Plowing roads to get on ice?

[mysnopro]

Do you guys plow your own roads out on the lakes or do you wait for someone else to plow? I spent about 12 hours plowing 36 inches of snow to get 3/4 mile out to my shack!!! This included a large area around shack to.

[leech~~]

Some times you got to do what you got to do. To bad your in Maine. I like a nice free plowed road!

 

p.s here in Minnesota there is like no snow hardly anywhere this year!

Edited February 15, 2017 by leech~~

[Big Dave2]

9 minutes ago, mysnopro said:

 I spent about 12 hours plowing 36 inches of snow to get 3/4 mile out to my shack!!! This included a large area around shack to.

 

12 hours? Sounds like you need to invest in some better plow equipment or find someone you can hire for a reasonable fee.

[mysnopro]

9 hours ago, Big Dave2 said:

 

12 hours? Sounds like you need to invest in some better plow equipment or find someone you can hire for a reasonable fee.

Well you canhave the job! 36 inches of snow and we had 50 mph winds.

[Snowbound]

I go over the snow

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

The key is starting early so you only have to deal with little bits of snow at a time.  For probably the last 15 years, we fish the same lake every year for early ice, so as soon as there is 6" of ice I get the 4 wheeler out and plow a super wide road to some of our early spots to allow it to freeze down.  When you compare it to spots that'll have 6" of snow, the bare ice will build 2-3x's faster.  

 

About 5 years ago we had about 9-10" of ice, and then we got a pile of wet heavy snow, causing some major slush.  It took two of us on the 4 wheeler to get enough weight/traction, but we spent about 8 hours one night plowing all the slush off for the road.  Left behind when we were done was 6"+ of water, but it was -20 or so that night, and 24 hours later it had froze down solid on the road.  It took over a week for everywhere else to freeze, but we had some great fishing while everyone else was dealing with slush.    

[Moon Lake Refuge]

1 hour ago, Lip_Ripper Guy said:

The key is starting early so you only have to deal with little bits of snow at a time.  For probably the last 15 years, we fish the same lake every year for early ice, so as soon as there is 6" of ice I get the 4 wheeler out and plow a super wide road to some of our early spots to allow it to freeze down.  When you compare it to spots that'll have 6" of snow, the bare ice will build 2-3x's faster.  

 

About 5 years ago we had about 9-10" of ice, and then we got a pile of wet heavy snow, causing some major slush.  It took two of us on the 4 wheeler to get enough weight/traction, but we spent about 8 hours one night plowing all the slush off for the road.  Left behind when we were done was 6"+ of water, but it was -20 or so that night, and 24 hours later it had froze down solid on the road.  It took over a week for everywhere else to freeze, but we had some great fishing while everyone else was dealing with slush.    

What lake is that again?? 

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

8 minutes ago, Moon Lake Refuge said:

What lake is that again?? 

 

Calhoun

[lungdeflator]

17 hours ago, mysnopro said:

Do you guys plow your own roads out on the lakes or do you wait for someone else to plow? I spent about 12 hours plowing 36 inches of snow to get 3/4 mile out to my shack!!! This included a large area around shack to.

 

What do you guys catch in Maine?    I'd plow 48" for 24 hours if I could catch some Lobsters!

[Wanderer]

18 hours ago, mysnopro said:

Do you guys plow your own roads out on the lakes or do you wait for someone else to plow? I spent about 12 hours plowing 36 inches of snow to get 3/4 mile out to my shack!!! This included a large area around shack to.

 

The rule of thumb is: If you plow it, they will come.

 

The answer is YES to both sides of your question, depending on who you're talking to.  Some have the resources to do it and some don't.  

 

Those who don't like plowing for others may keep the plow up for a ways to not provide an artery right from the access.  Also, if you do plow starting at the access, you should make sure to knock some turn outs in your berm so people can get off the road at some point rather than dead end at your culd de sac. 

[leech~~]

54 minutes ago, Wanderer said:

 

  Also, if you do plow starting at the access, you should make sure to knock some turn outs in your berm so people can get off the road at some point rather than dead end at your culd de sac.

 

You never ever want to make that mistake up at the Eel Pout with a snowmobile trailer on the back at about 9:00pm at night! Unless you want to get pelted with beer bottles and cans from the big tarp shack at the dead end!!! Just a word!  

Edited February 15, 2017 by leech~~

[JollyJoker]

I use to plow with my 4 wheeler on the lake I live on and made the mistake of plowing only to my house. On the weekends there would be a few portables with there trucks so close to my house I could not get there. So I have learned that you need to also plow branches out to the sides for the others to go on. Now I plow 30 feet away from my house and continue on past a make a big circle that loops back to the road at the end. There are some people that go around that loop 3 or 4 times before they figure out the road goes nowhere. Then I leave my plow up for about 5 feet before I plow to my house. When you plow a road you need to make it 20 feet wide to keep it open from the wind on the south shore.

[Smoker]

Maine got the 36 inches in one snow fall. Not 5 or 6 inches at a time. They really got nailed out there.

[perchking]

Same as the UP of MI if your in the snowbelt.  In my 25 years of driving and ice fishing up there, I can recall once that I could actually drive on the ice with a truck.  It just doesn't happen, way to much snow and way to much slush because of the snow.  It is not uncommon to have 15+ inches of slush in areas that have been fished or have stress cracks and these areas can be hundreds of acres big.  I drilled a hole once and it was like a geyser coming out because of the weight on the ice because of the snow.  

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

2 hours ago, perchking said:

Same as the UP of MI if your in the snowbelt.  In my 25 years of driving and ice fishing up there, I can recall once that I could actually drive on the ice with a truck.  It just doesn't happen, way to much snow and way to much slush because of the snow.  It is not uncommon to have 15+ inches of slush in areas that have been fished or have stress cracks and these areas can be hundreds of acres big.  I drilled a hole once and it was like a geyser coming out because of the weight on the ice because of the snow.  

That's crazy!!  Makes sense, but I've never actually heard anything about it.  

[leech~~]

2 hours ago, perchking said:

Same as the UP of MI if your in the snowbelt.  In my 25 years of driving and ice fishing up there, I can recall once that I could actually drive on the ice with a truck.  It just doesn't happen, way to much snow and way to much slush because of the snow.  It is not uncommon to have 15+ inches of slush in areas that have been fished or have stress cracks and these areas can be hundreds of acres big.  I drilled a hole once and it was like a geyser coming out because of the weight on the ice because of the snow.  

 

But, flip side. Great for Snowmobiling!!

[Wanderer]

5 hours ago, Smoker said:

Maine got the 36 inches in one snow fall. Not 5 or 6 inches at a time. They really got nailed out there.

 

Wow, that's huge!

 

We had a blast like that a few years ago, late season.  Lots of people struggled to get to their houses just to get them OFF the lakes.

[perchking]

3 hours ago, leech~~ said:

 

But, flip side. Great for Snowmobiling!!

Yes that it is, but I am not a snowmobiler.  I have them, but they only go to the ice shack and back:)

 

 

[ZachD]

Here is what my buddy started and it seems to work pretty well he will plow a turn and go a bit of a way away from his spot and have a shoot or two coming off of that. Then he will come back and on the other side of the turn lift his plow for a bit then start his road going the other way from the turn. he will also plow the road past his house so if people do choose to go on his real road they can go past his house and set up.

 

I think most people are sheep and just follow the nice road and not go off of it or don't see the other road. Then if they do go on the other road I think most people think that if they keep going the end of the road must be where to go.