Sunday plans put me on an airplane to Erie, Pennsylvania to spend a few days on the ice with FLW Tour pro Dave Lefebre. I've been looking forward to the trip for a few reasons. First, it's ice-fishing, and I haven't been on the ice yet this winter. Also, I've never gotten to fish with Dave. Closely related, Dave truly loves ice-fishing, and my favorite fishing trips are almost always with people who are doing the kind of fishing they are passionate about or sharing a favorite destination. Finally, Lake Pymatuning, which we'd hoped to make a primary destination, has become one of my favorite lakes in the last couple of years, but I've only fished open water there.
Ice conditions could be iffy, though, so I'm not sure how our plans might end up shifting. It has been wonderfully cold up there in recent days (as in well below zero, around the clock), but I gather that the thin early ice had just enough snow on it to insulate it from the coldest cold and the ice hasn't thickened as much as one might think it would have. An even bigger concern is that warmer weather is forecast to arrive just ahead of me. Saturday is supposed to bring high 40s and rain, which can't be good for ice conditions.
We might switch venues or even go out in a boat somewhere if the warm rain does too much thawing. Or we might end up having to cancel. Or, the forecast may shift again, and it might be cold up there this weekend. I learned long ago that what the weatherman says on Wednesday only tells me so much about what will happen on Saturday, especially in the realm of complex winter systems.
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