PORT HENRY — The frozen surface of Lake Champlain around Bulwagga Bay is usually speckled with dozens of ice fishing shanties by February.
But not this year.
The ice froze too late for most anglers to drag out their ice shanties, and it's still not very thick, ice fisherman Josh Jaquish of Willsboro said.
Jaquish and two companions were fishing on the ice at Port Henry recently because there was mostly open water in Willsboro Bay, closer to their homes.
'NOT GOOD'
"The fishing is not good," Jaquish said. "We caught a couple small ones."
His fishing companion, Rick Merrill of Willsboro, displayed a 9-inch-long crappie fish.
That was the biggest fish they had caught, he said.
"We threw back more than we caught," Merrill said. "They were too small. We used to catch a pail full."
Many anglers loved to catch smelt, he said, and the little fish fried up great in a pan.
"Now the smelt are almost gone."
Jaquish said they'd hoped to combine their catch for a nice fish fry.
"We're here for perch. I caught four."
FEW SHANTIES
He said the ice is 6 to 9 inches thick in Bulwagga Bay, enough to support an ice shanty, but none have been deployed.
"We're using the portable shelters, if it's really cold. Most of the ice fishermen we see are just sitting out there."
There were once so many shanties on the ice in the Moriah area that the lake was divided into sections of ice, with names like Sandy Beach, East Channel, Bryantville and The Hole, each representing clusters of ice shanties.
But State Department of Environmental Conservation regulations require ice shanties to be removed by March 15, which may be why you don't see any this year, Jaquish said.
"You wouldn't get much use out if it before you had to pull it back in."
HURTS ECONOMY
Moriah Town Supervisor Thomas Scozzafava said ice fishing hasn't been up to par this year.
"It got a late start. The ice hasn't been thick enough to support ice shanties. It's too bad, because ice fishing was a great economic boon to the community."
The town's Bulwagga Bay Town Campground on the shores of Lake Champlain in Port Henry village is usually full of pickup trucks, SUVs and snowmobiles used to support ice anglers, but not this year, he said.
ICE GUIDELINES
For ice safety, these are the minimum thicknesses, according to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers standards:
▶ Less than 2 inches: Stay off, ice is unsafe.
▶ 2 inches: One person on foot.
▶ 3 inches: One snowmobile or group of people walking single file.
▶ 7 inches: One car.
▶ 8 to 10 inches: Pickup trucks.
DEC, however, recommends that no ice be considered safe, and that precautions must always be followed.
A list of ice-safety tips is available at www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/7733.html.
Email Lohr McKinstry at: lmckinstry@pressrepublican.com
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