https://www.jamestownsun.com/news/accidents/4812380-Medina-man-dead-after-falling-through-ice
My thoughts and prayers go out to this individual and his family/friends. This is a very sad deal. This unfortunate incident needs to be a reminder to proceed with caution when traveling on the ice this year. Make sure and have all the proper gear to rescue yourself or someone if necessary and don't take unnecessary risks. It's not worth it.
I have been out on the ice a fair amount of times this year on several different bodies of water. Something is way different this year than years past. That difference is warmer moving water from an extremely wet fall. These lakes are still equalizing with water still rising on some bodies of water. I've been out on foot only, with a spud bar, ice picks, life jacket everytime and always let someome know where I am at. I usually try to fish with someone, but if I'm by myself I'm even more cautious and don't venture out too far. There is still a lot of water moving between lakes in the surrounding Valley City/Jamestown area and I'm guessing other districts are experiencing this as well. Generally speaking, there is a pretty consistent 5-7 inches of good ice in most area's but don't let that fool you. I also have never seen as many open spots of water in the past like I have this year. It's not specific to just culverts. I'm talking random spots everywhere that aren't being kept open by waterfowl. These spots are on lakes that are anywhere from 10-25FOW to smaller ones that have 8-12FOW . Every body of water I have fished has had anywhere from 1 open spot to several open spots and they aren't small. Don't think that this cold snap is gonna button everything up and make things safely driveable. You won't catch me driving a atv across a lake anytime soon and I'm not so sure if I'll even put a truck on the ice this year. These are just my thoughts based on my experiences in 2019-20 ice season. I'm not trying to scare anyone from going out on the ice. I'm just giving feedback on what I've seen so far this year. Please be safe.
My thoughts and prayers go out to this individual and his family/friends. This is a very sad deal. This unfortunate incident needs to be a reminder to proceed with caution when traveling on the ice this year. Make sure and have all the proper gear to rescue yourself or someone if necessary and don't take unnecessary risks. It's not worth it.
I have been out on the ice a fair amount of times this year on several different bodies of water. Something is way different this year than years past. That difference is warmer moving water from an extremely wet fall. These lakes are still equalizing with water still rising on some bodies of water. I've been out on foot only, with a spud bar, ice picks, life jacket everytime and always let someome know where I am at. I usually try to fish with someone, but if I'm by myself I'm even more cautious and don't venture out too far. There is still a lot of water moving between lakes in the surrounding Valley City/Jamestown area and I'm guessing other districts are experiencing this as well. Generally speaking, there is a pretty consistent 5-7 inches of good ice in most area's but don't let that fool you. I also have never seen as many open spots of water in the past like I have this year. It's not specific to just culverts. I'm talking random spots everywhere that aren't being kept open by waterfowl. These spots are on lakes that are anywhere from 10-25FOW to smaller ones that have 8-12FOW . Every body of water I have fished has had anywhere from 1 open spot to several open spots and they aren't small. Don't think that this cold snap is gonna button everything up and make things safely driveable. You won't catch me driving a atv across a lake anytime soon and I'm not so sure if I'll even put a truck on the ice this year. These are just my thoughts based on my experiences in 2019-20 ice season. I'm not trying to scare anyone from going out on the ice. I'm just giving feedback on what I've seen so far this year. Please be safe.
