As the weather grows colder, we start loosening our definition of "fun" outdoor activities. Today's pick: ice fishing in New York.

But be warned: As doomsday predictions of balmy Northern winters become a reality, lakes aren't freezing hard enough. Unless bone-chilling temperatures set in soon, the thick layer of ice needed to sustain ice fishing shacks and burly men may not form.

Things are so bad that organizers have already canceled the annual Crappie Derby in February, New York's largest ice fishing competition that usually happens on Whitney Point Lake, near Binghamton. (Funny, we'd call any event requiring us to sit on a frozen lake all day crappy, too.)

So far, it looks like the most reliable place to plan an ice fishing trip will be the northern heights of the Adirondack Mountains in what is really the upstate of Upstate New York. Lake Pleasant is shallow and at elevation, meaning it forms ice easily. And it's stockpiled with brown and rainbow trout, landlocked salmon, walleyes, pickerel, lake whitefish and yellow perch. Sushi on ice, anyone?

Related Stories:
· Ice Fishing Becomes Endangered [NY Times]
· Upstate NY Travel coverage [Jaunted]
· Mancations coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: 416style]]]> ced138 2007-11-14T10:00:01-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2006/1/11/11497/8565

Because we are having an extremely mild winter here in the Northeast U.S. we tend to forget that some parts of the world are "as cold as a well digger's balls*" this time of year.  One such spot is Lithuana.

What do many Lithuanians do during the winter?  Put a bunch of maggots in their mouth, grab a bottle of vodka, and go ice fishing--according to The Sunday Times.

In March 2004, a two-square- kilometre slab of ice broke away from the Lithuanian coast and floated off into the Curonian Lagoon, carrying about 200 people who were happily fishing. When a helicopter arrived to rescue them, they shooed it away. Some had to be "rescued by force", as a local newspaper put it.

Dude, that is a serious love for ice fishing, or maybe a sure sign of way too much vodka.

More details on the how, where, and why of Lithunian ice fishing here.

* We would love to give attribution to the Boston cabbie who coined the term "as cold as a well digger's balls", however we don't know his name, nor his cab number.

Thanks for the tip Andrew!]]> markj 2006-01-11T11:49:07-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/