Remaining
Safe on the Ice
This is an article about being
safe when on the ice. I’ve fished through the ice
on Saginaw Bay for almost 20 years; my father has
fished the bay for almost 50. I’ve learned most of
what I know about staying safe from him. Most of
the information contained in this article is
pertinent to Saginaw Bay, but could easily be
applied to many other bodies of water. I’m NOT
going to present the common views that are prevalent
in our society that ‘no ice is safe’, as I know
otherwise and also realize that you probably know
otherwise. (Sometimes, being on the ice is safer
than walking down the sidewalk.) How you behave on
the ice is more important than how thick it is.
Also, I’ve found that warnings telling people to
stay off the ice because it’s ‘unsafe’ serve the
purpose of making people ignore all of them, as
warnings of this sort are issued all winter long.
I’ve gone out when warnings have been issued more
times than not and have never needed assistance; I
have rarely fallen in and have never gone for a ride
on an ice floe. This article is by no means a
complete guide to being safe on the ice, but I hope
it helps educate people about things they hadn’t
previously considered or thought about. Following
these guidelines should help prevent incidents where
people need help. In this article, I’m going to
present some of the information I’ve learned over
the years with examples of real situations I’ve been
in. I hope you find it useful and that it helps
keep you safe during this and future ice fishing
seasons.
Legal Stuff
The suggestions contained
within this article are just that- suggestions.
I’ve found they work, as evidenced by the short
stories interspersed throughout. I nor this
website, accept no responsibility for what happens
to you on the ice, whether as a result of this
article or not. You are *never* completely safe no
matter where you are and no article can make it so.
Factors Affecting Ice
Strength
Current
One time, I stepped in
somebody’s old fishing hole that had skimmed over
with ice, then snow had blown over it. This was at
the mouth of the Saginaw River and I went in up to
the middle of my thigh. Even with my foot only
being a few feet under the surface of the ice, I
could feel the current tugging on my leg. If I had
fallen through due to the ice being too thin, my
entire body would have been submerged and I would
have been swept out underneath the ice into the bay
before I could do anything. Thankfully, the ice was
about five inches thick and I had just stepped in a
fishing hole, so I was able to catch myself from
dropping the rest of the way in.
I’ve watched
people fishing on one and a half inches of ice in 25
feet of water on the Saginaw River. The current
took a one and a half ounce jigging spoon down at a
60 degree angle where I was fishing (where there was
more ice). This illustrates another bad effect of
current on the ice. Current will chew away at the
bottom of the ice, thinning and weakening it. It
causes the ice to not have a uniform thickness. In
the example at the beginning of this paragraph, I
was fishing only fifteen feet away from another
person. I had a good four inches of ice, but he had
under two. Current is not the only thing that can
cause uneven ice to form though.
Wind
Wind can also affect the ice.
I’ll discuss staying safe in the wind later, but
it’s possible for wind to cause extremely uneven
ice. I was out fishing off Pinconning this past
year when there were terrible wind storms. The ice
varied from six inches to one half inch. There were
even some spots around that had open water. The
wind had blown the ice around, breaking it up.
Different chunks floated in, some on top of another,
then the whole mess had frozen. Where two or more
chunks were on top of each other when it re-froze,
the ice was thick. Where there were gaps between
the chunks when it re-froze, there was very little
if any ice. Walking in and out was fun, as you had
to zig-zag around where the gaps were, staying on
the good ice. I had one foot drop through, but
caught myself before I went in past the middle of my
boot.
My father told me of one time
that he was fishing off AuGres many years ago. They
hammered the perch one day under sixteen inches of
ice one mile out. Naturally, since the ice was so
thick, people were driving their cars out on the
ice. The next day, another fisherman who had heard
about the fish biting started driving out on the ice
with his pick-up truck. Unbeknownst to anybody at
the time, the wind had broken the ice off and blown
it out, then the open water had skimmed over. To
make matters worse, it had snowed about an inch
later that night, so the bay was a sheet of white,
making the edge of the good ice undecipherable from
that of the thin. He drove right off the edge into
six feet of water.
