When ponds freeze

[dave1949]

Very good advice, Moss. Ya gotta check it out to know what you are on. The Wardens here give about the identical advice as Moss'.

We have snowmobilers killed every year because they ASSUME their shortcut across a lake is safe. The last three victims from last winter, their bodies had to wait until late spring to be found and retrieved from the lake bottom.

 

[newbury]

The bottom line is there is NO completely safe ice. You have to use your head, follow some general guidelines, and have a plan for failure.

What he said.

It's safe when it's in my glass. Or on a hockey rink 1' deep.

I've been on small ponds frozen a foot thick EXCEPT where there happened to be a slightly warm spring bubbling up underneath. As soon as I heard a crack I'd retreat. I saw my Dad go waist deep in a beaver pond and he was always careful, ruined hunting for the rest of the day.

I learned early to test the ice and get home quick if I went thru.

The safest I've felt is when we would be out on Lake Champlain ice fishing, where others drove their cars out there. We'd generally walk. Sometimes the wind would shift and blow the ice a little off shore. Cars and trucks driving back would often break thru close to shore in about a foot of water but always seemed to make it to dry land. We'd walk.

Now that I'm mainly in Virginia and Mississippi I view no ice over natural waters to be "safe".

The last time I was out on ice over a river that was more than waist deep was in Fairbanks, Alaska a few years ago. But after a month of below zero it felt safe.

 

[Bob77064]

I think about 4 inches minimum but you need to be careful because the ice doesn't always freeze evenly on the whole pond. I would NEVER let neighborhood kids on my pond ... just opening yourself up for a lawsuit.

I agree with you, if I had a pond I would not let people on the ice.

 

[rmorey]

I hate ice fishing. By the time I get the hole cut big enough for the boat, I'm always too tired to fish! :laughing:

 

[daugen]

I agree with you, if I had a pond I would not let people on the ice.

but what do you do about kids/teenagers wandering through, trespassing or not. Do you post a sign near the pond?

owning a pond is a very good reason to have an umbrella liability policy with high limits. Some ambulance chaser will say you were the most criminally negligent person in the world for not building a ten foot fence with concertina...
Unless your property is 100% fenced and someone literally had to break in to get there, well, even then, your insurance company might pay. Parents of dead kids often don't like taking responsibility, and suing someone makes them feel better about themselves. so says this retired insurance agent.

 

[daugen]

I hate ice fishing. By the time I get the hole cut big enough for the boat, I'm always too tired to fish! :laughing:

:thumbsup:

 

[MossRoad]

I hate ice fishing. By the time I get the hole cut big enough for the boat, I'm always too tired to fish! :laughing:

The greatest thing about fishing is even if you don't catch a fish you've still wasted the day!

 

[MossRoad]

I hate ice fishing. By the time I get the hole cut big enough for the boat, I'm always too tired to fish! :laughing:

Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he'll be gone for the whole weekend.

 

[Gary Fowler]

You can never know completely how a large body of water will freeze. I remember once going out to fish on a small lake in Alberta Canada, the ice close to shore was over 12" thick. I was walking out to a favorite spot when I noticed that about 100 yards ahead the area seemed to be open water. I carefully and quickly put a 90 degree turn on and went to shore. I followed the shore around to the open area which was indeed not frozen at all almost all the way to shore. I put the ice auger to work drilling holes and checking the depth and was able to get close enough to cast into the open water to fish for trout. Had a good day also. A week or so later I was back again and that spot had 12" of ice on it. I had been fishing that lake every year for 3-4 years and never had I seen that spot not frozen at least 12" by the time fishing season opened (except that one time). The water depth there was about 25 feet. My partner and I were fishing there once when the ice was about 8" which Canadians say is plenty thick to drive a car on and while sitting on our fishing buckets, cars would drive out and we could feel the pressure ridge rising several yards in front of them. For us is was like a miniature roller coaster ride. The water which is usually an inch or more below the top of the ice would rise up and flood out of the hole when they came driving along several yards from us. Kind of creepy feeling, almost as much as having an expansion crack shoot between your legs when those things happen. First time I heard that rifle crack sound it scared the crap out of me not being familiar with what was happening since Ark/La/Tex area doesn't have anything in the way of ice fishing.

 

[MossRoad]

That's the funny thing about ice fishing....

When its 5 below and it goes BOOM!!! that's a good noise.
When its 40 and it goes CRACKKK!!!! that's a bad noise.

Either noise experienced for the first time and you'll probably need to change your shorts. :confused3: