E
arly ice is a coveted time for ice anglers. Anglers have been waiting to get out on the ice and are excited for a new season to begin. Early ice is also often some of the very best fishing of the winter. Combine the good fishing with the excitement of getting out on the ice and invariably, some ice anglers will push their luck. We have seen a trend over the past few years driven by social media where some anglers almost seem make getting out onto questionable ice some sort of contest. A show of bravado if you will on who can step foot onto the ice first and post some fish pictures onto their Instagram account. This desire for attention can sometimes prove deadly and dangerous. We all want to learn about where to catch more fish or how to catch more fish but with so many young and new anglers entering the ice fishing community, let’s start out with how to be safe on the ice. There is a saying that no ice is safe. The implication of this simple sentence is to simply keep your guard up and never assume too much. The reality is that some ice is safe. We just can’t assume. The reality is that conditions can change. Sometimes this change is unpredictable. Accidents can happen to the most seasoned ice anglers. An accident can happen simply by walking back to shore at lowlight and having fog move in where you get disorientated. You have a lake map app on your phone, you argue. Well, imagine your phone is dead from scrolling on social media all day. An accident can happen by simply driving fast with an ATV across the ice to get home and in the headlights appears a new pressure ridge that didn’t exist four hours earlier. We have been on some reservoirs where freak methane gas pockets open and create round pools of thin ice and these methane gas pockets change from year to year.
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Ice Digital January Issue
Of course, many of the situations that can be extremely dangerous can be predictable. Moving water is always bad. That moving water might be a culvert under a submerged road or a bridge causeway. Could be an incoming stream or bottleneck between islands.
