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Scary Ice Fishing outings?


leech~~

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What are your scariest Ice fishing outings where you had to stay the night, walk off, or almost didn't come home? I've had about 4 of them, 3 were on Milacs. I once sleded out to Shermans flat by myself, and following the same track back in the dark didn't realize the ridge I cross going out in the morning had cracked in two places. So when I got half way across the sled started tipping the slab back wards, I hit the gas and made it out! sick How about you?

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I, in my infinite wisdom, thought that a fresh snow wouldn't be too deep for my Jetta crazy . I made it out fine on the trail already made by others, but on my way back I got off the trail, as it got blown over. I spent 30 minutes digging enough snow to make a trail so I could get enough speed to get going through the snow. I guess it wasn't so dangerous, but I was a little nervous.

Now that I moved much closer to my work, I'll be looking for something with a little more ground clearance and towing capacity wink

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We were fishing out of Zippel bay the day after Thanksgiving a number of years ago. 4-5" of ice about 1/2-3/4 mile out when the ice started rolling. You could actually see the ice moving up and down. We got out of the house and walked to back to shore. The resort owner came to check on us around lunch and found us sitting on shore watching the ice disappear before out eyes. He went back in and brought a house out in the bay, thee was a good 6-8" in the bay, so we could fish northerns. About 2pm we decided to go check out the lake and all the ice we had been sitting was gone and it was nothing but 2-3ft waves crashing on shore.

I also had the back end of my pickup go thruogh late ice on Prior Lake 2yrs ago getting off the lake one evening.

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We were in a sleeper on Red a few years ago. It was early morning and we had just woken up, rolled out of bed and started jigging (sleepers are great for that!!). All of a sudden we heard something that sounded like an earthquake and felt some strong vibration. Needless to say we were out of the house in about 2 seconds flat. A huge ice ridge had formed about 100 ft from our house on the road. One of the guides out there almost went through while he was driving by.

Nothing like being 5 miles out and have the earth move under your feet!

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My brother and I fell through on Clearwater next to McBrides. It was our first time there and in slow motion fashion as we were sinking and the cold water was starting to hit my skin, I saw the huge culvert - D'oh current!

That's scary about the waves under the ice! Cripes!

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Long story short....

I forgot to respect Millac's Lake, went in the drink on 4 wheeler (it was actually two guys and two wheelers) just off of Indian Point. One week after my daughter was born. We walked several miles to the casino to get phone reception and get warm. The sad thing is the casino security did not want to let us in because we were soaking wet and had helmets with us.

It has been about 5 and a half years since that happened. I still dont like driving my truck on the lake, and have a significant amount of anxiety while riding on what I would consider "big" water. Even when I know the route and the trip is going to be "safe" I get somewhat physicaly upset and let someone else lead. And I very rarely fish alone.

This was my "other" very bad experience....

http://www.fishingminnesota.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1712865/1

Story on page 5 Wanderers post, Pictures on Page 11. I ended up with hypothermia and was sick for several days after that one.

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Neighbor, sounds like a similar story that happened to me and a buddy on Trout lake above Grandmas a few years back. Had a great day fishing, but it was slushy. By dark when we tried to leave, both sleds were stuck bad and everyone around us just left us! shocked We tried for a few hours and worked one off at a time. We had to leave the sleigt and all our gear out on the ice over night. The next morning we had to chisel out the gear sled, but all the slush had gotten hard so we could ride on our tracks from the day before so we fish another day. Good thing was I caught the biggest laker and won a big fish contest going on at the hardwear store in town! smile

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mine was after setting up my portable and jigging rod i walked out of the shanty on 5" to put my tip up out, i already drilled the hole, started walking out to the hole and it was just like you walked off the end of a 8 foot high board, minnows and tip up went flying, i started to panic then realized that that made me sink then tryed to relax and kinda floated/rolled back on the ice only to hear the ice cracking again but made it to thick ice again, had to pack everything up and drive walk home it was horrible had the shivrs for 4 days

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broken, I have never broken through more then a few feet deep of ice, but can only think I would wet my pants with more then just water if I did! crazy I just love watching that old movie "Never Cry Wolf" where the guy walks out on the ice with all his stuff on and the bunnie watching him from shore. He goes through so fast it makes me jump each time I watch it!

