Just got out of the slush!

[kenlaker]

Well, life has kept me busy lately, so I haven't had a chance to fish much the last couple of weeks, even though I live on a small Northern MN lake. Most years, if I can get through the slush in front of my house (I'm on the SE side of the lake, and the snow gets deeper due to wind drifting)I find it easy going once I'm a hundred yards out.

Not today.

I left my gear at home (smart move) and was going to take a ride across the lake to make sure I could get to the spot I wanted to start out, got about 400 yds out and just dropped through the crust and into the slush on my wheeler. I worked it back and forth for a while and was able to get about 25yds, but could finally get nowhere, as I kept getting hung up due to the fact that I had my 5' plow still on my wheeler(dumb move)!

After over an hour of being stuck, I finally got out of that mess, with help from my daughter on 1 wheeler, and a neighbor on another, some long straps, winches, etc.

To add insult to injury, and I do mean injury, my back is killing me, about 30 mins. after I got off the lake, someone else came on from the other side and went straight to the spot I was going to go to. Tomorrow I'll have to check out different access to get over there, as of right now, it's eating me up!

[Deitz Dittrich]

Yep, tough winter for sure.. that snow(which just keeps falling) keeps adding up and adds more and more weight to the ice... Very tough for walking, but even tougher on a wheeler.. them guys with sleds have to be laughing this year!

[fisherking01]

sleds are the way to go right now. I wouldn't consider trying my 4 wheeler just because of what you dealt with. Yesterday I pulled a minivan out of a slush hole. Feller said "I've never done anything like this before", I assured him I'd been in that position hundreds of times and not to get so discouraged as to quit fishing. It was their first outing of ice fishing. I pointed them to a spot where they could fish more wory free and catch something. Hope it went better for them after that. Hope your back didn't get too messed up, would be hateful to miss ice fishing because of a hasty trip! Be careful and good fishing, Brent

[kenlaker]

Thanks, Brent. The back will be fine, just going to be a little stiff tomorrow. The thing is, now I find myself hoping for a week or so of sub-zero temps to stiffen up the lake, otherwise it's going to be tough as I don't have a snowmobile. I'm pretty sure this would have been the day I caught 25-30 crappies in the 16-17" range in a matter of an hour or so, but that's the way it goes I guess!