North jersey ice report - NJFishing.com Your Best Online Source for Fishing Information in New Jersey

Chrisper4694 · #1 12-30-2014, 10:09 PM

can I get some reports of ice on northern lakes? I'm looking to get my boat in up north at wawayanda but don't want to make the trip just to find it inaccessible due to ice. I'll be getting out Friday so if any one up that way can give me a heads up I'd appreciate it.

AndyS · #2 12-31-2014, 12:11 AM

You may be able to get your boat out on the water, but then all your guides and reel will freeze up in the cold weather, tough time of year.

briansnat · #3 12-31-2014, 01:23 AM

Driving by the local lakes, I've seen a skim of ice on them, then it's gone the next day. I was surprised to see a boat on West Fayson Lake as I was driving to work on Monday morning because the lake was about 80 percent iced over. The next day it was completely open.

Water temps are hovering right around the freezing point now. So if you get a cold night you will see ice on smaller lakes and in the coves of larger ones. It can be an issue depending on where you plan to fish. A warm day and it's gone. It's just a matter of a few degrees either way. Looking at the overnight temps over the next week, ice may certainly be an issue if you plan to take a boat out or fish from shore.

FASTEDDIE29 · #4 12-31-2014, 08:58 AM

Bring something to break the ice and you should be able to get out. Crazy fishermen do crazy things to catch fish and get on the water.

UglyStick · #5 12-31-2014, 10:26 AM

I'm in the eastern part of Sussex county and the majority of the lakes I've seen in the past 2 days are mostly skimmed with ice. For example, I live on a 15 acre private lake and it is 98% skimmed right now - air temp was 12 degrees when I went out this morning. As Eddie mentioned, you should be able to break through it. One side note is that you may need to do a little looking around as I've found at this stage up here you can have almost no ice on one lake and down the road have a lake with more ice than you care to deal with. Larger and deeper lakes should have less/thinner ice still.

Chrisper4694 · #6 12-31-2014, 11:25 AM

Smash the ice and ram it with my Jon boat to get to the open water? Yeah...wouldn't be the first time. Big straight crow bar does great.

Gets annoying though depending on how much you have to break through so if any one has eyes on wawayanda specifically let me know please. I'm fishing no matter what Friday just a matter of where.