Winnipeg continues to vary within its natural pre-regulation range year-round but without the extreme highs and lows experienced before LWR. Federal government records show:

• For the period 1913 to 1976, Lake Winnipeg’s average water level was 713.4 feet.
• Since 1976, when Manitoba Hydro began regulating outflows from the lake, the average level is 713.5 feet.

Historical records show that the daily average water levels after 1976 are just over an inch different than the daily average levels prior to regulation, including the fall months.

The deeper channels built for LWR were designed to overcome freezing and blocking, enabling Manitoba Hydro to discharge more water through the winter (for electricity production) than would have been possible for the same starting levels without LWR. This additional discharge capacity is also used during the rest of the year to reduce the frequency and magnitude of flooding on Lake Winnipeg.

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Experts and novices alike can appreciate the fishing at Spray Lake. With all equipment, winter gear and transportation provided, the guided trip from BFU makes this opportunity hard to pass by. Those who would rather cast their line into running waters can take one of the  boats to Bow River as well, where the open waters offer some of Alberta’s best trout fishing year round.

For travelers on Canadian rail trips who would rather not fish, White Mountain Adventures offers the chance to go on an ice walk in Grotto Canyon, approximately 10 minutes east of Canmore. The guided tour will take visitors along an ice covered canyon floor to the “lost valley,” a beautiful and nearly inaccessible area.

Many of the winter activities in the Banff area require a guide, but equipment and other amenities are usually provided, making the exciting opportunities here well worth the trip.

http://www.canadiantrainvacations.com/news/go-ice-fishing-on-canadian-rail-tours-800664936

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Sebago Lake Derby, Feb 18-19; cost: $30 single or $50 family

Ice fishing weigh stations are open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. A polar dip will be on Saturday, Feb. 18 at noon. Snowmobile speed runs will be Sunday, Feb. 19 at 10 a.m.

The Sebago Lake Rotary Ice Fishing Derbies, with a top prize of $100,000, has a new director, as Tom Noonan has stepped down after 11 years of running the third largest ice-fishing event in the country. Rotarians Ingo Hartig and Steve McFarland have volunteered to co-direct the derby. You can check out all of the events, festivities and prizes at www.icefishingderby.

This year, the derby is scheduled during the free fishing weekend so you don’t need to purchase a Maine license to fish. What a deal!

Kids Fishing Derby, Feb 18; sponsored by the Kittery Trading Post, this event is very popular with the youngsters and is free.

Location: Range Pond State Park in Poland, Maine; from 8 a.m. to noon. There will be free ice fishing equipment for 500 kids.

Statewide Fishing Derby, March 3-4; cost: $20 single or $30

Ice fishing weigh stations are open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. There are over 20 weigh stations across the state of Maine.

They are now pre-selling tickets for this event. Those who buy now will be entered into a daily drawing for prices before the derby even starts.

Starting Jan. 19, they will randomly draw one name from all paid entries at that time. The winner will receive gift certificate(s) totaling $100-$200 each day until Derby Day on Feb. 18.

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Every year, the Great Rotary Ice Fishing Derby draws thousands of visitors from all over the U.S. and Canada to Meredith, N.H., to fish on Lake Winnipesaukee.

This year the Rotary Derby will be held the weekend of Feb. 11-12.

More than $60,000 in prizes are up for grabs this year, so grab a registration form, mail it in and get your gear ready. With a little luck, you will soon be standing in the winner’s circle.

It’s a big party on the ice as friends, relatives and total strangers set up their shanties on their “lucky” holes hoping to grab first prize. However, second, third and all of the rest of the prizes are good. Consider winning a new boat, motor and trailer, an ATV or fishing gear. How about winning a daily cash prize for catching the biggest fish?

Tickets can also be purchased at the following dealers: AJ’s Bait and Tackle, the Winnisquam Trading Post, Skelly’s Market, Alton Circle Grocery and Paugus Bay Sporting Goods. You can also purchase tickets directly at derby headquarters in Meredith,

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When will the ice set up? Will it come early, on time or late? I would say it all depends on Mother Nature and her attitude, because if she is cranky then look out as we will have thick ice and tons of snow.

If she is happy, it will be a mild winter with good ice, little snow and an early ice-out. I hope she’s happy, so I can launch my boat and go fishing on open water. Why? Because it’s tough to get a tan on the ice.

Mild days, cool nights, snow for Christmas and then warm-up. Now that’s my kind of winter.

When I was young and naïve, I loved to play in the snow. We would build snow forts and have snowball fights. We would lob snowballs at cars driving by from behind a huge mound of snow. We would put snow down the necks of any girl who invaded our territory. My apologies for that, but remember, I was young and stupid.

