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There were trucks driving on the ice in mid-Michigan yesterday. The ice was about 18in thick. A lot of people will say 18in thick ice is enough for a tank! It may be but it could also cost you your life. Like stated above ice thickness doesn't matter as much as ice strength. This time of year especially here, we have a lot of freezing and thawing. Those conditions make for some very dangerous ice. When the weather warms the ice will start to melt. The water from the melting ice will start to drain down through the ice making pockets of air. After repeated freezing and thawing the ice will become honeycombed making the ice very fragile. About 20 years ago I fell through a foot of ice that was honeycombed. At the time I was carrying a bucket with fish and rods in one hand and my spud in the other. Since I knew I was on 12 inches of ice, I wasn't checking it as I went. That is the last time I made that mistake. For those of you out there that are just starting to ice fish and for those who think that thick ice is safe, I pray that you heed my advice. Check the ice and do it often, the ice you went safely out on in the morning, could kill you coming off at night! As for driving trucks on thick ice, I don't do it anymore at all! But if you do, please check it for not only thickness, but hardness, as well!
I guess we have differing opinions. A spud certainly helps to determine if the ice is honeycombed or not. First off when you hit the spud onto the ice you can hear a difference between honeycombed and good ice. If I hit it and the sound doesn't resonate with a thud, I'm backing up. Or if I hit it and it goes through on one or two hits, like it does on thin ice I'm backing up. I have hit thick honeycombed ice and not only did the spud go through right away, it blew a quart size jar hole with one hit. If you hit your spud onto the ice and see crystals instead of chips, back up! You apparently have a misconception that if the ice is honeycombed, it is "all" honeycombed, which is not the case. You can be standing on solid ice and two foot away it can be honeycombed because of a muddy bottom vs a hard or rock bottom, etc. Muddy bottoms tend to warm up quicker from the sun light, allowing the water to drain down though the ice quicker than a hard bottom. I have seen it rain at my house and across the road they are cutting the dry grass. One part of the lake could have gotten rain soaked and the other didn't, there are any number of reason why ice conditions vary on a lake. For those out there that are new to the sport, please take my advice, learn how to use a spud. Please remember that every spud is not the same. One may make a certain sound on good ice and another may sound totally different! Get to know "your" spud and stay safe!
Two words; Common Sense
The one problem with that is common sense went out in the 80’s