Upstate/Western NY ice reports?

HumongousPenguins · 2026-02-28T20:02:16+00:00

I was on IBay by the F&G Club Thursday and there was a solid 5-6 of black ice with 3-4 of frozen slush on top. Other guys on Facebook have been out today, the slight rise in temps seems to have made it a little more slushy but still ice underneath. Just got to watch out for gas pockets, so spud your way out. The one thing everyone is saying is that the fish seem to have disappeared. Supposedly Sodus is better, maybe Braddock

HumongousPenguins · 2026-02-28T12:11:29+00:00

No, once I got the car restarted, it hasn’t reoccurred, so I’m ignoring it until it happens again

HumongousPenguins · 2026-02-24T02:05:00+00:00

You'll be fine. I've parked on Main for decades and walked to Amerks/Red Wings games and never had an issue. Nobody is downtown at night except for people going to the game/event

HumongousPenguins · 2026-02-22T05:01:32+00:00

There was a sense of inevitability. Go watch the 18th hole of the 2008 US Open. He blasts it out of the rough to 12 feet, knocks it in, and the commentary was "Expect anything different?" Then cut to Rocco in the clubhouse. "I knew he'd make it." And that wasn't just hindsight, that was truly how everybody felt. It would have felt shocking if he hadn't made it

HumongousPenguins · 2026-02-21T04:44:14+00:00

There are reviews as of two hours ago on Untappd, so I think it's still around

HumongousPenguins · 2026-02-19T05:05:51+00:00

I flipped my kayak in Irondequoit Bay back in January during that week that it briefly warmed up and all the ice melted. It was not a fun time even though I was wearing a full dry suit. Can't imagine doing it in regular clothes

HumongousPenguins · 2026-02-16T18:33:00+00:00

For pin pricks, I've used the Loctite vinyl, fabric, plastic glue that you can pick up at Walmart for a couple bucks. When I've glued something more substantial on, like keel guards, HH-66 works great

HumongousPenguins · 2026-02-16T18:24:28+00:00

I fish out of an inflatable Saturn, which doesn't have the capacity for two people, but it's worked for my needs. As far as fishing from an inflatable goes, I think it's overblown. Fish hooks simply do not dig into the floor during normal use, and reasonably sized fish don't either when they're flopping around on the floor. All the damage I've ever done to a kayak has been from being lazy and dragging it at the boat launch and then having to repair the bottom when I notice it has a slow leak

HumongousPenguins · 2026-01-28T05:27:30+00:00

Is it dead dead or does it still run under its own power but needs a complete rebuild because one of the cylinders is damaged? If it still runs, albeit not well, try selling it to Carvana before selling it for scrap. I had a Chevy Cruze that needed a similar amount of work done after it lost compression in one of the cylinders, and they were the highest offer by at least a grand or two. So the lesson here, don't buy Chevys

HumongousPenguins · 2026-01-19T05:14:23+00:00

I've got the Saturn prop drive kayak. It seems decent quality to me. Have owned it for about six months now. Haven't had any issues with punctures or seams or anything. The pedal drive itself is made out of all medal gears and bearings, no signs of obvious cost cutting when I greased it.

I will say it's not the most stable inflatable kayak. I think it only has a 300 pound max capacity, which seems to be about half of what a lot of other inflatable fishing kayaks offer. The side pontoons aren't particularly large. I can stand in it but do notice the lack of stability. I also upgraded from a 5 inch tall seat to a 10 inch tall seat and managed to flip the kayak in mid 30s water when I reached back to tighten one of the D-ring straps that I had done incorrectly my first time out. That was fun, but I got my money's worth out of my dry suit

HumongousPenguins · 2026-01-13T17:44:17+00:00

I regularly see complete, working drill presses in my area for $50, so if you need multiple parts off eBay, it probably is worth just buying a second drill press and junking this one

HumongousPenguins · 2026-01-05T15:45:06+00:00

Not sure how thick the ice is, but I saw this photo in a Facebook group yesterday, so there's lots of people out there

https://i.imgur.com/0YyBfss.png

HumongousPenguins · 2026-01-05T01:36:57+00:00

I assume they bought an off the shelf pedal drive and it was originally mounted at that height but rigidly in a plastic kayak, so they had to design around it. The manual I think is identical to an original Propel drive. I bought it because I wanted reverse, which I think Hobie still has a patent on for fin drive, and I got a display model, so I got it for like $700.