Plants
Believe it or not, plants do
produce heat from their transformation of minerals
and sunlight into energy for growth. Also, organic
matter undergoing decay generates heat. These
factors make areas where there are weed beds much
weaker than areas where there are none. When you
walk through a marsh especially, be very careful.
The plants weaken the ice substantially and when
there is a high concentration of plants in an area,
the ice will be much weaker than it otherwise would
be.
Timing
First ice is
generally very hard and strong. This is the type of
ice that is more likely to support you when it’s
thin. Toward the end of the season, the ice becomes
soft and rotten. A foot of ice may not be enough to
hold a person at this time of year. My father has
told me of a time he was fishing on two feet of
ice. However, on every step, his foot would sink in
between eight and ten inches! The top of the ice
had rotted from the sun, warm weather, and the water
laying on top, but the ice underneath was still
solid enough to support him.
I haven’t fished much on last
ice, so I can’t offer much in the way of advice
other than to avoid the assumption that, since
there’s a lot of ice, it must be safe.
Other Factors
There are many other factors
that affect how strong the ice is. Natural springs
will affect the ice adversely, as there will be
water of a warmer temperature flowing in at the
location of the spring. This will weaken the ice
from underneath.
Just outside Bay City, there
are the hot ponds for Consumer’s Power. This is
basically a warm water discharge; Consumer’s Power
sucks water in from the Saginaw River near the
mouth, uses it to cool their turbines, then spews it
out into Saginaw Bay. The ice to the east generally
forms late and is softer and weaker than that to the
north. The quality of the ice is affected over five
miles away. I’m sure other companies have similar
discharges that will affect ice formation.
Snow can have an adverse affect
on the pace of ice formation and the strength of the
ice formed. Snow has great insulating properties,
meaning that the cold air might not be reaching
actual water if there’s a thick enough layer of snow
on top.
Tankers, barges, and ice
breakers are also a serious hazard when on the ice.
The ice miles away is disturbed when these large
boats come through. In the first part of 2002, a
man died on Tawas Bay because he was out fishing
when a barge came in. The ice broke up around him
and he was unable to make it back to shore. They
found his body in fifteen feet of water a few days
later. In my opinion, breaking up the ice manually
for the purpose of shipping should not be allowed.
I’ve been fishing a mile off Linwood when a tanker
came through the shipping channel of the bay several
miles away and could feel the ice shaking where I
was. A couple of days later, some people went for a
ride because the ice broke off and floated away. If
the ice hadn’t been broken up by the breaker, there
would have been nowhere for it to float to, as the
bay was completely covered with ice at the time.
Rivers and streams when
entering a larger body of water will also cause weak
ice. Spots where the body of water is slightly
deeper than the surrounding water can also cause the
ice to be slower to form and weaker. In short,
anything out of the ordinary can affect how strong
the ice is at any given location.
Making Holes- Spuds VS
Augers
Call me old
fashioned, but I use a spud exclusively. I find a
spud easier to carry and use it as a walking staff
on the way out. An auger, especially a power auger,
is more off balance and a pain to haul out. (I don't
have a 4-wheeler or snow machine.) Note that I’ll
be discussing some of the common misconceptions
about spuds and their effect on fishing in this
section as well, in order to dispel fears that some
of you may have.
The primary advantage of using
a spud in terms of ice safety is that you can use it
as a walking staff and you can test the ice with
almost no effort. You’re already setting the spud
down on the ice with each step; just let it fall
harder. Learn how hard your particular spud falls-
each has a different weight. Get to know how hard
you can drop it and not have it break through the
ice without your being in danger of falling in. I
have been fishing in the dead of winter when the
warmest day for the prior weeks was twenty degrees
and was walking around when the spud popped right
through. If I had been using an auger, I probably
wouldn’t have known about the thin ice until either
I broke through or I went to make a hole. There was
about an inch and a half and two inches of ice- the
current had eaten away at the bottom. Further, the
ice wasn’t hard as it was covered with a layer of
snow.
