Slush on lakes

[jvm1]

How safe are the lakes now? As I was walking on a lake in the north metro I just broke through a layer of snow and fell about a foot and a half into some major slushy stuff last weekend. 10 by 10 area just cracked and down i went nearly giving me a heart attack as I thought i was going under.

Never had that happen before. Is there a way to identify trouble areas? After that fun experience I just walked by the shoreline until I got to the place I wanted to fish.

[Lusid]

smells like an isolated incident.

It's been ridiculously cold...

[morepower02]

Granted I am south of the metro but the last holes I drilled this weekend I measured 28" from bottom to top of the ice not counting the snow on top.

[eurolarva]

I fished Maple Lake for the tourny last saturday. I thought I was going to need an extension for my auger and inspite of it there was a bunch of slush under the ice. I am guessing 10000 holes drilled and a couple thousand trucks and fish houses all lined up in one area did not help. I bet the ice is safe but I would not try and drive on that stuff for fear of getting stuck. not for fear of going under

[ski_otter]

I went through last weekend. I was near shore and it was maybe a little more than knee deep. 20ft away I could barely get my drill through without an extension.

After I fell in, I looked at the area and I should have been able to guess that something wasn't right there, there was an indentation, and discoloration around the edge of the indentation, and it wasn't snow drifts. I must have found a spring.

[pikerliker]

Depends on what part of the state your talking. A buddy at work says his lake in Central MN South of Park Rapids is so bad with slusch that there are snowmobiles that are stuck out on the lake waiting to get rescued.

They had a ton of snow which creates a lot of weight/insulation on top of the ice. That means you have the solid ice with slush/water on top of the ice, with a crust like you fell through on top of the water/slush, with snow on top of that.

Not that your going to fall in and drown but your probably going to get stuck and get wet and that means getting cold!! Not fun.