Ice Noises

[wreese3]

I'm new to ice fishing and the message board... sorry if this information is available elsewhere....

I was fishing on a lake in PA (Beltzville) this past weekend. We had about 6-7 inches of ice and the air temps were slightly above freezing. This was my first time fishing this lake. The ice was cracking and booming so much that it was making us very unsettled about being on the ice over top of 20 feet of water and 200 yards away from shore. What made it worse was that there was no snow on the ice, so the ice would "BOOM" and we could see the fractures running through the ice under our feet. It made us nervous enough to call it quits for the day. I've heard that these noises are normal (and usually safe) and that it means that the ice is either expanding or contracting, depending on time of year/ air temps, but its still very unsettling.

Does anyone know of any good resources that confirms how safe it is to be on the ice in a situation like this?

Thanks in advance.

[wreese3]

Thanks for the info Joe!

[Neil McCauley]

In general all the noises you'll hear are from ice movement...small shifts from expanding/contracting. If it's close by it sounds like a creak/crack/thud/whatever. If it's far off somewhere else all you hear are the pew-pew laser sounds. That's because the vibrations are supersonic and as the sound from them is generated the high frequencies outrun the low frequencies, so you don't hear the original noise.

I think it's safe to say the pew-pew noises are always benign since they are far away, and the creaking/cracking is benign 99.9% of the time...

[jjc155]

No issues. Was out on Simcoe a couple years ago and had a crack run between several of us in our group. Sounded like thunder coming and bout knocked us off our buckets, lol

The cracking, moaning, rumbling etc is just movement and the water making more ice.

J-

[Knife2sharp]

It actually seems to be more intense the thicker the ice gets. I'm sure the thicker it is the heavier it is and more concave it is.  I actually find the distant sounds of the cracking somewhat relaxing, like thunder off in the distance.  It's just the close encounters that startle me.  But those hairline cracks, if you can call them that, fill with water and freeze instantly.