Many people say that the
chopping noise from a spud scares the fish. I’ve
been out several times when I would chop a hole and
before I could get both lines in the water, I’d be
catching perch. This has happened in as little as
two feet of water. One time in particular, my
father and I were out and he had found a school of
perch in a little over two feet of water. I carried
my ice sled over and made a hole about ten feet
away. He never quit catching fish and I started
catching them as soon as my line dropped through the
hole. The key is to make your hole quickly; start
it and get done as fast as you can. In extremely
shallow water, under 8 inches, the fish are affected
more by the noise. However, when fishing this
shallow, I doubt that an auger wouldn’t scare the
fish.
One of the biggest advantages
of spuds is that you can make the hole in any shape
you want, whereas with an auger, you’re restricted
to making round holes with straight sides. Unless
I’m fishing in deep water, I usually make a single
oblong hole. This way, I can fish with both lines
and not expend the extra energy for another hole.
I’m also done faster. The biggest advantage to this
though is the ability to taper your hole. When
fishing in water up to five feet deep, I use
barb-less hooks. This allows me to get the fish out
of the water, bounce it on the ice, and get my line
right back down in the hole; the fish is knocked off
by hitting the ice. Most of the time, as soon as
the upward pressure is off, the fish is off. If the
fish hits the bottom edge of the ice around your
hole with the sides being straight, it will most
likely come off. However, if you flare the bottom
of the hole, the fish will follow the ice up and you
can put it on the ice. If I come upon an abandoned
auger hole, even if I see fish in the water, I’ll
flare the bottom. Otherwise, I tend to lose a
significant percentage of the fish I hook. Another
thing that happens quite a bit if you use two hooks
is that the top hook will get hooked on the bottom
of the ice; if the fish is on the bottom hook, you
might have time to wave goodbye.
First Ice
I’ve pushed the limits of what
is considered ‘safe’ ice for almost my entire life
and have never had a problem I couldn’t remedy
myself. Several times, when I’ve been going out
fishing on first ice, I would see somebody drive up
to the end of the road, look around, shake their
head, and leave. I’ve fished less than one inch of
ice, but the water was only waist deep and there was
no current. (Between two of us, we brought home 144
large perch from just under three hours of fishing.
This was before the limit of fifty each was
imposed.) If you happened to stop while walking,
you’d soon be surrounded by a puddle. Two people
couldn’t get closer than ten to twelve feet apart
without a lot of water coming up on the ice. By the
time the ice thickened up, the fish had moved out
deeper and scattered.
Fishing on first ice can be a
wonderful, almost magical experience, with the ice
looking like a sheet of glass and fish willing to
take anything you show them. I’ve actually watched
schools of perch swimming around under clear ice
while walking out to a fishing spot. Please
remember, however, that no fish is worth your life.
It’s best to know the water where you’re fishing
extremely well when fishing on first ice, or go with
somebody who knows the water extremely well. I
usually go to places I’ve gone previously. This
way, I know what the current is like, what the
bottom looks like, how well the ice freezes in the
area, and so forth. Be extremely cautious when
fishing in deep water, water with current, or in
water where something adversely affects the quality
of the ice.
If You Do Break Through the
Ice
First and most importantly- do
NOT panic. This is much easier said than done.
However, when you panic, your brain stops thinking
and your actions revert to those of instinct. First
instincts are seldom the best response to a problem,
on the ice or not.
Preparation before the trip is
the single most important factor in a situation like
this. Wear many layers of clothes. The layers
closest to your body should be made out of wool.
