what's the strangest, scariest, bizarre experience you've had on the ice?

[Icelife4]

We need to keep this thread going this is awesome!!!!

[WhereDaRainbows]

How did u not know u crapped in your hood lol

[Big Ice Hole]

Not all of it was in the hood some hit the snow. I thought to myself damn there should've been more.

How did u not know u crapped in your hood lol

[LP Steve]

Lol that is hilarious!!!

[reeleyz]

The loons I found on the ice two winters ago was pretty strange. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUX7I8tsyuo

Funny as I was reading stories trying to remember things that I have seen on the ice this one reminded me of the strangest thing.

It had to be back in 1988. My dad and I were in the middle of Oneida on the four wheeler towing a trailer with our lab. We see something on the ice that we thought was a tip of a buoy. It turned out to be a loon. The dog jumped out and tried to grab it. We grabbed the dog before the bird pecked the heck out of him. We ended up picking up the loon and bringing it to shore. My dad had me drive the 4 wheeler while he held the bird. I remember the bird pecking me in the back. We called the DEC and they took it and released it in the Oneida river.

We figured the bird landed on the ice at night. It was glare ice so it probably looked like open water. The bird would have died if we didn't pick it up.

[eaglejac]

A few years ago while ice fishing a state lake in the Poconos in Pa there were two Bald Eagles watching us fishing , each was perched in a tree about  200 yards away , every time we would catch a fish we would place it on the ice and one of them would fly in to us and pick up the fish and fly off to an apposing tree . This when on for hours and the eagles would come as close as 20 yards to us and swoop  down and pick up the fish on the ice at full speed  that was quite the show mother nature put on for us that day, I will never forget it..

[Neil McCauley]

When I get done with a week of night shifts I will take off to go fishing at around 1-2AM. Get good spots and get holes drilled early. Nothing is creepier than being alone on a 30k acre lake in the middle of the night. Every crack and every slushy area you go through is scary when no one else is around even if you know better.

[oneida1]

budbucket i was out there when the train crashed that was a big mushroom cloud, i looked at my dad and jokely asked if the limit really mattered now looked like a nuke had hit east of the lake lol

[WARRIOR_ON_ICE]

Just a month ago I was ice camping on Lake champlain in Ticonderoga. I was the only one there after dusk which by itself is not new for me. What was new is that I brought my skates and took off on a late night adventure, leaving my shanty at 9 PM. This adventure has been on my bucket list for a few years and the weather was perfect for it, about 30 degrees out and no wind. Well, I skated an easy 6 miles from the shanty and loving the eerie solitude on the big ice. After I turned around the cloud cover made it a lot darker.

I tripped in a foot wide pressure crack that I could not see and went down hard, really banging my knee. My right leg was wet to the knee. I was looking around and the area did not look familiar - I thought I had turned around a point of land on the way back that I should not have, and now I am panicking thinking I headed into a dead end bay where I would not be able to get back to the shanty. I was calling myself a MF'er and wondering what I should do. I just kept going the same direction and 10 minutes later I recognized a landmark and knew it was the right way. I got back to the shanty, drank a celebratory can of Bud or 3, and turned in for the night with the heater blasting. I slept very well that night and enjoyed telling the story to everyone I know.

[pikeorbust]

A few years ago I watched several US Coast Guard members in cold water gear push a 17ft aluminum rowboat across the snow and ice for about 400 yards on Braddocks Bay. At some point they stopped and cut a big hole in the ice and spent the next few hours practicing an ice rescue. Once training was complete, they pushed that boat all the way back across the bay. Impressive.

[Jaysrig]

I've had two muskrats this year messin around with the transducer in the hole, both of them spooked the crap out of me in the shanty lol. Had a small herd of about 4 deer cross Hammond lake in Pennsylvania also  in PA there was an airplane doing touch and goes on the lake right over the shanty that was a little spooky at first thought the dude was crashing. Fun stuffS

[Neil McCauley]

Another time I pooped in the hood of my snowmobile suit, fished all day. On the way home thing warmed up then we found it. I'll never live that one down.

Wait....what? 

[dave_p.]

