Making ICE !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[spearman]

Here I sit in my nice warm house where it is a balmy 68 degrees. Then I look at the tempature outside currently -24 with the wind chill -46 thinking how much ice would that make the 1st week of december when a guy wants it to get cold out to make good ice? Just something one my mind must need to get out to the darkhouse.

[Gordie]

spearman I didnt go out yesterday and today I had to go and found out that in one day with those artic temp my spearhole had 3 inches of ice on it. It will be colder tonight so I 'm going to check it tomarrow and see how much ice was made over night.

[spearman]

Have not been in one of my houses since the 2nd of jan might be time to start over, been to busy keeping the cattle alive and kicking.

[merkman]

Dang.... That block is gonna be heavy Sat morning!!!

I am going to move to the deepest part of the lake on Sat.

[Gordie]

merk you just got me thinking that I am gouing to have to make a ice lift kind of like a boom with a electric winch on it and slides into a receiver hitch I'm going to try and have it done by the GTG

[gregg52]

a smart man told me once...no snow on the ice.. temp zero

should make about an inch over nite (bout 12hrs)

he owned a resort on mille lacs and worked for infisherman

he is a smart guy on things like that

[bassNspear]

Ya there is a ton of ice right now. I have not been out for a few weeks, but i can just about imagine how much ice is out there now. Thank god for ice saw where you can cut it into 4 chunks.

[BehindtheHead]

speaking of ice on the spear hole

how many people have a hole cover for there house?

what kind of differences do you see with ice thickness after a night with no cover and a night with a cover?

i made a cover for my hole this year. i have found that with the cover i have half the ice on my hole the next day. and the ice is softer and almost like it is honey combed.

i just scratch my head every time i try to think of why.

[bassNspear]

for myself, i always use a canvas craft portable fishhouse, so i never leave it on the lake. Elwood and Merkman would be a few guys that would have awnsers for this

[merkman]

i made a cover for my hole this year. i have found that with the cover i have half the ice on my hole the next day. and the ice is softer and almost like it is honey combed.

i just scratch my head every time i try to think of why.

Heat is relative.

Even though the water is cold it is still warmer than the air.

With a cover you are really accomplishing several things.

1)You are holding in the heat from the warmer water underneath.

2)You are limiting the cold air that comes in contact with the ice so it cools slower. (much like getting out of the wind if you are outside)

3)The wood of the cover acts as an insulation so the cold has to make it though the thickness of the wood before it can start cooling the water to make ice.

I hope that makes sense.

[Fish Toys]

Merkman is right. One other thing with a cover if there are muskrats in the area you won’t have the house filled up with weeds and smell for the rest of the season. They’ll only fill it up under the cover.

[glenn57]

yep, cant disagree with what merkman and fihtoys said. my wife has a cover to here, i dont so when a clean out the holes on the second day it is very noticable. and the rat thing peeooow.

[lovetheice]

merkman, sounds like your a professor!!! you are right on though.

[Gordie]

merk said it best and I have notice the samething when covering but I go one set farther I usally leave my live decoy down 2-6 inches below the water but not below the ice the decoy will move around and when its warmer than this past week sometimes all I have to do is skimm the hole. this past week left it in and it still froze 3 inches. plus the decoy lives longer the decoy that I have right now is 17 days old and is still quite lively but pulled it out cause of the artic air and I couldnt get out to the shack the last couple of days.