We used to play hockey on the small ice ponds throughout the Seacoast area from morning until the dark of night stopped the game. Most years, this took place in late November and early December. Now, we’re lucky if we get safe ice in January.

But, the good news is that it is approximately 14 weeks before we will be on the open water fishing in bass tournaments.

http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20111219-SPORTS-112190304

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Larose is a bait retailer who manages Dag’s Bait Shop for his father, Marcel, in Auburn. Daniel owns Ellis Pond Variety in Roxbury.

Normally, both would be very busy ordering and selling bait and ice-fishing tackle this month, prior to the season opening on Jan. 1.

However, due to the lack of ice, Larose said he’s lost money and bait. Daniel said he has yet to call his bait dealer and take delivery of 200 dozen bait he ordered two weeks ago.

“I should be selling 200 dozen a week, bare minimum, this week and this is the beginning of fishing,” Larose said.

“Not as many people ice fish in December, because on the ponds and lakes it’s catch-and-release in the southern counties where we’re at,” he said. “So. I’ve missed out on 400 dozen bait sales plus the tackle, the hooks, the weights and everything that goes with it.”

Larose said he had lost $260 worth of bait in the past two days.

Daniel orders bait for anglers who primarily fish Ellis Pond, also known as Roxbury Pond. Last week, ice was 2 inches thick there. By Friday, it was gone. On Saturday morning, the ice-making cycle began anew.

“I’m just hoping that it freezes and I’ll call the (bait) guy and say, ‘Hey, OK, send it on up,’ but it’s just too chancy right now,” Daniel said.

Larose, who is starting his third winter selling bait and tackle this month, said bait wholesalers — the people who catch the bait — and bait retailers are hurting from the finicky weather.

Normally, early ice anglers hit the Androscoggin River in a cove at the Turner Boat Launch for monster pike of the 20-pound variety, he said.

Two years ago, he sold bait on Dec. 11 to a guy going there. Last year, he sold bait to a guy on Dec. 4.

“It’s still open water right now and I have yet to sell bait to a guy to go ice fishing up there this year and that’s how far behind we are,” Larose said.

“If we have ice, I’ll sell 200 dozen (bait) on Christmas Eve,” he said.

In fact, he’s anticipating just that and said he’ll have plenty of bait and be open Christmas morning. Daniel will also have bait aplenty.

By the week of Thanksgiving last year, Ellis Pond had ice from 3 to 5 inches thick, Daniel said.

By Saturday afternoon, he said poor ice had formed in the coves and to about 75 feet from shore by the boat launch.

“It’s what I would call junk ice,” Daniel said. “It’s all full of ripples and bumps. It’s very wavy, so I would say it’s very dangerous, even that first 75 feet. If we can get the right conditions, this thing is going to freeze, literally.”

To grow ice on Maine waters, it takes temperatures in the 20s to below zero and no wind, but it also depends on the size and depth of the body of water, Lt. Adam Gormely of the Maine Warden Service said Saturday.

“Water’s really probably the most difficult medium to change with temperature,” he said. “That’s why you see the bigger, deeper lakes, they don’t freeze as much, Sebago being a prime example.

“If we had a few zero-degree nights with no wind, we’d see some of the smaller ponds button up quick,” Gormely said. “So we could still very easily have ice for January. It’s not out of the realm of possibilities.”

The best way to test the ice is to take a chisel and step out onto the lake, one step at a time and chisel your hole, Gormely said.

“You’ve got to test the ice,” he said. “People always want to hear, ‘What’s the magic number? What’s safe to go on?’”

He said 4 inches of ice would probably support people, but the problem is that ice thickness could be 2 inches or less in other places on the same pond or lake.

“I don’t like 2 inches of ice,” Gormely said. “It would probably hold you, but I don’t like the ‘probably.’ I’ve got young boys who love to ice fish and I like to see 6 inches before we’re going fishing. That gives me some support.”

He cautioned anyone venturing out on the ice in the next few days as a cold spell sets in, saying winter hasn’t yet arrived.

“Weird thing is, this Halloween and this Thanksgiving were white,” Larose said. “You know we had such early indications of winter. Even the Farmers’ Almanac said there was going to be an early freeze. I burnt my Farmers’ Almanac. I threw it in the fire.”

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1. Drop the transducer

After you’ve plugged in the battery and turned on the unit, drop the transducer down your ice hole. With older units, make sure the transducer sits at or below the bottom edge of the ice. Otherwise, the signal may bounce off the ice and you may not get as clear a picture. That said, newer units read through the ice much better.

