I think they do get penalized by the Environmental Police and charged for the salvage costs as long as they get caught in NH. Not sure about ME. Ice fishing is a great way to spend a day. We never had a shack or anything like that but it was still fun. Driving on ice is fine when it is thick enough but I agree with you that people are idiots driving on ice after a few days of good thawing. My father lived in the Burlington, VT area for awhile and he said the people would use the ice to cross Lake Champlain instead of using the ferries. He said it was always interesting when it would start to thaw and there would be 10 feet of ice between the thick ice and the beach. He'd see them come up, look it over, back up for a mile or so, and get up speed so they could "skip" the last ten feet over the water. He said, "mostly it worked".

My brother and I used to canoe a lot. We had both done the Saco River in Maine and he told me the best place to find camping equipment was under a small 3' high fall called Walker's Rip if my memory serves me right. He would take a mask and some fins and come up with all sorts of stuff. You'd think people would know to shoot a drop off like that straight but some people never learn.

 

I agree 100%!!!!!!!!!