Thin Ice Story, do you have one?

I was slowly working my way out on a West Central MN lake close to where I grew up one afternoon in the good old days before very many people caught on to the jigging Rapala except a few Fins. If you got out there on thin ice you could really lay into the walleyes for 15 minutes sometime betweeen 4 and 6pm. Still can I’ll bet. The closer to Thanksgiving the better.

I was working my way out there with my ice chisel and was getting down to an inch an a half of ice and it was cracking pretty bad. I was only a hundred feet away from where I wanted to be when I reached out with my chisel to lay the tip on a clear piece of thin looking ice about three feet in front of me and it slipped right in. There was an one eigth inch skim of ice. My blood went about as cold as the temp and I started backing out real slow. I did not come back until two weeks later when there was probably 8 inchs.

I have never had the urge to fish thin ice that bad since that time. Now I need a good three inches of clear hard ice. To tell the truth I haven’t had the urge to fish walleyes that bad period.

Here’s another.

Same lake, same walleyes. I was driving along the shore line to get a little closer to this spot before walking out. There was about 10-12 inches off ice along the shoreline out a few hundred feet.

As I was driving along I was wondering who put that stick out on the ice ahead of me as there had been no spear houses out yet. Then I saw another stick a few hundred feet away and I realized that they were marking open water where people had cut the ice open pulling in a car that had driven straight out into the middle of the lake and went through a day or two earlier.

It was bare ice, no snow and I could not stop so I turned the steering wheel and the brand new radial tires gripped right into the ice and the car turned. I was turning out onto thinner ice and I knew that my car was going to go down. I kept the speed up and opened the door. The honeycombing to the ice was as loud as could be.

I did not drop the car (72 chevelle) in and because of those brand new radial tires (new item in those days) made it back in to thick ice. I walked out there and looked at the ice I had driven over and it was 4 inches. Honeycolmes shooting out 60 feet on both sides of my tracks.

You can imagine how good the walleye fishing was (is?) out there some odd miles west of Alex.

January 2003, Rice Lake, Paynesville, MN. 4 wheeler and snowmobile trailer behind it, down in 23 feet of water… a spot that normally freezes over. The bartender at the resort where I accessed, forgot to tell me about it… One diver and $600 later, got it out. Have been back since.

big g

The only time I fell through was possibly the most scary moment of my life. I was fishing alone on a farm pond and went in in about fourteen feet of water. I remember going through and hitting my head on the ice when I came up. I do not remember how I got back on the ice but I will never forget the walk back to the truck. I was at least 1/4 mile form the truck and it was cold out that day. Once I made it to the truck and got it started it seemed to take forever for the truck to warm up. I shivered terribly the whole for hours.
I still do not car to go out on thin ice and even on thick ice I am a little nervous.

Back when I was “young and foolish”, I used to fish the ice below the dams in the winter. February of ’88 my brother-in-law and I were below the Genoa dam. It was one of those days when the temp got into the mid-40’s and it was just a great day to be out. The only bad thing was the hand auger was clear down to the handle before it cut through. We had been out for a couple hours and mother nature was calling so I walked over toward the Minnesota side to relieve myself. Everything went just fine. An hour or so later I had a similar calling and headed over in the same direction. I couldn’t have been 3′ of my first tracks and “splash”, right up to my hip, but just one leg. I could feel bottom and knew that I was probably a few feet from becoming catfish bait. I had landed on the top of a wing-dam. I pulled my leg out, turned and walked back to my gear and started putting everything away. My brother-in-law asked what was going on. After I told him, he also started packing up!!!! Needless to say, I have never been back out on the river ice-fishing since. And to this day I don’t remember if my leg was just wet from the river water…….or something else!!!!!

Mine was a case of dumb. Had my younger brother and my GF out one January afternoon on a local pit. Water was open around a bit of a corner. I bounced on the ice and a wave came out I thought cool walked a little closer and did it again same cool effect. Next bounce was more like a 5′ drop, ice broke and down I went, needless to say that was the end of the day for me.

This is a close call…

2-3 years ago – late ice – March/April, #1 son and I went over to the Mississippi backwaters near Wabasha. Got on the ice about 2.30 – was slushy on top – but solid. Fished to near sunset – then a 6th sense said “leave”. We started back to the landing where we came on, and the ice started to roll – literally – you could see it moving up and down as the person ahead of you walked – the same path we came out on.