2. Set the range

Depending on the model, flashers can read from one foot to 240 feet of water. If you’ve done your homework with a hydrographic map or you have mapping software on your sonar unit, GPS or smart phone, you should generally know how deep you’re fishing. To get the best reading, set the bottom depth at the next deepest range setting to the actual depth. For example, if the actual depth is 27 feet, set the bottom for 30.

3. Adjust the gain

Essentially, “gain” is the amount of power the transducer emits. It controls the sonar signal, which travels from the transducer to the lake bottom and back to the unit. The deeper the water, the more gain you’re going to need. Start by turning up the gain until you get a lot of interference, then slowly back it off until the screen just starts to clear. This will give you the most gain and the best indication if anything is in the water column.

4. Zoom in

To get the ultimate resolution and the greatest sensitivity possible, zoom in on the section of the water column that’s likely to hold fish. For example, if you’re fishing in 28 feet of water for bottom dwellers such as walleye, zoom in so only the bottom 10 feet shows up on the screen. Every flasher’s zoom works a bit differently, so McAllister recommends you carefully read the user manual for specifics.

5. Start jigging

When you drop your lure down the hole, you should be able to see it clearly on the screen, represented as a bar. The idea is to make that bar as thin as possible by further fine-tuning the gain (see step 3). That way, you can distinguish it from any other movement on the screen. If your lure is not appearing as a solid line, turn the gain up so it stays as a constant line—you don’t want it flickering. Now, any other line you see between the bottom and the ice is either baitfish or—with any luck—the catch of the day.

http://outdoorcanada.ca/16897/skills/articles-skills/how-to-use-a-flasher-while-ice-fishing

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Back in the Midwest, where the temperatures drop to well below zero for long periods of time, entire villages of ice huts spring up. Anglers spend days, if not weeks, in these villages. The more elaborate ones have plowed and named streets.

The huts are as fancy as the owner’s imagination and depth of pocketbook allow.

Although it is possible to safely ice fish in the Basin, the ice doesn’t get thick enough to satisfy us. Dennis note: The only time I felt safe on ice while fishing was during a trip to Canada. The ice was 2- to 3-feet thick and we reached the ice huts in vehicles. It was a wonderful experience and a lot of fun. If the ice reached a depth of at least 12 inches of around here, we would be on the ice with the rest of the anglers.

Local lakes and ponds are beginning to freeze with the current cold weather. Fish and wildlife doesn’t measure ice on lakes, so anglers are on their own. However, they offer some tips to consider when heading out for an ice-fishing trip: Don’t fish alone. Let others know exactly where you and your fishing partners are going and when you plan to return.

Keep fishing holes small and few. When drilling fishing holes with an ice auger, keep the diameter under eight inches. Bigger holes are not necessary to land fish and can create a safety hazard for others.

Watch your step. Avoid ice fishing near feeder streams or known springs; brush, logs, plants or docks. Also stay away from multiple ice cracks or ice that is popping or otherwise audible, plus and dark-colored ice that may be weak.

Spread out. Too many people congregated in one area may be more than the ice can safely support. Disperse weight and fishing holes.

Be prepared for weather conditions. Dress in layers and wear thermal underwear, fleece or wool, and wind and waterproof outerwear, especially for feet, hands and head. Take extra clothes, food, water, sand for traction, and a sled for easy on-ice transport of all equipment.

Be prepared for emergencies. Carry equipment such as ice picks or awls, rope, and personal flotation devices. Also pack a first-aid kit and matches for starting a fire.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources offers the following guide for traveling on ice: 2 inches or less, stay off; 4 inches, ice fishing or other activities on foot; 5 inches, snowmobile or ATV travel; 8 inches to 12 inches, car or small pickup travel; 12 inches to 15 inches, medium truck travel.

Remember that these thicknesses are merely guidelines for new, clear, solid ice. Many factors other than thickness can cause ice to be unsafe. White ice, sometimes called snow ice, is only about one-half as strong as new clear ice so the above thicknesses should be doubled.

http://www.columbiabasinherald.com/nwhookandbullet/fishing/article_9cf62b34-2299-11e1-a400-0019bb2963f4.html

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Skating, playing hockey, fishing or snowmobiling can be a favorite part of winter, but the ice you find outdoors is not always trustworthy. Outdoor ice can be dangerous. Every year, Canadians fall through it, and some do not make it out.

“Winter sports and activities are part of the Canadian identity, and many of those involve going on outdoor ice,” Lifesaving Society CAO Barbara Kusyanto said. “When you’re recreating this year, ice fishing or snowmobiling, make sure you put safety first.”

