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Making ice in the Northeast tonight and tomorrow; low of 15 and high of 25; my truck is fueled up and loaded down.
With the weather now you have to end this year of ice fishing...was on today. My last trip this year...edges are gone can get on with a plank but not for me..even with Attic arm er...I don't like to get wet...and enjoy life to much....so please be careful .be safe do not go alone a fish is not worth your life ...we lose someone each year trying to push itUse you head and think of your friends and family....be safe all..tight lines Till open water...was a great year on the ice....
to the gentleman that has fallen through before and will do so again your post should speak volumes about ice safety I'm assuming you are just falling through where the water is up to you knees though.
WOW Spripernut must be the "Rambo" of ice fishing !! Not only does he have the mud suck his boot off, he dives back in to get it back ! All the while to only thing that irritates him is losing 2 -3 minutes of fishing time! Maybe HE, is the most interesting guy in the world !!! Probaly got a gold medal for his game face alone ! I hope I didn't offend anyone , just having fun. Thanks for the advice and reminder KOV.
RIZZMAN, that was funny ! all KOV was trying to say is he is done, and for everyone else to be careful. And rambo, who isnt even from PA, steps in . I think i would just buy a new boot.
I think i would just buy a new boot.
I am no Rambo but I don't let fear control my life. I respect the ice, I just don't let getting cold and wet stop me. It has been a few years since I have gone through and hope that I don't ever again. I could deal with that in two ways; 1; Stay home and wait for open water or 2; go out have fun, catch fish, be prepared and get my a$$ out if I go through. I have posted this before.Why I went back in for the boot;I was 12 years old and fishing alone out in a big swamp with a beaver pond. The ice on the lakes was over a two feet thick and there was a fair amount where I was fishing, but it had started to go bad with the all the methane from the swamp. I had just had a scare cutting a hole in the beaver pond and having the water rush up, with about a 10 foot circle of cracks and started to sink. I tossed my pick out of the circle and threw myself over and rolled out… At this point I decide it would be best to go home. I dropped down over the beaver dam (testing the ice as I went) and started my four mile hike back home through the swamp and woods. I get about 25 yards from the beaver dam and the ice just let go. I ended up arm pit deep in about three feet of water and countless feet of muck and dead leaves. Again I threw my very heavy home made pick out with my scoop and jigging rod. Then I start to try to get myself out. The ice was about 6-8 inches and it was breaking off in big chunks, (it is weird how the ice acts when all the little methane bubbles work there way up through the ice and make it honey combed). I knew that if I did not get myself out, my body might not even be found! I finally found ice that would support me and I started to pull myself out, but as I did one of my boots came off and stuck in the muck. So there I was, with my chest and stomach on the ice, soaking wet, and a four mile hike back to my house. I figured that 1. I did not want to loose any toes, and 2. My parents would kill me if I had lost a boot… So back in I slid, searching with my stocking foot, until I found the boot and eased my foot back in. Now at the time the hardest part of all this was pulling myself out the second time, not the physical act of getting out, but keeping my boots on, one or the other just wanted to stay stuck in the muck!So now I was out, I was soaked and freezing, I still had about 75 yards of swamp ice to get over and a long, very cold hike. Thinking light thoughts, I lucked out and made it to shore, if I had gone through again, I don’t think I would have gotten out. I knew my time to get to the house was limited, and started out at a very fast walk to help warm up. Most of the hike I really don’t remember, but the last couple hundred yards when I could see my house through the woods, my teeth were chattering, I was not thinking real clear (hypothermia) and all I could think of was one foot in front of the other and the promise of a LONG HOT shower. I make it to the door with the incredible relief that I was going to live and that I had saved myself. I walked in with a huge feeling of relief, to have made it to the safety of my home, the warmth, I just wanted to fall down and cry and I had never been so happy to see my parents… I stepped in and my mother started yelling at me for coming in covered in mud, ice and soaked to the bones. I tried to explain what had happened, through the chattering teeth… I didn’t feel the love back… I dragged myself to the shower and emptied a very big tank of hot water, before I came out feeling exhausted, but alive. I would have been back on the ice the next morning, but I had school. I do have a great deal of respect for all ice, but especially swamp ice!