Went out yesterday, 1/18/18. Walked out from Whites Landing. Walked out about 1/4 mi NNW.
Here is the issues with the Bay.....
Doing some homework, there is only 5 feet of water everywhere west of Rt 2 bridge. A little deeper near and under the bridge. There are 3 main underground springs that are known, and countless smaller unknown ones. The perch seem to want to hang around these springs. We spudded carefully to the first spring. Found all ice at 8 inches thick. I set up and started fishing. Caught nothing. The braver.... or crazier ones who set up on top of the spring were catching some fish.
Toward the end of the day, I came out of my shelter to find someone surrounded by slush and trying to retrieve their Clam hub that was left overnight. I watched as he worked with the spud bar trying to unstick his frozen shanty. His foot went through a couple of times. It looked like there was ice under the water, but who knows how thick it was.
It wasn't like that when we got there, and we walked through that area that morning. But by afternoon the ice was eroded from under and was definitely unsafe.
This Bay is known for random underground springs popping up. Not a good place to take a 4 wheeler even with a foot of ice. What is safe now, may not be in a few hours. The shallow water exacerbates the erosion by spring water.
If you go out on the western half of the Bay, be cautious. The guy that was retrieving his shack told me someone went through 3 days ago, near the same path we walked out on. There was 8 inches everywhere we walked, but it is not guaranteed. The water is only chin deep, but you get just as wet as if it were 30.
Wasn't the finest day. Was thankful to have ice around here though.
