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Global Warming Destroys Crappie Competition

Our Upstate NY Travel Map will get you there.

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]