Tuesday 24 February 2015

snow slush water spawn fish in Spring wells up hope eternal! wow wob you need a cold shower

Snow sucks.
It is not an acceptable excuse for a Canadian who is late for ice fishing. I mean it is not like you were being swept into a black hole and were rescued by aliens - and had to spend the night there rather than in your tent on Couch:
This truck was stuck for more than the 90 minutes I was out. And it would dig deeper before it could continue. It was well off the highway:
I must admit to being curious. So I skied along the Tudhope shoreline. It was easy to see what has happened:
Close to shore - where the truck was - the snow was quite deep and fluffy, while further out it had an icy crust. What was not so easy to see and at first glance completely unexpected was these dark patches:


The dark is water - liquid - when there has not been an hour above ZERO C in 6 weeks.
The water is ankle deep so 10cm.

WHY?

This phenomena occurs close to shore, more than 200m from any building and every year that I have skied here - so from Feb 2011.

There has been a suggestion made that it cracks here in the ice due to pressure of the water underneath expanding prior to freezing.

I have another explanation: artesian springs. And the reason for this suggestion can be seen in May.







And to anchor to shore: May 12 2014 -

And Tue Feb 17:
The idea being that suckers spawn in clear cold water fresh from underground springs. They are not rare here. There was one in Scout Valley that was part of a geocache. wob





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