Remove All Potential Hazards from the Ice Before Departing

CONTACT:
CO Ron Arsenault: (603) 271-3127
Lieutenant Robert Mancini: (603) 271-3127
February 13, 2025

Concord, NH – New Hampshire Fish and Game’s Law Enforcement Division is urging ice anglers and other outdoor enthusiasts to remove all potential snowmobile collision hazards from the ice after each day of recreation. Picnic tables, chairs, and benches should be taken off of the ice or moved inside bobhouses. Manmade hazards such as wind blocks made of snow should be leveled before leaving the site.

Any solid objects left on the ice can easily become collision hazards for snowmobilers once they are obscured with fresh snow. Please be considerate and respectful of everyone enjoying this season’s abundance of ice by removing all foreign objects from frozen waterbodies after each visit.

As a reminder to ice anglers, all bobhouses must be removed from the ice no later than the end of the day on April 1. Please remember to use all precautions, including monitoring ice thickness, to ensure your safety when removing bobhouses from frozen lakes and ponds. Depending on weather conditions and ice thickness, it may be necessary to remove bobhouses before the April 1 deadline.

Failure to remove a bobhouse from public waters, public property, or private property by the deadline or burning a bobhouse on the ice can result in fines and a one-year loss of the owner’s fishing license. The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department has the authority to seize any bobhouse not removed by the deadline, including its contents.

All winter recreators are urged to check ice for safety before venturing onto it. To watch a short video on how to correctly check ice thickness visit www.wildlife.nh.gov/get-outside/stay-safe-ice.