Ice Fishing MYTHS that never die.

Rowdie

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I'll start.

Driving on the ice with the pickup doors open will keep it from going all the way in when you break through because the doors will catch on the ice.

Ask me how I know.
 


Rowdie

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Not good. Where did this happen?


1997 late ice.....Long long story.....I've told it before

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BTW we only had one door open so maybe it works....but having been in the truck and feeling the force of it, I highly doubt it. Partners door slammed back hurting his foot.

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BTW we only had one door open so maybe it works....but having been in the truck and feeling the force of it, I highly doubt it. Partners door slammed back hurting his foot.
 

Rut2much

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My excuse to go coyote hunting
 


bucksnbears

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I doesn't matter what food you eat whilst fishing in an overnight sleeper house with others.
Beer/smoked salmon,cheese n oysters will not be of any consequences ;:;badidea
 

SDMF

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The "Night Bite".

Someone oughta just say, "Hey, let's stay in the house and drink beer (Whiskey/rum/TQ/etc) rather than drive off of the ice to go somewhere else to drink beer.
 

Sluggo

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When pike fishing is slow, it’s because they lost their teeth.
 

guywhofishes

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when I’m doing an overnight I try pretty hard not to give myself “the grizzlies” the next morning

nothing quite as miserable as the trots whilst nursing a hangover

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w/out a comfy crapper
 


BP338

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One of my buddies refuses to go ice fishing because of his fear of the ice. He doesn't much like the cold either. But after a little poking he told me that a long time ago (before social media communication conveniences...) his friend talked him into going with them. They drove out and drilled a hole to find out that they had drained the lake and the water was about 5-6 feet below the 3 feet of ice they had just driven on with their 3/4 ton ford...


I had to believe him because of my lack of ice fishing wisdom. Anyone hear of stuff like this? Is it possible?
 

dblkluk

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One of my buddies refuses to go ice fishing because of his fear of the ice. He doesn't much like the cold either. But after a little poking he told me that a long time ago (before social media communication conveniences...) his friend talked him into going with them. They drove out and drilled a hole to find out that they had drained the lake and the water was about 5-6 feet below the 3 feet of ice they had just driven on with their 3/4 ton ford...



I had to believe him because of my lack of ice fishing wisdom. Anyone hear of stuff like this? Is it possible?

Impossible. Ice floats.
 

Allen

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Impossible. Ice floats.


While ice does indeed float, there's also what's called ice bridging. Basically, it happens when a reservoir is lowered after ice cover is developed, the ice in the middle of the lake is floating on top of the water, but as you get close to shore, thick ice will sometimes "bridge" from the shoreline to where it is floating on top of the water some distance from shore. Now, 5-6 ft would be an awful lot of bridging, certainly more than I have ever witnessed and would only ever be seen next to a very steep drop off on a reservoir that has been lowered by at LEAST 5-6 ft since ice cover developed. Nonetheless, the ice surface would likely be so steep as to give you a clue that something is amiss. In general, the water in the hole should be down about 10% of the overall ice thickness for it to be properly floating on the water. So if the ice is 10 inches thick and without a heavy snow cover on the lake, the water level should be about an inch below the surface of a freshly drilled fishing hole. If the water level is more than 10% of the ice thickness below the surface of the ice, it is being bridged to some extent.

This was the primary reason Jamestown and Pipestem reservoirs had their access restricted during the 2019-2020 winter.

We often see the unlevel ice at access points on our bigger reservoirs (Sak and Oahe), but don't really think much about it as we drive down the boat ramps to get on the lake. Needless to say, the transition from unlevel ice to that floating on the water is the danger point as ice without water support isn't very strong for its thickness as it requires its buoyancy to help hold vehicles up and keep them from falling through.

Thankfully, it is very rare that we see reservoirs needing to be lowered 5-6 ft over the course of a winter. Most tend to go into winter with 3 ft or less of water that needs to be discharged over the course of winter.
 
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1lessdog

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While ice does indeed float, there's also what's called ice bridging. Basically, it happens when a reservoir is lowered after ice cover is developed, the ice in the middle of the lake is floating on top of the water, but as you get close to shore, thick ice will sometimes "bridge" from the shoreline to where it is floating on top of the water some distance from shore. Now, 5-6 ft would be an awful lot of bridging, certainly more than I have ever witnessed and would only ever be seen next to a very steep drop off on a reservoir that has been lowered by at LEAST 5-6 ft since ice cover developed. Nonetheless, the ice surface would likely be so steep as to give you a clue that something is amiss. In general, the water in the hole should be down about 10% of the overall ice thickness for it to be properly floating on the water. So if the ice is 10 inches thick and without a heavy snow cover on the lake, the water level should be about an inch below the surface of a freshly drilled fishing hole. If the water level is more than 10% of the ice thickness below the surface of the ice, it is being bridged to some extent.

This was the primary reason Jamestown and Pipestem reservoirs had their access restricted during the 2019-2020 winter.

We often see the unlevel ice at access points on our bigger reservoirs (Sak and Oahe), but don't really think much about it as we drive down the boat ramps to get on the lake. Needless to say, the transition from unlevel ice to that floating on the water is the danger point as ice without water support isn't very strong for its thickness as it requires its buoyancy to help hold vehicles up and keep them from falling through.

Thankfully, it is very rare that we see reservoirs needing to be lowered 5-6 ft over the course of a winter. Most tend to go into winter with 3 ft or less of water that needs to be discharged over the course of winter.


I remember reading in Outdoor Life, the This happened to me section, A guy talked about walking on ice and breaking thru and falling to the creek or river below. He said water had receded and he was 5 ft below the ice. and had to walk quite a distance to get out of his ice cave. This had to be back in the mid 70's
 

Allen

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I remember reading in Outdoor Life, the This happened to me section, A guy talked about walking on ice and breaking thru and falling to the creek or river below. He said water had receded and he was 5 ft below the ice. and had to walk quite a distance to get out of his ice cave. This had to be back in the mid 70's


It's tough to imagine any ND river freezing in 5+ ft above it's mid-winter flow levels, maybe the James did last year. So I would hazard a guess that was a pool on some stream in a faraway locale. It would certainly be a scary deal though.
 


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