Spring is a time of transition in New Hampshire -- from ice fishing, to open water fishing. That's why the Department of Fish & Game wants residents to remove their bob houses from lakes and ponds by Saturday.
State law lets bob houses stay standing until April 1st. But Fish & Game administrative lieutenant Heidi Murphy says she hopes most have been hauled off the remaining ice by now.
"To get on and off the ice is a lot harder to do now because by the shores it tends to melt quicker,” she says. “So you might have, in a certain body of water, 10 inches [of ice] left – but to get to that 10 inches can be hairy."
Murphy says folks will need to chip away at melted and refrozen ice around their bob houses, then lug them out on skis or a trailer.
State law prohibits burning a bob house on the ice, even if it was temporary. Murphy says it “tends to leave a lot of trash and stuff that we don't want to see in the water."
Fish & Game may seize any bob houses still standing after Saturday, to make way for the start of lake fishing season.
