Hi Everyone,
If there was ever a year to study ice this would be it. In my little part of the world I fish an 88 acre lake or puddle by some standards. Regardless four days ago I am standing on 5-6" of ice, 3-4" pure black under some crust, and there's a decent rip on the opposite side of where I am with open water. Four days later Mother Nature flexes her strength, and today, and I am not even joking, the 5-6 area I was on is open water right to the shore, and the f'n rip is about 1/3rd skim ice again from the shore.
From the caution side it is a lively and important conversation. One I take serious with every thread. I am not trying to offend anyone but would like to relay some real experiences from me being young and dumb to today where, well I am old and dumb in my early 50's for the record. I'll try to keep this short....
Young and Dumb.
A. Fishing for shark in the gulf of Maine 20 miles past the shipping channel in a 21' Boston Whaler, nothing but 115 HP and some rods
B. Tuna fishing in 6-8 in a 32 sport fisher with short frequency waves, Gulf of Maine, water busting over the gunnels and transom. The only other vessel out that day was an USCG Dolphin following us.
Bad deals.
A. The same 32 footer sinking in a Portland channel after hitting an uncharted rock that pushed the starboard prop through the hull. The boat sunk in about 15 minutes. Water temp was low 60's, no one got wet, but if we are out on Platts of Jeffreys with no one around..... Shortly after that event two trawlers hit the same rock, one of them was a big boat..
B. My brother, Irish twin, who is hell of a better fisherman than I am goes on trips on the South Shore and comes back with stripers, togs, sea bass and every duck you can name on a singe trip lost two friends on a trip. They were 15 feet from the pier when the boat went over. These where not rookies, safari guys, out fitters.....
Again, not trying to preach or anything but the only reason my brother is still here is he mentally went through everything that could go wrong a thousand times as he is often solo like me. Instead of fighting the current in the river he knew the tide, flows, and how to make that work for him and crawled up on the first knoll island option. When the USCG picked him in a basket he was 2 degrees away from leaving this world. Even then he had thought about when to move, roll, and wave.
Now I will not go off shore or on the ice with all the safety stuff accounted for. I have also gone through self rescue and rescue a thousand times.
I just through this out there if you are getting into this great form of fishing. It is awesome and my favorite, but please think about it, study it, and be safe. Things can go wrong real fast....
PS Last year my brother came up and went ice fishing for the first time. He was jumping up and down when he caught a slime dart. First one in a couple of decades.
