Todd in NY

We are expecting a lot of snow melt and 1-2" of rain between now and Friday night. Flood watch in effect...

The IJC will blame the weather, such as more snow this winter compared to last winter, and more ice cover this winter.

Lol Pap, we'll be using dingy boats and stand up paddle boards just to launch our boats

Floating docks are the answer, but I believe Pap is referring to the floating docks at the boat launches, like these in Henderson Harbor, NY. You needed hip waders to get to the floating dock sections, and the water was 2-3ft deep, if not deeper at some places. This picture was taken July 9th 2017, and this water is roughly 30" or more deeper than normal. There is a steel retaining wall under water that is usually 2ft above water.

I haven't seen the factory maps on the Carbons or the Elites. I would say wait to see how those factory maps look to you before you buy a map card. I think the map cards are a good investment for those of us who are not using top of the line fish finders. Also, my map cards each cost in the $125 range or less. Some of the Navionics cards are out of my price range when all I want is to see the bottom contours. For me, the map cards were a great investment. They show much better detail than the factory maps.

I use a Humminbird Lake Master Plus version 1 card in one of my fish Finders and a Navionics Plus Regions East card in my other fish finder. I did a side by side comparison in 2017 on Lake O and several smaller lakes in Northern NY, and I can honestly say that they are very similar in showing bottom depth contour lines. I have a slight preference for the Humminbird Lake Master card because on Cranberry Lake it shows the submerged islands as islands, but the Navionics card does not. The bottom line is that it really depends on the lakes you fish and which card works best in your unit. I don't think there is a big enough difference between the Navionics Plus Regions card and the Lake Master Plus card to determine a truly better card between the two. I've never used the other Navionics cards so I can't speak for them. In 2018 I will be using my Navionics Plus card in my Lowrance HDS 7 Gen2, and my Lake Master card in my Humminbird 959. I like running both cards at the same time because there are sometimes slight differences in the bottom contour lines.

thanks! Have a safe and Happy New Year!

Very cool idea, thanks for sharing! I made a frame system out of 2x4's this year for my 22ft boat. I draped a 20'x30' tarp over it and it is working great so far. The rear legs are 8' tall, and the leg on the bow is about 5' tall. The top piece is a 10' 2x4 and two 8' 2x4's. We've had about 6ft of snow already this month and wind gusts over 40mph and the tarp is doing great.

The snow is only part of the problem. The other part of the problem is the people who manage the water levels (the International Joint Commission) and their Plan 2014. I think they will have a lot more ice and snow melt to deal with in 2018 than they dealt with in 2017. When all that water gets blocked upstream of the dams, such as the Moses-Saunders Power Dam on the St Lawrence River, the "upper" St Lawrence and Lake Ontario will flood again. Spring is still a long 4 months away for some of us, if the remainder of winter keeps pace with this December pace. Only time will tell...

Maybe I should get a jump on everyone else and buy my hip waders now. Gonna need them to launch my boat.

Can't help but wonder what could happen with the spring time water levels if we keep getting snow dumped on us this winter. Some places on the east end of Lake Ontario have already seen upwards of 10 feet this winter, and most or all of it in December alone. Don't think that the lake effect snow will stop if a lot of the lake freezes over. I remember a few years ago when Lady O was at or near record ice cover, we were still getting pounded with heavy lake effect snow on the east end right through March. Some places recorded over 20 feet of snow that winter, if memory serves me correctly. It could be a long winter for some of us, and I'm already looking forward to April.