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Went through Leech on the wheeler a few years ago with some friends. Jumped onto "solid" ice while that was sinking after letting my pooch out of the kennel strapped to the back of the machine. 3 of the four of us went through again and barely made it back onto the ice. I told everybody to stay where they were as I crawled back towards the thicker ice. I went through again and couldn't get back on the ice until, luckily, my gloves froze to the ice (temp was about 5 above) at which point I just barely made it back on top. We then all managed to crawl to thick ice and walk 1.5 miles back to the nearest cabin. This was all at night. The last couple hundred yards were tough with hypothermia setting in. My legs wouldn't work anymore and it was hard to talk. Luckily we all (including my trusty mutt) made it out with no real permanent damage. Its a miracle when I think about it. I very rarely drive a truck on the ice anymore (even though I was on a wheeler) and carry ice picks with me wherever I go.

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No Wiser, it seems after that ordeal, you are now a lot Wiser! smile Man at night brings a whole new mental thing to things like this, really gets the mind working. Good to hear you made it out. What happened to the wheeler.

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I went out the next morning and bought an axe and was able to chop a path to it, run a couple towstraps to shore, and winch it out. Where the wheeler went through it was only about 5-6' deep. Where we went through the next couple times was about 30' deep. Drained all fluids and had the wheeler running within a couple hours after pulling it out. Works as good as new today. Gotta love those Hondas!

The NoWiser comes from a certain kind of Canadian Whiskey which I have found to be almost as dangerous as thin ice and which I now avoid just as carefully!

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I can attest that NoWiser is getting wiser with age and his experiences and that he should avoid Canadian whisky at all costs.

NoWiser - It was good seeing you again and we'll see you in Jan. for the laker trip.

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Years ago my brother and I along with a couple of friends walked out on early ice across from the sub shop on Mille Lacs. We were there before sunrise an walked out about .3 to .5 miles. Setup after we found where we wanted to be. Well just after sunrise we are looking northward and we can see open water less than a .25 mile away , which made us all nervous . we fished about an hour and half and left. That same day about 30 people and wheelers broke away about 3 miles away from where we were. I tend not to want to be the first one out any more, but early ice is the Best!!

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ill add another scary time.. so i was putzin around with the snowmobile and just got rebuilt the left side of the engine so i went to crack it open and just as i was slowing down i see something black dead ahead and am like ohhhhhh @##$ luckly i was able to accelerate across the 10x20' this was in late january so i THOUGHT all was safe. but lukly i wasnt putzin around on a bad cylinder like i was the week before or the pickle woulda met some future pickled pike lol. also its pretty freaky when your racing your buddie out to the shack at 55 and you hit someones previouse frozen house banking, which makes the sled nose up and go 50 feet before touching ice again..

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Last year...heading out on Red. Last weekend of ice fishing in March.

Got up there at about midnight with a buddy, my brother and another friend were already there. 5 miles out and a mile to the right off the main road which was flooded over. So we heard from them to take a side road around the bad areas. High beams on at night make a flooded road on a lake look like open water! It was pretty sketchy but we made it!

Fishing was REALLY good, caught 12 SLAB crappies and more walleyes then we could count. A few NICE pike too.

The weekend was about 50-60 degrees, sunny and no wind.

Come Sunday the lake was just that...a LAKE on top of the ice. That 6 mile drive off of RED to shore was pretty intense! It looked like we were driving on a river. There was plenty of ice but still it was a slow drive to shore, doors open and us praying we would make it!

All in all it was worth it, pretty safe but at the time it was pretty hairy!!!!

