Air gap between ice and water ?

[toothfish]

I have heard of this phenomenon , but have never actually witnessed it.
I was wondering if anyone out there has actually seen this with there own eyes.
If so .. what was the specifics behind your particular experience.

[icewagon]

Mite as well believe in Big foot , The loch ness monster, the city of Atlantis,and evolution .

[jayswimmer09]

it has happened to me before, it was on a dam that they must have just let water out, the gap was only roughly 3-4 inches but it was scary as heck to drill a hole and notice the water wasnt right there, the lake in the middle bowed in, was a cool site but scary to be on

[lostfishy]

In my opinion there are irregularities under the ice that may hold air but generally the water supports the ice at the interface.  On lakes with inlet/outlet control structures such as impoundments on rivers with hydro dams, when the water level is drawn down, the ice responds and sinks to the lake water level.  On big lakes that form pressure ridges where there are sections of ice that are pushed up, there is air underneath and the ice becomes unstable. You can literally chop off big chunks when there is air under the ice (we used to love doing this as "kids"). I have also seen and caught mamals far from shore, an otter at Lake Champlain, VT and a mink at East Grand Lake, ME. Either they are very good at holding their breath or they are gasping air from pockets under the ice. Others may disagree but just my thoughts....

[REEL DeiL]

one of the ponds my dad used to fish drains into lake ontario and lowered water levels left a small gap between the ice and water. He said the water would slap the ice and made him nervous. A few hours after he got on the ice the edge broke and the ice fell the half inch or so to the water. It may have or may not have really happened but he did not go back on the ice for 15 years untill i went and made him go to one of my spots Know he loves it again

[jkoegel]

As far as mammals under the ice. I saw something on the discovery channel, otters and beavers will swim under the ice breathing from the pockets of trapped air.

[kiltman]

We have that on the river bayous here in Michigan.
Probably would get it on a "drowned river mouth" type lake as well.
On Muskegon Lake we have a lot of old slabs from the lumber mills days.
These slabs still bubble off methane gas.
I remember as a young lad going out on first ice and chopping open the gas bubbles beneath the ice and lighting them with a lighter or match.
We would watch them burn off.
It was pretty cool. Some bubbles burned for a while.

[InSearchOfPerch]

Any accounts of this is almost always on a reservoir where water has been released.  I have fished the Missouri river system on Lake Francis Case and had almost 6 inches of air under the ice...this only lasts for a day or so.  Remember ice is very bouyant and in a matter of a day or so, the ice will crack and settle and the cracks refreeze as the ice settles to the waters level.  At some location or several locations on the reservoir the ice heaves and overlaps to allow the ice to resettle.  It essentially concaves the surface of the ice over a large area.  But if you find yourself over an air gap, the dangerous part is the ice is no longer bouyant in that area you are fishing, it is suspended and therefor much weaker.  I have only seen this three times in my 25 years I have been ice fishing.  It is not real common out here, but it does occur.  Lately, there has been no significant release of water in any of our dam systems to allow this to happen, the water is released at such a slow rate, it is rarely noticable.  In order to create this air gap, the water has to be released at such an aggressive rate that it is very rare.  Many years ago, I talked to an old timer who was also a guide on the Missouri Reservoirs, he told me he found himself on a gap almost two foot from the water.  They immediately packed up and slowly made their way off the lake.

[eyesfishing]

Mite as well believe in Big foot , The loch ness monster, the city of Atlantis,and evolution .

This phenomenon is described and explained in the In-Fisherman book "Ice Fishing Secrets." Evolution is real by the way, and if you don't know about something, don't try to make it seem foolish.

[tomhnt]

I have seen 6" of air under the ice and it was bowed in the middle in lake Alice, a reservoir of oak orchard creek. I have also drilled holes and created a fountain of water about 1 foot high.  both conditions caused us to seek other areas to fish. the further we got away from the dam the lesser the effect.

[miket.]

one year i was fishing lake lillanoha and when we got there we desided to head to our regular spot as usual. well when we got there we started to drill holes and the auger dropped out from our hands and hit the ice hard.not realizing what was going on we pulled the auger back out through the hole and couldn"t believe what we were seeing. the water was about 2.5 to 3 feet uder the ice. i was pretty scared after seeing this and immediately ran off the ice with as much gear as i could grab. talk about feeling your heart sink to your a** !!! it wasn"t till later talking to someone there that i found out that they lowered the level on the lake due to lots of snow melt off and presipitation we had.

[TMRFISH]

This phenomenon is described and explained in the In-Fisherman book "Ice Fishing Secrets." Evolution is real by the way, and if you don't know about something, don't try to make it seem foolish.

You beat me to it eyesfishing!  That was going to be my comment!

[toothfish]

one year i was fishing lake lillanoha and when we got there we desided to head to our regular spot as usual. well when we got there we started to drill holes and the auger dropped out from our hands and hit the ice hard.not realizing what was going on we pulled the auger back out through the hole and couldn"t believe what we were seeing. the water was about 2.5 to 3 feet uder the ice. i was pretty scared after seeing this and immediately ran off the ice with as much gear as i could grab. talk about feeling your heart sink to your a** !!! it wasn"t till later talking to someone there that i found out that they lowered the level on the lake due to lots of snow melt off and presipitation we had.

How thick was the ice you were standing on ?

[miket.]

it was 7 inches of good ice. i should of known though because all the edges were cracked and somewhat lowere than the rest. very scary and now i know.

[motorfisher]

A friend of mine and I drove out onto a small reservoir in northern Vermont to fish for some eyes. When I drilled our first hole into about 20 inches, the air and slush rushed up out it so hard it blew the hat off my head ! I was scared sh**less ! There was about a foot of air separating the water from the ice  but my friend managed to talk me into staying saying there was plenty of ice and besides, he was driving. I couldn't very well argue with his logic. But anyway, the day was kinda warm, maybe near 40*. The ice kept making me feel uneasy making all these really weird noises when all of a sudden the bottom dropped out ! Water shot up though the holes 6 feet flinging our 40 ups out onto the ice, man... I thought we were going to die ! Fortunately the ice held together! It left about 4 inches of water on the ice, and the ice laid on shore like an old down comforter, but we weren't dead so we continued to fish. We ended up doing really well fishing, each of us catching our limit of walleye and a bunch of nice perch. That ice falling like that got the fish on a frenzied bite, but I'll tell yea, it didn't do much for my nerves !