  Thought I saw a catfish swim by the hole. The whiskers turned out to be an otter which decided to surface in my hut! scared the hell out of me, and I put my foot over the hole as he went back under. On Lake Erie collapsing my clam suitcase style hut a 40 mph gust caught the hut like a sail. I was moving fast, and my friend tackled me. I was messing with him on the 2 hour walk in. I could have been back to shore in 10 minutes. He learned to wear cleats after that outing due to several falls on the slick ice. One of our first times out surprised he didn`t get a concussion. Lake Erie again walking in with an East [ offshore wind] My friend Jim, and I came to where a crack opened up, and we could not jump that far. We just kept following the crack towards shore until we thankfully found a spot where we could run, and jump 5 - 6 feet. Fell through in my pond twice up to my neck in water 17 feet deep. Late ice 6 inches thick but looked like frozen snow. Both times figured it might be iffy had hand spikes, and cleats with goretex clothes on, and actually got out very fast, and not to wet. Cabin was already warm so not life threatening. Last one Erie again with my friend Paul. Walked out about 2 miles out. Wind picked up bad, and total whiteout. We figured we were out far enough, and started fishing 50 feet of water seeing nobody anywhere. Few hours later wind stops, look around, and there is like 20 guys all around us. Never saw or heard anything. Taught me to always carry a compass on Erie, and bailed him, and some guys out last year on Erie whose GPS was not working in a snowstorm, and ended up down by 18 mile creek in Hamburg. My buddy followed them with because they had a Gps but thought they were going wrong way. Ended up getting back to Sturgeon Pt. parking lot with compass.

[Budbucket]

budbucket i was out there when the train crashed that was a big mushroom cloud, i looked at my dad and jokely asked if the limit really mattered now looked like a nuke had hit east of the lake lol

I really thought for a minute it was a bomb

[IceBalls]

Many years ago (70's  I think) my two buddies and I were fishing Peach Lake (NY/CT border).  About mid-day an Ice Storm hit the area and we decided to get out of there.  By the time we reached shore, all of us were actually "coated" with ice.... we "cracked" as we walked !!  The worst was yet to come !!!
Arriving at our car, we found it was completely coated in about 1/4 inch of ice and we had to do some major banging and scraping to get the doors open and the windshield cleared.
The back road we parked on was a sheet of ice....driving was death-defying.  We finally had two guys walk alongside the car to keep it from sliding off the road, while the third guy drove.  The drive home was hair raising, to say the least !! 

[coachwarner]

Not all of it was in the hood some hit the snow. I thought to myself damn there should've been more.

[lowaccord66]

I watched a group of guys on sacandaga almost get hit by a small plane who's pilot was being an idiot.  He's lucky I didn't get his tail number!

[masoneddie]

Early last January I was out on a local lake first ice. The majority of the lake had 4-6", but there was an area over the deep water that was still open which I reported about on here each day I was out.
On this particular day late in the afternoon, a few trucks pull into the launch area and 4 younger guys in there 20's unload their motorcycles. They fire them up and stay in fairly close tearing up the ice and making an oval track like they do most years.
For whatever the reason, two of them break away from the oval and start dragging each other full throttle straight up the lake....right at the open water just before dark.
I'm watching this in disbelief hoping like hell they see the water, but they just kept going faster and faster.
Finally, the guy on the left must have seen it coming and let off the throttle hooking his bike to the left and getting out of there just in time.
His buddy never let off the throttle, and in between me saying " Oh my God " all I could see was a huge fishtail of water going up in the air!
I called 911 immediately figuring he was dead for sure....he was out in 60' of water, deepest part of the lake about a half mile from the boat launch.
Next thing I noticed was his buddy who saw the water in time, drive over towards the other side of the open water and help his buddy to get on his motorcycle. Then they came rocketing back down the lake.
Call it dumb luck, or whatever, but when he hit the water on his bike, he got thrown over the handlebars and skipped off the open water onto the ice on the other side! Talk about luck....
Within 5 minutes after my call, there had to be at least 15 fire trucks, ambulances, Troopers, Sherriffs, EnCon, etc.
His brand new bike went to the bottom, and I think it sat there until Spring.
The icing on the cake was he was all pissed off at me for calling 911 like it was my fault.....
I just shook my head and told him he didn't how lucky he was that he wasn't on the bottom with his bike.

[trapper2000]

trapping on a small pond about a mile behind my house i fell through with hip waders on. very heavy when they filled up with water i thought i was a goner. every time id get back up on the ice id break right through again. ended up smashing the ice with my forearms all the way to shore bloody arms and all i was in survival mode it was nuts. emptied boots took clothes off and squeezed the water out of them and had to walk back to my house, including open field with 20mph winds. by the time i got back my whole body was stiff and i was shuffling my feet. thought that was my last day on earth

many years ago my father taught me this and it works!  if you fill your  hip waders with water when you get out DON'T TAKE THEM OFF IN THE  COLD!!!!  instead  lay on your  back  and lift your legs  yes it makes a cold butt  butt  the water in the boots will warm quick   you take them off your  temp  drops like a rock..... 

[trapper2000]

I pooped in the hood of my snowmobile suit, fished all day. On the way home thing warmed up then we found it. I'll never live that one down.

ok I had to  read this one a couple  times and I'm still scratching my head ......why?