It is important to test the ice thickness to ensure that it is thick enough and strong enough.

Recommendations for ice thickness are based on clear, blue ice. White ice has air or snow in it and cannot be trusted. Remember to measure ice thickness in several locations. Recommended minimum ice thickness for new, clear, hard ice is:

3″ (7cm) or less-STAY OFF;?4″ (10cm) – ice fishing, walking, cross country skiing;?5″ (12cm) – one snowmobile or ATV?8″-12″ (20-30cm) – one car or small pickup?12″-15″ (30-38cm) – one medium truck (pickup or van)

The Lifesaving Society – Canada’s lifeguarding expert – is a charitable organization working to prevent drowning and water-related injury through its training programs, Water Smart public education, water-incident research, safety management services and lifesaving sport.

http://www.fairviewpost.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3395583

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This scenario plays out on a daily basis across the state during the winter as fishing enthusiasts utilize services provided by resorts, outfitters, and bait suppliers.

But there’s a lot of work that goes into making your winter fishing experience possible long before you hit the ice. Those minnows just don’t show up in a tank, roads don’t plow themselves, and fish houses aren’t magically built and placed on the ice.

If you’re in the business of catering to winter fishermen there is no down time. Once the open water season starts to wind down preparation for the winter months begins.

Brian LaBore owns Lakeroad Lodge Motel on the south shore of Lake of the Woods, one of the state’s premier ice fishing destinations. Like most resort owners on the lake, LaBore has been busy in recent weeks preparing for the winter fishing season.

There are rooms to get cleaned, fish houses to repair and paint, and maintenance to complete on trucks for plowing roads and pulling those houses across the ice among other chores.

LaBore says the winter provides a good chunk of annual income for resorts at Lake of the Woods so there’s a lot of work that goes into preparing for the season and it all has to be done before that first angler of the ice fishing season arrives.

“A lot of people don’t realize what it takes to prepare for the ice fishing season – the time and costs it involves before anyone gets here,” LaBore said. “But that’s where we make our money so all of us bust our butts to make sure we’re ready.”

The upkeep to his fleet of fish houses alone takes countless hours. LaBore said that he’s very meticulous with his houses and makes sure they have a fresh coat of paint, cleaned inside and out, and are in working order before they get put to use on the lake.

Keep in mind that winter is a long season at Lake of the Woods. Since it borders Canada, walleye fishing is allowed through mid-April so that’s nearly five months of wear and tear on the houses as they’re moved from spot to spot across miles of frozen lake.

The thick skids under the fish houses, which allow them to be pulled easier, often have to be replaced by the start of a new season. There’s just no way of avoiding some type of maintenance on most of his fish houses from the previous year.

“The skids really get tore up and the houses get beat up because we drag them around all winter,” LaBore said. “You can’t do anything about it, except fix them before the new season starts.”

The same is true on his trucks and plows used to move the houses and keep roads open during the winter season. LaBore said work on them starts in the fall and continues all season due to the abuse they’re put through on a daily basis.

“It seems like there’s always work to be done on a truck,” he added. “That doesn’t end until the ice fishing season does.”

With the fish houses ready to go, LaBore has spent a lot of his time this week checking ice conditions. Before he allows anyone to hit the ice he makes sure it’s thick enough for travel.

That involves years of experience on what is sometimes questionable ice early in the season. But with fishermen wanting to come up this week, he wants to make sure the ice will support them.

If he doesn’t feel it’s safe, LaBore won’t let people use his roads. It’s a job he takes seriously. At this time of the year, it’s one of his most important and time consuming tasks as well.

“We check ice depths every day early in the season — we have to so nobody breaks through — it has to be done daily,” he said. “We typically stake the first road onto the lake and we have a bunch of guys that want to get on the ice but before they do we have to know it’s safe.”

At Mille Lacs Lake, resort owners such as Terry Thurmer of Terry’s Boat Harbor on the west side of the lake, begin preparing for the ice fishing season as soon as he pulls his launches and boats at the end of October.

With approximately 20 fish houses and five plow trucks to get ready, there isn’t much down time between early November and when his first house gets put on the lake. During a good year, when ice conditions allow, that’s usually around Christmas at Mille Lacs.

But Thurmer likes to have his equipment in working condition weeks before he uses it. He doesn’t want to deal with getting his fish houses and trucks fixed when people want to start fishing.

“You have to be ready to go as soon as the ice allows,” Thurmer said. “We start checking everything for the winter as soon as we can in the fall and there’s always something to do.”

