Drilling holes on plowed roads...

[Tim O]

Is not a great idea! Pease don't do this when there is alot of snow on the lakes.

Check my post in the Grand Rapids forum for more info.

[hanson]

Tim O

Couldn't agree with you more!!!

There were posts in the BWCA-Duluth forum & Red Lake forum on this similar topic!!!

The plowed road is a road. Period. Not to be confused with a fishing area!!

I hate to say it but so many people have been spoiled by low snowfall winters that they have forgotten, or never experienced, what it takes sometimes to icefish in a 'normal' winter.

[brian6715]

The best is the portable set up in the road, can't beat that!

[barracuda]

I'd sure like to know who drilled the hole and weakened the ice on the side of a road on Winnie so I could send him/her the bill for replacing my bent wheel, flat tire and twisted axle on my new ice house....bum trip for it's virgin voyage to say the least. The worst though? Took a day to get it off the ice....a day meant for fishing that was spent fixin!

[dsludge]

Remember, we check the ice before walking or driving over first ice. Drilled holes on an existing ice road could also reveal sudden thin ice and prevent a serious mishap.

THE ICE IS NEVER SAFE.

Go Fish,

dsludge

[Tim O]

dsludge

The ice is thicker on a plowed road because there is not snow to insulate the ice. Drilling holes on a road forces tons of water up on the ice making the road unuseable and unsafe.

Why would you need to check the thickness when you just drove your full size pickup loaded with gear all the way to the end of the road?

[Willy]

Actually drilling holes on a road is probably the dumbest thing you can do and will undoubtedly [PoorWordUsage] off a bunch of people.

[slick814]

Drilling holes in a road can cause damage to vehicles, trailers, etc., as barracuda's post attests to. Not to mention, it's pretty foolish to even be standing in the road, especially if it's dark, like those guys said it was when they drilled theirs.

Not easy to stop, even at the slower speeds that most of us drive at on the ice.

And then there's the folks that decide it's safe to drive 50 mph on a plowed road. If they were to hit a hole or a person that they couldn't see until it was way too late? I'd hate to see the results...

Not to mention the wake they're creating could cause some major problems with holes in the road...

Tim O - how close to the house were they? I thought that besides just normal unwritten rules, that there's a law on how close you can drill to another person's house...

[prophet]

good topic and well deserved at this time of the year especially,this site produces a great amount of insite

for fisherman of all levels and reminds all of us how

we need to pay attention to the surroundings and not take it

for granted

[swampman]

Plowed roads can have holes in them (escpecially along the edges where the snow weight is the heaviest) without somebody drilling a hole there, dont know if this is the case in barracudas situation or not. Used to run into this when we plowed bait ponds all you need is a crack in the ice or a weak spot for the water to start working through it will usually end up to be a somewhat round hole, had one appear in a road one time that a guy could have fell through. thats why I always hate hitting slush on a lake you never know how large the hole might be where the water is working its way up.

[Hexum]

I think we all agree... well most of us.

Please don't do this!

[dsludge]

I agree that it is inconvenient and may even be dangerous to vehicles and pedestrians to cross over a hole in the road on the ice. I suppose that the holes drilled in the road cause quite an impact which results in big salty globs on the ice road, making it worse yet.

I have never drilled a hole on a plowed road mid-season. I have and will always drill holes out in front of my truck on early and late ice. Have any of you seen a vehicle go through the ice on a lake access road? Keep your eye on the access road by Sailor's World Marina on tonka. Every year someone goes through the ice on lake access roads.

Take a little warmth, a little wind, and a little pressure crack, then add some mass and momentum to get gravity in action.

The ice is never safe, especially combined with auger holes, pressure cracks, salt, water, warmth, wind, and tons of weight moving at high speeds accross plowed roads.

The Devil's Advocate,

dsludge

[Skunked Again]

Do you really drill holes ahead of your truck to determine if the ice is safe? Now that is a great idea. See up here in ND we are so dumb that when we are not certain if the ice is safe, we walk out. Who knew that you could go and drill hundreds of "safety" holes all over the ice to determine its safety. Wait, one more question for me, what do you do when you drill a 6 inch hole in front of your truck?

Hilarious.

[The Grebe]

This just my humble opinion, but why would anyone drill a hole on a plowed road unless they were very inexperienced, very inconsiderate, or very lazy?

If it's a plowed road and others are driving on it, why would you have to drill holes to "Check" it? If one was that paranoid, I would think that maybe they should walk out, or drive an ATV or something?

Most holes I've seen drilled in roads, flood over and cause a mess.

I learned early on that road drilling was a no, no...about the 2nd or 3rd time I went ice fishing on my own as a young man, I cut a hole at the side of a road and I knew right away I had done something wrong!

The water started comming upward out of that hole and it would'nt stop. An old timer came by and read me the riot act, really gave me the "What for" and that ended my association with road holes!

At the time I was certainly inexperienced and probably a little lazy, but I certainly did'nt mean to cause the inconvinence I did...there would be no excuse for me to do it again.

[dsludge]

Q: Do you really drill holes ahead of your truck to determine if the ice is safe?

A: Yes, when I suspect there is less than 8 or 9 inches of good ice and I don't see other vehicles like my HD 3/4 ton plow pick-up out on the lake. For example, three or four years ago I helped my neighbor pull his shack off the ice. The ice was a bit spongy and rotten so I drilled some holes in darker rotten spots to see the ice and its thickness. We took the long way, stayed off 8 inches of rotten ice, parked on 8 inches of decent ice, and loaded up as fast as we could. There was a noticeable sag in the ice under the truck and about 2 inches of water on the ice under the truck as we pulled away.

Q: Wait, one more question for me, what do you do when you drill a 6 inch hole in front of your truck?

A: Walk to shore, get my gear from the truck, load it into the portable, and pull it out to go fishing.

I agree it is ignorant to drill holes in the roads. Roads need holes like fish need bicycles.

dsludge

[icehousebob]

A few years ago, heavy snow had caused the resort on Mille Lacs to change the path of the main road away from our house. We paid the plow driver 20 bucks to plow a road to our house so we could move it. In the time it took us to pack our stuff and hook up the house, some bozo had pulled in and blocked the road and drilled a row of holes down the middle. Not exactly the brightest bulb on the tree.

[dsludge]

Avoid roads with augered holes.

[image]http:/www.strangecosmos.com/content/item/16092.html[/image]

dsludge