Anchor ice

[wildtrout2]

I'm wondering if anchor ice will be an issue in the mountains with the serious cold we've been having? I noticed some of the very small runs locally have completely frozen over, which isn't encouraging. Any thoughts?

 

[bigjohn58]

I thought about this the other day. I'm thinking its a possibility.

 

[troutbert]

There was anchor ice on Spring Creek the other day so there will surely be plenty on the mountain streams.

By "issue" do you mean will it harm trout populations?

Possibly. But I doubt that there's anything that can be done about it.

Which makes it not an issue. An issue is a problem that can be addressed.

Although I think restoring natural stream/floodplain habitats probably helps with winter survival. High quality pool habitats, undercut banks, large woody debris probably all help with winter survival, just as they do with summer survival.

 

[Dave_W]

Pretty likely in some places.

I've not heard of anchor ice being very prevalent down here in SCPA, even during some of the hard winters we've had in the past. I seem to hear more about it upstate.

 

[allthingsfishing]

Kinda new to winter fishing. What is anchor ice? Is it different from ice that forms on a body of water?

 

[troutbert]

allthingsfishing wrote:
Kinda new to winter fishing. What is anchor ice? Is it different from ice that forms on a body of water?

Anchor ice means ice that forms on the stream bed.

 

[Dave_W]

allthingsfishing wrote:
Kinda new to winter fishing. What is anchor ice? Is it different from ice that forms on a body of water?

Anchor ice means ice that forms in a stream from the bottom up instead of from the surface down. This happens when the ground below the stream is very cold and ice starts to form around the rocks on the stream bed.

If it expands, it can dispace water out of a stream channel.

 

[JackM]

It also freezes eggs of fish and macros, as well as macros, but as macros can burrow when necessary, I think unless it persists for many days or longer, it's impact will be negligible.

 

[wbranch]

Isn't anchor ice though more prevalent on streams that are either very shallow or on bigger rivers, that may have many deep pools, but there are still some areas of shallow riffles 12" deep or less.

 

[Chaz]

I would expect it is, this has been a very long cold spell for so early in the winter. A warm up is coming over the weekend.