LAKE WALLENPAUPACK -- The freezing cold just won't let up even though it's officially spring. And nowhere is that more evident than on the frozen lakes around our area.
You can see it's still a sheet of ice on top of Lake Wallenpaupack. It's been this way for months and unless there's a drastic change in temperature the ice is likely to stick around for a while longer.
As Pete Coccetti's sled scraped against the ice on Lake Wallenpaupack, any sounds of spring were drowned out. Vanished, too, are the usual sights of spring, with a cold blast making it feel very much like winter has not ended.
"Last year at this time, we were fishing blue gills in their spawning cycle, and perch," Coccetti said.
Before that can happen this year, fishermen will have to wait for 18 inches of ice to melt.
Coccetti, from Eynon, is unsure of what that means for the fishing season ahead.
"Very few spots with open water I believe. Unless something drastically happens."
The folks at Bakker Marine near Hawley have their display out already but it looks like a ghost town without anyone getting ready to get out on the lake because for now it stays frozen in ice.
So until the wintry cold and thick ice are gone, the employees at another marina on the Pike County side of Lake Wallenpaupack keep busy building a dock, a dock that won't go in for a while longer.
"Biggest thing we need is open water right now. We have 18 inches of ice out there, so it's going to be a few weeks until we start going on that," said Erik Sonsteby at Lighthouse Harbor Marina.
Sonsteby and the guys at Lighthouse Harbor Marina believe it could be nearly a month until they can start uncovering these boats and getting the season underway. Until then, ice fishing trumps casting lines from a boat or the shore.
"Spring's around the corner. March can be a crazy month, lots of snow or flowers, you never know," said Steve Enoksen.
We are just a little more than two weeks away from trout season in most of our area, so the diehard anglers and anyone looking to take their boat out for the first time may have to wait a bit longer this year.