Places to float your boat

Lake Winnipesaukee covers 72 square miles with a maximum depth of 180 feet and  274 islands. Lake Winnipesaukee is well known for its annual Ice-Out Contest, in which people try to guess the date that the M/S Mount Washington cruise ship that carries tourists around the lake, can safely leave her port at Center Harbor and motor to four other ports. Since records began being kept in 1851 ice-out has happened as early as March 29 and as late as May 12, although 90 percent of the time it is declared during April.

Over 60 streams run into the Lake, from small hillside brooks to the short Hill River system in the North and the narrow Merrymeeting River of the South. Several dozen small lakes and ponds drain into Winnipesaukee. It may never be known how such a large and wholesome lake can maintain itself from such a confined watershed. Fishing in the "big" Lake is classified as good by many people, and the State Fish and Game and U. S. Government hatcheries keep a watchful eye on it. Salmon, lake trout, bass, and pickerel comprise the principal take, while the feeder brooks are stocked with brook and rainbow trout (and some browns) from the 2.5 million fingerlings hatched each year. Pickerel and perch are popular to the ice-fishermen while the winter-paving turns the lake-surface into a playground for fishing, ice-boating, skating, and snowmobiling. Official State Fishing & Hunting booklets are available from many sources.