By spreading out more – we made it back – didn’t get wet. But there was a whole slug of people still fishing and
they wouldn’t leave – even after we yelled at them….

Always wondered what happened out there…..

Thats as close as I want to get.

UG

Back in highschool a few buddies decided to get out and try for some crappies. We had permission to use my buddies dad’s fish house, had a wood stove, we would be fine not dressing real warm. Got out there, we forgot the key! Oh well, make the best of it, drilled some holes, only had one lantern for the three of us to share. The crappie were starting to bite, and the sun was down, and we were getting cold in a hurry. Not wanting to leave quite yet, we took turns running around while the others watched the bobbers. I could see the outline of one of the guys running, then I saw nothing, heard some yelling, we ran over and helped drag my buddy out, some others in their houses heard our yelling and showed up. We got him into a warm shack, went home to try to get some ones dad to meet us at the beach in a heated car. Seemed to take forever. Turns out that some one moved their spearing shack, didn’t bother to mark it.

Drove out on a lake by Fairbault because “there were other cars out there”. Set up the shack, got the equipment unloaded- it was the start to a beautiful day. Put the auger down made three turns and I was through. Truck, two 250lb+ guys, all my junk- being supported on 3-4″ of ice. Could not have loaded and got out of there any faster. Now I never go out onto ice with my truck until I drill a hole or two.

I have found bad ice variations the last few winters around the metro. Last year the worst was fishing an inner city lake that had a solid 12″ of ice 4 days prior. We had a pretty good snow event, and some warm weather to follow and no cold to solidify anything as the snow all melted and found its way back under the ice.

I took a cautios trip out to go fishing, even hearing of the ice reports on other lakes with the ice diminishing in thickness. All was well near the shore where we accessed(walking out), we had a solid 14″ with 50% clear ice, the same for about 90 yards after a series of holes. Getting more comfortable we walked another 50 yards, fired up the auger, set it on the ice and hit the throttle… the auger went through as fast as it hit max rpm’s… we had 3″ of rotten, honeycombed milky ice with maybe 1/2″ of clear on the bottom. We had water rushing up the hole immediately and we were all doing some backstepping and spreading out and felt lucky to make it back to the shoreline. The auger cut through that ice like butter.

At least you did the right thing by spudding out. I always do. My buddies and I will be out on thin ice at least once pretty soon. I usaully lead with spud and they have the rope. Honestly, if the ice is visible (no snow cover) and its quiet out (low wind) I dont even worry. As long as I can see and hear the ice I know what it’s doing and have never had any close calls. Add snow cover and one of my sensory inputs is gone. I then rely heavily on sound and spud results. I really hate that scenerio but just hammer that spud harder to compensate.

Two stories both on West Rush Lake. The first one was two or three years ago. It was about noon and we already had our limit of crappies, so we set out to look for bluegills. The ice was plenty thick, so we were driving my buddy’s car all over. We came up to a channel to some backwaters. Being the smart guys we are, we decided to walk through there to check the ice thickness. Good think because we were waist deep in water after the ice broke. Thank god it was shallow, and we could get out. Story number two was last year when the trucks went through by the access. I had been walking out for two weeks prior, but on this day I really wanted to drive out. There were already 50 vehicles parked just outside the access. After a little arguement my Dad said the truck is staying on shore. Another good call because a few hours later the ice let out and atleast three vehicles went through.

A few years back I was fishing a small lake in western Iowa and it was unseasonably warm and even though there were many vehicles on the ice I chose to walk for the excercise.I was drilling holes and finding 14 in of ice and I kept moving looking for fish.I walked over a spot and it looked liked the cracks were only 4 in I thought no way theres 14 in every where. I took up a spot close to there and there was 14 in. I was fishing away and here comes a pick up he was only about 20 yards from me and I thought what a jerk being that close.All of a sudden I heard a crack and threw they went it was scary as the young man got out easy but the old man was large and he was having a hard time getting out of window.They made it to roof and eventually to tail gate before truck sank.I wish I would have drilled a hole there as I could have warned of thin ice (lesson learned) .Them boys had one bad day