I never seen this before. Was fishing in about 30′ of water and all of a sudden a bullhead pops up. He takes a gulp of air and then away he goes. Son-in-law and I just sat there and laughed. Just plain strange. 
He didn’t say goodbye? That’s just rude! 
I’ve heard of guys having muskrats pop up through ice holes before. Now THAT would get me moving. 
I have had up to 3 in my ice hole at once, always on the same lake…a shallow one with depleted oxygen levels. If its a weedy lake you could be seeing the negative effects that the decomposing plant life is having, snow came and stayed much earlier than it has in the past bunch of years 
The soccer game I had with a pissed off muskrat in the 4X4 mankato a few years back still gives me the chills 
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The soccer game I had with a pissed off muskrat in the 4X4 mankato a few years back still gives me the chills
LOL
I’ve heard the stories… they’re only funny because it has never happened to me.
i had a muskrat come up a hole in the shack once, all of a sudden one of the holes started bubblin’, we were like what the heck, and then he just appeared, came right up the hole and went right back down the hole next to it. shoulda seen the other guys face. 
I have had both happen the bullhead wasn’t bad but the muskrat scared the %#^$ out of me and my buddy!!!!!
I had a dogfish do that to me a couple of years ago. Freaky thing. My father was fishing in Florida on a canal one time with my uncle. Manatee came up right under the boat and in front of him. Scared him so bad he fell off the other side of the boat. The back side of the manatee broke his fall though.
A friend told me his father had a hardpond last year with an open hole in the center (not sure if it was from an aeriator or not). He kept seeing catfish come up to get air, so he took a dipnet out on the ice and netted about 12 nice catfish. Sounds like they had a nice meal.
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LOL
I’ve heard the stories… they’re only funny because it has never happened to me.
Your right James…..It’s not very funny when your fishing bud nearly removes some of your toes with a SHARP spud while trying to kill the little bugger… (muskrat) 
Had this guy swim up my hole friday. Its a giant water bug it was 2 or 3″ long.
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I have had up to 3 in my ice hole at once, always on the same lake…a shallow one with depleted oxygen levels. If its a weedy lake you could be seeing the negative effects that the decomposing plant life is having, snow came and stayed much earlier than it has in the past bunch of years
I’ve heard stories where they open up a lake to liberalized fishing because the fish are dying and when you drill a hole bullheads will come up in mass and start gulping.
I’ve been wondering lately how bad it is going to be later this winter and how many lakes they are going to open up to liberalized fishing.
Ya, with the early snow and the cloudy ice. Are there going to be a lot of winter kills? 
We used to have the muskrat thing happen at least once a year on Lake Onalaska. It was always funny because you could hear it coming one shack at a time. They would only come up in the shacks though, never on the open ice.
Usually they’d go right back down the same hole or the next one. I only had one get lost in the shack one time. The best part was my buddy getting on top of his bucket and squealing like a little girl. I was just trying to push it back down the hole with a skimmer.
The problem with rats and a permanet shack is the rats will chuck the shack full of weeds. 
You’ve got rats in your shacks up there in Onalaska? shhhh everyone will want one.
small lake in SW Minnesota, heard about a black lab who jumped in a spearing hole after a fish, got lost under the ice for a couple minutes and saw light from another spearing shack, so up he came, sent the guy through the wall full speed. Thought this was just an ole wise mans tale, till I met some eyewitnesses.
I think that story was posted here last year? I know I read that one before too.
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