[2sammich]

15 winters ago, fishing with my black lab, cold, windy, and snowing, I start having a heart attack. As I realize whats happening, I decide I'm not going to leave my gear on the ice. I am the only one on the lake. So I gather my stuff, and start walking off the ice taking several breaks along the way. I remember saying to myself "you are in big trouble". I guess at the same time, I would'nt admit it was happening because I brought the dog home, even took a hot shower hoping it would go away, then finally left, walking past my girlfriends son saying "I gotta go". Then drove myself to the hospital. 8 days later, I was home pretty much unscathed. I took that winter off,  gave up hand augers and have been at it ever since.

[fishinjohn]

ok I had to  read this one a couple  times and I'm still scratching my head ......why?

If you read it again, since he "found it on the way home" it probably wasn't something he did on purpose

[Icelife4]

ok I had to  read this one a couple  times and I'm still scratching my head ......why?

in still wondering how he pooped in your hood

[GAMBELL]

About ten years ago, we were fishing on Braddocks Bay.  This older gentleman was sitting on his bucket a hundred or so yards away.  All the sudden we look over and see him fall to the ice.  I started running ver to him when I saw him stand up and start swearing and jumping up and down.  I walked over and asked him if he was OK.  He muttered to me that he was pissed off because he dropped his hearing aid down the hole.  If you looked down the hole, you could see it sitting on the bottom.  I felt terrible for the guy. 

[Hess]

About 5 years ago my brothers and a friend and I were fishing a large unnamed lake in mid-March -- I was driving a Polaris Ranger and was heading back to the truck to get something -- unbeknownst to me, the lake currents had changed over the last couple years due to a new channel cut in a nearby stream that entered the lake, and the ice in the area I was driving was compromised from underneath.  Well, next thing you know the Ranger was dropping through the ice -- as it was going down, I dove out of it as far as I could and spread eagled myself on the ice -- it held, and I combat crawled for 50' or so, then stood up and started to walk -- immediately my one leg broke through the ice, and I was going down again, but I used my other leg to kick me forward, spread eagled again -- this time I combat crawled for more than 100' and was able to get to solid ice to return to my buddies, minus one Ranger -- fortunately, ice-out came early that year and I was able to hire a salvage team out of the Capital Region and we were able to locate and remove the Ranger all within a day -- I was a very lucky guy...!

One more scary incident dating back to the early 80s -- we were at our camp on the Vermont shore of Lake Champlain for an ice-fishing weekend -- we were going to have a card game that evening and a good friend of ours who lived across the lake was going to join us -- he started over the ice from the NY side on his Honda 3-Wheeler -- when he was about halfway across the lake, his headlight suddenly disappeared...!!  I grabbed a coil of rope and my brothers and I ran out to the center of the lake -- his machine had gone through a thin section of ice cover and was floating upside down with the balloon tires on it -- by the time we got there, he had gotten himself back on the ice by kicking off the floating ATV -- when he went over the handlebars, his forehead had broke the forward ice and he was bleeding like a stuck pig!  He was one tough guy though -- he had us tie the rope to him and he went back in the water to retrieve his ATV -- he held onto it, while we pulled him back out and then wrestled the machine back onto solid ice -- needless to say, his wife wasn't very happy when we got him back home all bloody and froze-up...!!

[Fishing_Machine]

Not something you see all the time here, but at least 20 years ago I was jigging smelt on Lake Bomoseen in Vermont.
Went into the shanty before dark and came out 5-6 hours later when the sky was filled with northern lights.
It was very cold and clear.  The lights were red and moving all over like rays and hanging drapes.  They were around the
next night also. FM

[carcaju]

been through the ice a few times , once over my head  (not a good time ) , had shantys blown down the lake in gale force winds , pulled a few people out and had a mink 2 times a muskrat and a otter all use my holes while fishing. had a small group of coyotes sneek up behind me before daylight to see what I was.

[Big Ice Hole]

Ok guys let me set the scene. Honeoye Lake, late 70s.While ice fishing I had to GO, so I hoofed it back to what is now Sandybottom Park. Back then it wasn't built up like it is now just an old shed that fallen down, so I went behind it unzipped my snowmobile suit pulled it between my legs and did what I went there to do after the paper work I pulled my suit up and looked back and thought to myself damn there should've been more oh well. Then went back fishing for the day, walked around and talked to a few guys. Then on the way home with things warming up my father said " ok who #hit themself and I said I didn't I did it hours ago on shore. Then my brother saw it laying in my hood.

in still wondering how he pooped in your hood

[trapper2000]

If you read it again, since he "found it on the way home" it probably wasn't something he did on purpose

how  do you  accidently  poop  in  the  hood  of  your  suit accidently???

[LP Steve]

Lol!!! Hey sh%%  happens...