2009 USDA RESEARCH

Passion can be a scary thing.  Every year you hear about someone or a group of people that need to get rescued from break away ice in Lake Erie or somewhere else in the great lakes.  These rescues are often very controversial.  On one hand you have the thought process that "we all pay taxes, therefore it's the authorities responsibility to help us when we need help".  The other side of the coin is, "Where is the common sense?  If these people are so inclined to put their life at risk to go fishing, then they should have to pay for their mistakes and bad judgment."  The fact is both sides have valid arguments.  As far as the middle of the road crowd goes, when things like this happen most people that partake in outdoors sports like ice fishing just kind of shake their heads when these events hit the news. 

Most of the time the phrase, location, location, location can be the best practice when ice fishing.  There is a term called "3 sided ice" which directly refers to that phrase.  Most of us have witnessed cracks in the ice when we are out on it.  What makes those cracks dangerous is when the ice that has cracked away has room to travel.  Most of the smaller inland lakes, marinas, and harbors get completely iced over in our winters.  In other words the ice spans from shore to shore in all directions.  That is what is known as "4 sided ice".  In that situation, when the ice cracks there is really no room for the cracked ice to travel which prevents the crack from getting much larger.  In the previous scenario with 3 sided ice, there is open water on one side of the ice which allows the travel to take place. This in turn is what causes the issues that we hear about in the news.

Ice thickness really plays no part in these scenarios. Most of the time the wind plays more of a roll then anything else. The ice can be a foot thick and still open up a crack if the wind is coming from the right (or wrong) direction.

  A person can generaly walk on two inches of ice and remain fairly safe but that is not recommended at all.  Ice fishing is not recommended on ice that is less then 4" thick.  Technically, ice that has that 4 inch depth can hold a light truck. Most of you have heard that there was a pond hockey tournament in the small boat harbor this winter.  The ice there was about 12 -14 inches thick and was able to support two full size city snow plows out on it.

There are two different types of ice that need to be recognized as well.  White ice and black ice.  Sometimes black ice is also referred to as blue ice.  The issue with the different types of ice is that one is much safer then the other. White ice is almost always surface ice, or in other words, the ice that you are walking on.  That white ice is the ice that is really not as safe as you might think.  You really can't see the difference unless you are looking at it from within a hole that is drilled through it either.  White ice has many air bubbles and air pockets in it.  It is created by surface snow that has melted and refroze, not from the frozen water that you are fishing in.  The black or blue ice is the actual frozen water below the surface ice.  That ice is much harder and safer then the white ice.  Typically if someone says that there is 12 inches of ice, only about 4 inches of that is safe black ice.  The rest is surface ice or white ice which is much easier to fall through.

All in all and in most cases the saying "a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing" holds true but when it comes to ice fishing, a little knowledge can save your life.  Knowledge along with location can be the key to an enjoyable ice fishing trip for you and your companions.  As far as catching fish......that's a story for another time.    Tight lines.....