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Ice fishing sled for on open water?


NCLaker

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Seeing as so many of you ice fishing guys are totally obsessed with getting in your portable ice shacks asap wink... has anyone ever tried floating a portable sled in the water?

Not that I would ever do it, but with most guys boats in winter storage, I would not put it past some of you guys trying to use your portable sleds as a make shift fishing boat - using your ice fishing equipment for fishing out if it of coarse grin. Larger Otter sleds may work the best since no hardware is required to pull off the canvas.

No need for the auger, but ice rod combos in hand, heater cranked up in the sled and the ice transducer hanging over the side ... just might work, Arctic Armor floating suit might come in handy if you have one ... LOL

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Are you sure your not addicted to icefishing? Sounds like you might of planned this one out already...

I couldnt try this as my portable is about, wow over 6 years old and has holes in the bottom of the sled. I woudlnt stay floating too well.

but, i have thought about if my portable would float, with all my junk and me in it. The other reason i have thought about it is that Hovermn has a Hovercraft and we have thought about trying to hit some backwater area's and pulling a portable out there, as long as it didnt tip over and get lost in the river....

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'least there's still a life of Deitz smile

I guess it wouldn't be too hard to determin if it would float with a person. Figure out the volume in cu ft of the sled. Multiply that by 62.4 lbs(water/cu ft). That'll give you it's maximum displacement, ie: capacity.

It's just that simple grin hehe

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Dietz - that is a crazy story.

I am pretty clear on what is considered safe early ice. But I don't recall hearing how to determine if late ice is safe or not. Once the ice receeds from shore a few feet I basically stay off it.

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Deitz, that's one scary story! Oh, and falling through was pretty scary, too! Hey, at least you're here to "laugh" about it.

My HS science teacher used to tell of her father falling through. He was around 70 at the time, and was heading back in after a long day on the ice. A couple hundred yards from shore he found some bad ice and fell through. Luckly it was shallow enough to keep his head above water, but the ice was so bad, he couldn't get back up. Every time he tried, it would just break under him. For those couple hundred yards, he repeated the process until he made it to shore, where he got in his truck and drove 20 or so miles home, in shock, of course. When he arrived, he was basically unable to get himself out of the car, and unable to tell his wife what had happened. Afterwards, he said that he didn't remember the drive at all. It's just amazing that he survived both going through, and the drive.

Pretty scary stuff! I suppose I could take this time to repeat what I'm sure will be said many more times this season. Lets all stay safe out there! After all, if you guys parish, how will I fulfill my FM addiction! grin

The lastest I've ever been out was just insane! I took the hovercraft up to Ely for a last ice fishing trip. It was literally about 1 week before the lakes opened up, and the ice was a deep shade of blue or purple (color blind :-). I'd take the hover out onto the lake and watch the ice, which was nothing more than high density slush at the time, create a wake behind me. When it came time to drill, the power auger didn't cut, it screwed its way through. Really no hole, just corkscrewed in. Made it a little hard to pull back out. If I pulled hard on the auger, it would just rip back through the ice, creating the hole.

After a few minutes, I heard the sound of thousands of crystals stressing and breaking, and found the ice start to bow from the weight of the machine, creating a big bowl. Eventually, water started flowing up through the hole, and I found myself firing up the hover and heading back.

Stress cracks were cool. They were a few feet across and you could see the ice dip down as I crossed them. At one point, I did a 360 and dropped onto the ice a little too hard. What I saw I'll never forget. Think of a drop of water in a glass, how it ripples out in all directions. That's what the ice did. Definitely one of the coolest things I've ever seen.

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Deitz, that's one scary story! Oh, and falling through was pretty scary, too! Hey, at least you're here to "laugh" about it.

My HS science teacher used to tell of her father falling through. He was around 70 at the time, and was heading back in after a long day on the ice. A couple hundred yards from shore he found some bad ice and fell through. Luckly it was shallow enough to keep his head above water, but the ice was so bad, he couldn't get back up. Every time he tried, it would just break under him. For those couple hundred yards, he repeated the process until he made it to shore, where he got in his truck and drove 20 or so miles home, in shock, of course. When he arrived, he was basically unable to get himself out of the car, and unable to tell his wife what had happened. Afterwards, he said that he didn't remember the drive at all. It's just amazing that he survived both going through, and the drive.

Pretty scary stuff! I suppose I could take this time to repeat what I'm sure will be said many more times this season. Lets all stay safe out there! After all, if you guys parish, how will I fulfill my FM addiction! grin

The lastest I've ever been out was just insane! I took the hovercraft up to Ely for a last ice fishing trip. It was literally about 1 week before the lakes opened up, and the ice was a deep shade of blue or purple (color blind :-). I'd take the hover out onto the lake and watch the ice, which was nothing more than high density slush at the time, create a wake behind me. When it came time to drill, the power auger didn't cut, it screwed its way through. Really no hole, just corkscrewed in. Made it a little hard to pull back out. If I pulled hard on the auger, it would just rip back through the ice, creating the hole.

After a few minutes, I heard the sound of thousands of crystals stressing and breaking, and found the ice start to bow from the weight of the machine, creating a big bowl. Eventually, water started flowing up through the hole, and I found myself firing up the hover and heading back.

Stress cracks were cool. They were a few feet across and you could see the ice dip down as I crossed them. At one point, I did a 360 and dropped onto the ice a little too hard. What I saw I'll never forget. Think of a drop of water in a glass, how it ripples out in all directions. That's what the ice did. Definitely one of the coolest things I've ever seen.

hovercraft. I need one of those.
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