But the work doesn’t end when people actually start showing up to fish. For Thurmer, the work intensifies as the season progresses, snow piles up and roads need to be maintained.

He estimates plowing about 40 miles of roads to the various hot spots throughout the lake and it’s not a one-time deal. Every time it snows or blows those roads have to be reopened.

The reason for having five trucks is simple — he says at some point one of them breaks down and you can’t stop plowing as a result. He has to keep as many of his trucks in operating order as possible throughout the winter.

That’s not cheap with gas prices as they are these days. He says that at best his trucks get two miles per gallon and it doesn’t take long to blow through 100 gallons of gas.

He also wants people to understand that’s why most resorts, including his, charge a small fee to use the roads they plow. Without that access fee, there wouldn’t be roads on most lakes, especially the bigger bodies of water such as Mille Lacs.

“Some people might not understand the cost involved in keeping those roads open,” he said. “If we didn’t charge people to use the roads I couldn’t afford to plow and I think most people know that and appreciate it.”

He says he doesn’t hear many complaints from people about paying the fee, usually between $8 or $10 depending on the resort and lake. In years with a lot of snow, utilizing those plowed roads might be the only option for getting on the lake.

In recent years, more and more anglers have purchased wheel-styled fish houses that they pull onto the lake. Many of them are big and would be impossible to get on a lake the size of Mille Lacs if resorts wouldn’t maintain a road system.

“It’s changed with the rental houses over the past 10 years because it seems like everyone has a wheel house now,” Thurmer said. “We have a lot more people using our roads with their own equipment rather than renting a house from us.”

http://www.sctimes.com/article/20111204/SPORTS05/112040056/Fishing-More-ice-than-cold

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]]> http://icefishinglakemanitobanarrows.com/1065/fishing-ice/feed/ 0 http://icefishinglakemanitobanarrows.com/1058/hooking-ice-fishing/ http://icefishinglakemanitobanarrows.com/1058/hooking-ice-fishing/#comments Sat, 31 Dec 2011 02:13:08 +0000 admin http://icefishinglakemanitobanarrows.com/?p=1058 Joe Montgomery wants to get youth hooked on fishing.
And while Niagara’s 2012 International Ice Fishing Show, set to take place Wednesday, Dec. 7 in St. Catharines, is for all fishing enthusiasts, it truly benefits the up-and-coming generation of anglers.
“We want to get the younger generation interested in the outdoors and active in things like fishing,” said Montgomery.
So during the show, which this year takes place at Holiday Inn & Suites Parkway Conference Centre, 327 Ontario St. in St. Catharines, children 16 and under are admitted free, and will receive some free fishing gear. The show itself, is also used as a fundraiser that will benefit the childrens’ programming for the St. Catharines Game and Fish Club.
The show has been running for six years, and Montgomery said the interest has increased each year. Attendance has climbed from 45 people to 300, and after selling out last year’s event they decided to move to a new venue to accommodate even more people.
The event itself begins at 5 p.m., with registration and viewing of exhibits.
“Everything we have on display is all related to ice fishing,” said Montgomery, who has been ice fishing since the age of seven — giving him 81 years of experience.
This year they will have three guest speakers come to the event, all focusing on ice fishing topics on Lake Nipissing. They include Scott Bratton, part-owner of the Waltonian Inn, which supplies 35 bungalows, barbecues, a deep fryer for turkey and games to ice fishing visitors; Rob Hyatt, who also offers ice fishing bungalows on the lake; and a biologist from the Ministry of Natural Resources, who will be sharing some information on the hot spot for ice fishing. There will be a question-and-answer period following their talks.
Each year, said Montgomery, his goal is to provide different information on some of the different lakes. Last year the focus was on Lake Simcoe.
“Without the knowledge people don’t necessarily know, so this gives them a chance to learn some different things,” he said.
The show, said Montgomery, was born out the desire to make Canada a more advanced, and experienced ice fishing nation. He recalls being part of a World Fishing Championships at Jacksons Point in Lake Simcoe in 1992, and said things didn’t go so well for the Canadian hosts.
“We came in last place,” he said. “As a group we decided we’d actually look at teaching ice fishing so we would have a group of qualified people.”
The show, he said, was born out of that concept, and looks at displays of modern equipment, as well as providing information. It includes a large number of prizes and giveaways, valued in excess of $500.
“It’s the only one in Ontario,” he said.
Admission for the event is $15 a person at the door, $12 for seniors. Children 16 and under are admitted free.

http://www.niagarathisweek.com/what%27s%20on/article/1256264–hooking-kids-into-ice-fishing

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