Well it seems most of you guys are smart and have transitioned to the hard water.  For people not so smart like my two buddies and I, we are planning (note I said planning) a trip to the SR on Feb 19th.  Any indications of how much snow is along the banks and this may sound like a dumb question but any thoughts on actually buying snow shoes?  As always it seems we are opening our horizons on fishing up there.... We would typically keep to Oct, Nov, Dec, March and April but now we apparently want to really get a taste of what its like to have frozen fingers and feet.  Anyhow any and all info appreciated...  Also we were talking to a guy that frequents up there....  He indicated even Mid to upper river is getting slush and starting to potentially lock up.  Anyone care to put this rumor to rest.....  I mean I'm sure everthing below 2A is probably a waste of time with all of the slush.  I hope that his commentary is inaccurate as I would prefer not to concentrate in Altmar with everyone else.  I've never fished up there and would prefer it to stay that way as the parking lot alone makes me want to turn around and go home.
 
Thanks as always.

I have not fished the river since early January. As far as snow we just a foot and there was a pretty dense one foot plus pack on the ground.  As far as slush I don't know, all really depends on the temps, lots of shelf ice forming, but they did just raise to 500 for the weekend so some may have broke off

Town pool is completely unfishable. Slush from 2a down is a sure bet. Even pineville had shelf ice a couple days ago when I drove over it. A couple day warm up of lows in the high teens and highs in the 30's would make for no slush in my findings through the years. Upper river is not locked up... Hitting 33 today... But another -20 could be possible tomorrow evening. Machine send me pm as it gets closer to your trip and I'll let you know what I see. My back yard had close to thigh deep snow yesterday afternoon. Probably same by the river. You could luck out and be able to walk on top of it though by the time you come up

Always a safe bet to have snowshoes anywhere near the Tug Hill this time of year, and carry the waders until you get to the river.  The hike into Trestle from the North when the road is not plowed was a good work out with a foot on the ground when I was in my 30's, and  now with thigh deep snow I would venture to guess they might find me in spring!  Of course, there is always only going where the paths are walked down, and the lots may all be plowed out, but even 100 yards in deep snow is a lot of work.

Was well into the outback one March walking on the top and as the day progressed started busting through every third or fourth step- **** deep and HARD to get out of every time. LONGGGG walk back to the car. lol  That snowshoe thing woulda helped-

I just can't get excited with fishing in those conditions in Feb.,did it many years ago and never did it since.
Looking at the ten day forecast does n't give much hope for a warm up.

Thanks everyone, I was eyeballing some cheap-ish snow shoes on ebay.  No point in buying them new if you live in the south-central portion of Pa.  With that being said, I've had some pain in the !!! walks back to the truck in early March so I might recommend the idea to my two buddies that we atleast consider it.  Keep in mind those walks weren't even that tough because the snow amounts were not thigh deep.  My one bud did counter with there will already be trails but.... I'm not sure I feel like having a heart attack.  Appreciate the offer dime, I will probably take you up on it.  The kind lady that we are renting from said that if the weather were to get nasty we could always reschedule/cancel as we will be down across from the deer creek.  We like to frequent Eddie's Cove so we always stay outside of Pulaski.  Like last year I get nervous traveling up there beyond December and since my one bud will be driving up from Dover, DE, he has already expressed his concerns driving up so we shall see....  I definitely want to see some higher overnight lows up there and hope the flows stay up.  I'm not a fan of shelf ice... being a big guy I freak whenever I'm walking on that stuff.  Obviously you can tell the only frozen water I'm usually on is when I'm playing hockey :).  You hardwater guys are nuts, I'd be freaking out the whole time especially if in a shanty with a heater.

Upper river has been fished fairly steadily. Should be trails unless a bomber drops anytime soon

Jack you ain't kidding. Although last winter was more ferocious, this current one is lacking any substantial thaw outs. We had 1 thaw out right at Christmas. Few days later lock right back up and have had thick snow cover ever since. Last year at this time we had a 3 day rain and thaw. Almost went bare ground 2 times last year. Not happening this year.

Clint you're right. Town pool opened back up a little. Gonna start two tier shelfing soon. Down low has gotta be clogging up pretty good with the recent break offs. Just goes to show the power of the sun. Any excess water Brookfield had must've been from the extra day light and higher sun