This is because wool will retain it’s insulating
properties, even when wet. The outer layer should
be something that is somewhat water repellant. The
reason for this is two-fold. First, if it starts to
rain or snow while you’re out, you’ll be much more
comfortable if you stay relatively dry. Second, if
you get dunked, your body will warm the water that’s
trapped in the layers beneath to a certain extent,
extending your survival time. (This is very much
like if you get water in your waders in cold
weather. If you take your waders off and run back
to your vehicle, you’ll freeze your unmentionables
off. If you go slow and steady with your waders
full of water, your body heat will warm it somewhat,
which makes it less likely hypothermia will set
in.) What you do during the first few seconds as
you’re starting to break through, is the second most
crucial factor.
As you start to
break through, try to shift your weight onto your
other foot, provided it is on solid ice. For
example, if the ice is uneven, there may be enough
ice to support you for a short period of time under
your other foot. Also, as described above, you may
have stepped in somebody’s old hole. If the ice is
thin everywhere, what should be done next depends on
what type of water you’re in. It is important
though that no matter what type of water you’re in,
after you make it out of the water (if you don’t,
you probably won’t care for long), do NOT stand up
right away. You’re already wet, and if the ice
surrounding the area where you fell in is thin, you
have a good chance of dropping through again.
Rather, slither across the ice until you’re a
distance away from the hole you made. The purpose
of this is to spread your weight over a larger area
so that the ice has a better chance of supporting
it.
Calm, Shallow Water
As you start to fall, try to
remain upright as you fall. If your upper body
remains dry, you have a much better chance of
resisting the cold until you can make it back to
your vehicle. Simply climb back up onto the ice
(which I admit can be a lot more difficult than one
would first think) and get to your vehicle as fast
as you can. Your vehicle shouldn’t be a long way
off if you’re in shallow water. If you’re in a
situation where you can’t get to your vehicle
relatively soon, you might want to consider stopping
by a shanty or house to get temporary shelter.
Hypothermia and death can set in rapidly when you’re
wet and outside in cold weather. Thankfully, this
is the only scenario in which I’ve ever fallen
through the ice.
Calm, Deep Water
If you are in deep, calm water
when you fall in, you are in a much more serious
situation. Try to fall so your body hits the ice
horizontally, as if you were going to lay down on
it. Try to lean forward as you fall, so you can see
exactly where the ice is and control how you hit to
some extent. Falling backwards is a good way to
knock yourself out on the ice, as you only have a
rough idea where the ice is. (You were standing on
it, but are unable to see it if you are falling
backwards.) Also, as you fall but before you hit
the ice, try to turn your spud horizontal (parallel
to the ice), but perpendicular to the direction your
body will be. (Your body and the spud will form a
cross shape as viewed from above.) The spud will
hopefully extend out far enough away from the hole
you just made to catch on the edges and prevent you
from going through entirely and losing where your
hole is. When you fall onto the ice, you will get
wet, but you will also tend to stay on top of the
ice. Remaining able to get out of the water is more
important at this point than worrying about how cold
and wet you’ll be on the walk back. (This is a
factor, but if you never make it out of the water,
it’s not a big one.)
If you are out with a partner,
have him throw you a rope or other device that can
be used to pull you out of the water. Climbing out
of a hole in deep water is extremely difficult, as
you have nothing to push against with your feet
There are commercial products available that you can
also make yourself with relative ease that will aid
you in climbing out. These resemble a pair of ice
picks attached to a rope, which is then attached to
your body. You can use these to gain traction on
the ice and help pull yourself out.
Deep Water
with a Current
The worst of the three is when
you fall into water with a significant current.
This is because the current will tend to move you
downstream. Also dangerous is the fact that the
current isn’t visible from the surface, as there’s a
sheet of ice on top of the water. In summer, you
can wade a river or stream and instantly identify
the locations that have the strongest current, but
this isn’t possible when ice fishing. If you are
fishing a river where there is current and you
suspect the ice might be thin, either stay off the
ice or test the ice every step with your spud.