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Was out the day before opening spear season 5 - 6 years ago on sissebakwet on my dads brand new four wheeler. set my house out and was ready to go spear fishing the next morning. next morning came and i traveled down the exact path i had traveled the day before, and about 2/3's the way out me and the four wheeler broke through in about 3 feet of water. spent a half an hour trying to ramp that four wheeler back on the top of the ice, every time i would almost get it out, another chunk would break and down she would go again. there was no way i was going to go back home without dads new four wheeler. i eventually got it on top. if anyone ever tells you that ice is slippery, tell them to try walking on ice when it is underwater. i had the most miserable 20 minute drive back home. bruised and cut-up knees and elbows but atleast the four wheeler was alrite.

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A couple of years back we were on Mille Lacs over New Years and it started to rain with a temp of about 35. I woke up sometime in the middle of the night to pee and heard water running. I turned on the light in the permanant and saw water swirling like toilet bowls in all four holes. I woke up my buddy and showed him the swirlys. We packed up our gear, but didn't dare drive off the lake in the dark. I walked over to my father-in-law's shack and found him awake. First light we drove off the lake very carefully. About a mile from shore, we hit the crack and the father-in-law dropped two wheels in on his truck and was able to drive out. We ended up getting off the lake ok, but every one's nerves were frazzled. In hindsight, if we would have stayed on the lake and just moved the houses and not redrilled the holes we would have been ok in about a half a day like other fishermen that were out there. As it was, we almost lost my shack due to the swirling. You have to respect the ice. Now I have a wheel house and am very particular about ice thickness! Stay safe out there.

-G

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Glock, I was on Mille Lacs that same time with my fish house and 4 wheeler but we were out on the 4 mile bar on the south end. We also got up in the middle of the night to see our holes were about double the size they should be. We packed everything up and pulled the fish house off our spot and waited until daylight. Going off the lake was scary because the water was all the way up to the 4 wheelers floor board. There were waves on top of the ice. We crossed 2 bridges on the way out and only crossed 1 going in so I don't how we crossed the crack without a bridge. Never so happy to see Brandts Resort.

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here is one......I just started ice fishing and my buddies say let's go north to a lake that had a good bite supposedly going on.....well we drive 2 hrs and we see the trucks on the lake and the access is on the opposite side so we go to the access and drive on the ice in the 1 ton truck with 4 guys and gear inside.....well we are going along hear the loud booms of the ice cracking and I didn't like the situation so I had them stop and my buddy goes over to a lone house about half way accross the lake to where we want to go and as he approaches the guy opens his door and says we have about 8 inches of ice!!! My buddy looked in his hole and said turn the truck around and get off the lake very slowly....after we get on shore (luckily) he says there was maybe 4-6 inches of ice where that guy said 8!!! needless to say we left the truck on shore and thanked our lucky stars that nothing happened......and sure enough when we measured there was anywhere from 4-7 inches of ice to be found......I still can't believe we didn't break through!!!!

the lesson that was learned is to always check the ice before you drive on it!!!!!

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Alright so here's mine...also out on Mille Lacs.

About 3-4 years ago, had our perm out by spirit island, buddy and myself were staying Sunday-Tuesday, if you've been out there during the week, you know how many people are out there...NONE! haha As we go to leave Tuesday (during a white out pretty much) driving down the plowed road we reach up to a crack thats about 1' to 1 1/2' wide. So we started drivin off road to hopefully find a spot we could drive over in my trailblazer. Sure enough...crack went as far as we could see in both directions. So us being scared $hitless. Went back to the house tried calling Wilderness cause they were their plowed roads and that's where we were going out of, and he told me to go for it. So we got a little liquid courage in both of us and we took off for the crack...lucky enough ice close up a little bit when we got back so it was a little under a foot wide now...dropped the front tires in and hammered the gas to pop over. Scariest time I've been on the lake I think, but we made it.

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