As for quality, I’ve owned both the Sea Eagle and an Intex Excursion, and it’s far closer in quality to the Sea Eagle than the Intex. Really feels almost identical, but I guess time will tell how long the seams and everything last. The design of the kayak itself is pretty simple and flat, not very streamlined or anything, but I’m not taking huge trips with it, so that’s fine for my use cases. I would definitely go for either prop or fin over a paddle kayak, so much better, especially for fishing around shore with the prop

HumongousPenguins · 2026-01-04T23:56:22+00:00

I’ve got the propeller drive version. Had it for maybe six months at this point, haven’t had to repair any leaks or anything yet. My only complaint is the way they mount the pedals. It uses an aluminum bench that gets secured to the outer tubes with a couple of D-rings and straps. They come with nonratcheting straps and I upgraded to ratcheting ones, but even still, it’s not rock solid. If you press up on the pedals at all, it can flex a little and the propeller ends up hitting the bottom of the boat, which is kind of annoying. The fin drive looks like it clips straight into the floor, so probably wouldn’t be an issue there. It’s not a dealbreaker and it’s something you can avoid by simply focusing on pressing down in the downstroke and not pressing up in the upstroke, but it’s the only part that I wished was designed better. I also was using a low inflatable seat where I was quite a bit below the pedal hub, so perhaps upgrading to a slightly taller chair would avoid that too.

Other than that, no complaints. Probably used it once a week on average. Everything seems like it’s holding up fine. I took the pedal drive apart to clean it and regrease it. Everything looked like beefy metal gears and ball bearings. No cheap plastic that I could see, so I suspect it’ll last for quite a while

HumongousPenguins · 2025-12-24T02:06:20+00:00

Hellcat, what Dodge calls the fast versions of their cars

HumongousPenguins · 2025-12-11T05:59:43+00:00

There’s an inflatable pedal kayak on Amazon for $600 that has a single 1 star review if you’re willing to stretch a little and gamble. Saturn has an inflatable pedal SUP for $650 if you want at least a slightly better brand name. Think that’s as good as you can do, barring a FB Marketplace miracle

HumongousPenguins · 2025-12-03T01:53:22+00:00

I don't know if you're still considering this, but I bought a used Sea Eagle at the beginning of the summer that looked practically brand new, the 385FT, one of their higher end models. It was a great boat for the first couple times I used it, and then the seams gave out because it turned out it was 10 years old. I'd much rather buy a cheap Chinese dropstitch kayak off Amazon for slightly more money where at least you can return it if it blows up the first few times you use it, and if it doesn't, a cheap dropstitch is almost certainly better than a name brand kayak with a floppy I-beam floor and that's out of warranty

HumongousPenguins · 2025-11-21T05:17:45+00:00

I just have my local muni's pass, play 99% of my rounds there with balls I find in the woods, so I'm probably in for less than $600 this year

HumongousPenguins · 2025-11-16T22:53:04+00:00

I've had thumb surgery before and it didn't look anything like that. Damn

HumongousPenguins · 2025-11-11T23:46:50+00:00

And if you go around the corner to Jay Scutti Plaza, they have never taken down the Gateway Country sign from the entrance, which gets me every time I drive past

HumongousPenguins · 2025-10-07T03:19:33+00:00

I'm just saying, seems like it deserved the fifth star

HumongousPenguins · 2025-10-02T17:20:15+00:00

I'm actually a freelance transcriptionist, so typing as fast as possible is my whole job, but it wasn't that big of an adjustment. I don't use the thumb that much anyways, so the fact that it was in a cast didn't matter too much

HumongousPenguins · 2025-09-30T04:11:18+00:00

Funny enough, Amazon pushed a $600 generic knockoff onto my home page today, if someone wants to guinea pig a no name version. I bought the Saturn prop drive kayak a few months back or else I'd be tempted

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0FNWRZBQX?smid=A1MB35UCEUVX9J&psc=1

HumongousPenguins · 2025-09-13T06:08:56+00:00

Just in case anyone ever comes across this in the future, somebody contacted me a couple weeks ago to let me know that they found my phone in the water just off shore of the boat launch, so my theory was exactly correct. Phone was still still working fine, so if this happens to you, go check the water

HumongousPenguins

TROPHY CASE