When breaking through, your
first priority should be to keep the location of
your hole. The best way to do this obviously is to
keep part of your body above the ice. If you know
the ice is weak, you can tie a rope around yourself
and again to a fixture on shore beforehand so you
have something to pull yourself out with. I can’t
offer much more advice on this, as I’m uncomfortable
about ice fishing on waters with current and have
never broken through on such waters.
Going for a Ride
Even though this isn’t strictly
breaking through the ice, this is something that
happens several times each year, so I’ve included
this in this section. I’ve never gone for a ride
personally, but I know people who have. This often
happens in the first part of the year, when the bay
isn’t frozen all the way across. Wind is usually
the cause of these massive ice floes breaking off
and floating out, but other factors can play a role
too.
Keep in mind that ice will form
pressure cracks as a normal part of freezing. This
is because water expands as it freezes. (This is
also why ice floats and why any life at all exists
on this planet.) The expansion will press outwards
and the ice will break to relieve the stress built
up over a distance. When ice goes out, it will most
likely leave at one of these cracks instead of break
fresh, as it takes a lot of force to form a crack in
the ice of this magnitude. Think carefully and take
the circumstances into consideration before crossing
any large, open cracks.
When an ice floe gets out into
open water, the waves will tend to break it up by
moving the ice up and down. While ice is strong as
a sheet, it’s also brittle and doesn’t like to flex
too much. Once the ice is broken up into
sufficiently small chunks, it will no longer support
your weight. It is important to get off the moving
ice as soon as you know it’s moving.
A couple of
things can minimize your chances of being caught in
this situation. If there is an east wind, either go
somewhere on the west shoreline or go somewhere on
the east shoreline where an island, peninsula, or
other land mass locks the ice in. When you are able
to see the bottom, you can detect ice movement by
watching the pattern of sand, rocks, and weeds on
the bottom. If you see them change, you’re moving.
Something else along these same lines is to tie a
highly visible weight to a rope and lower it down a
separate hole when you start. You can use this as
something to mark the bottom instead of the patterns
of weeds, etc. Leave a slight amount of slack in
the rope, but let the weight rest right on bottom
with the rope as close to vertical as possible. If
the rope goes taught, either you’re moving or the
weight is. Another similar event is when your
fishing line suddenly starts drifting off to one
side (without a fish moving it).
If you do get back to a crack
and it’s wide open, you have a few options. First,
if the water’s not too deep and you’re not too far
away from your vehicle, you can jump in, walk to the
shore ice, climb up, and continue. I do NOT
recommend this option, as it’s exceedingly cold and
dangerous. The water might be deeper than you
thought, you might trip on something in the water,
you could get hypothermia, etc. The option exists
though. A better alternative is to find a spot
where the crack isn’t open. Much of the time, an
ice floe will simply rotate on a pivot point instead
of blow out to open water. A mile down the shore,
there might not be a crack. I’ve heard tales of
people being convinced that they need rescuing
before searching for a place that the crack isn’t
open. One time in particular, seventeen out of a
couple hundred people were rescued by helicopter;
the rest made it off on their own. This is a call
each person must make for himself though. If I’m
not in immediate danger, I think I would try finding
a way off on my own. However, many people do not
share this opinion. That’s their right and I hold
nothing against them for it. It’s better to lose
all your equipment and any fish you may have caught
than your life.
General Tips
-
Watch for weak spots. Weaker
ice often looks different than strong ice.
-
Carry a spud and test, test,
test.
-
Watch out for weedy areas.
Weeds produce heat and the ice is weaker around
them.
-
Watch the bottom. If it
moves, LEAVE IMMEDIATELY!
-
Use your brain when
evaluating the conditions and decisions. Never
let a desire for fishing incite you to do
something hazardous.
-
Keep your eye on what
direction the wind is from, the speed, the
topography of the area, and the condition of any
cracks you cross.
-
Keep in mind that no number
or size fish is worth your life.
-
Wear wool clothes a few
layers out from your body. It retains it's
insulating properties when wet and, after your
body warms up the water soaked in between your
body and the wool, the water will also insulate
you from the cold.
