02-04-2004, 08:11 PM
Not trying to scare anyone, just thouhgt I'd share a few stories I've found on "Ice Horror Stories". Does anyone have a story to add?
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Subject: The edge of the crack
About ten years ago, when the perch fishing was still spectacular on the bay of Green Bay, two friends and I had ventured out about four miles off of the east shore. There was roughly two feet of ice and a well-worn road, so we felt safe. Suddenly I noticed a Jeep on the road in front of us that didn't look right. We stopped our truck and walked up to take a look. A large crack had opened and there was a gap of about two feet of open water. The Jeep had not seen this in time and had dropped his front wheels into the water. There was no one around so we assumed the driver had gone for help.
We were very near where we intended to fish, so we set up about forty yards from the crack. We gathered some old pails, chunks of wood, etc. and lined them across across the road as a warning to other vehicles. As we were preparing to fish, I looked over my sholder to see a truck just rounding the barricade and heading toward the crack. We yelled, but to no avail. The driver pulled right up to the edge of the crack to "see what was going on" as he told us later. He and his two passengers were just getting out of the truck when the ice beneath it began to crack. They jumped clear, a semi-circular crack developed all the way around the truck, the truck began to tilt on the floe, and it got really wierd after that.
The truck began to slide forward on the floe, the front end hit the water, it continued to slide, then suddenly tipped to a straight up-and-down position, and headed straight to the bottom.
This was a brand-new Ford super-cab four wheel drive truck that didn't yet have permanant plates. It belonged to the driver's father. The driver was about nineteen and soon had the dry-heaves as he apparently didn't have dad's permission to have the truck. His buddies were also shaking in their boots and I suspect that there were some damp pants in the group.
Gear continued to float to the surface for several minutes and some of it was recovered.
The tow service charged $4,200 to recover the truck from the forty-plus feet of water, and, I reckon, Sonny had some explaining to do when he got home.
All to get a better look at open water.
Gary Hanson
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Subject: trusting fisherman
dear shanty
Not sure if this qualifies as a bad ice story but ill tell it anyway. I moved away from Michigan to the south (where there isn't any ice) for about 9 years but finally came to my senses and moved back. The first summer back i built a monster shanty that tim taylor himself would have been proud of. When the ice finally got what i thought was thick enough i loaded up my castle and went to the hard water. When i arrived at the lake there were about a dozen other fisherman out so i approached one of them and got talking to him to see how everything was going and to find out how much ice was there, due to the fact i had to drive my shanty out with my pickup.
The fisherman told me that there was about 10 - 12 inches of ice so i figured that there was plenty of ice. I drove out and placed my shanty right where i wanted it and returned my truck to dry land. When i returned back to the shanty my brother-inlaw had a strange look on his face. After he got his color back i realized that he was pale because there was only about 4 inches of ice that i just drove out onto like bekins house moving. The lessons that i learned that day was to always check the ice yourself and that if a crowd gathers while your driving on the ice there is probably going to be something bad happening.
yours truly
Vin Man
Subject: Bad Ice Story
Just discovered your website, nice to see other people as infected with the bug as I. Here's my story My buddy and I fish the Red River north of Selkirk for big walleye and pike (and ugly old Mariah) and one day early in Dec 1999, we were fishing away when a guy started yelling his truck, a new Dodge 4x4 was sinking thru the ice. The truck had been sitting there for a couple hours and there was lots of ice, so we thought he was loaded or something, turns out he dropped a front wheel thru a hole and the truck was stuck...nothing wrong with that you say?
Well thats what we thought too... this guy, he calls a tow truck which when he arrives sends out his winch cable to the guy's truck and hooks it to the towhooks on the front of the frame... the tow truck starts to winch the truck out, but instead of popping the wheel out of the hole, it breaks the ice even more , enough that the whole truck goes in!!! All you could see was the tip of the tailgate sticking out of the water, and the truck was still @75 feet from shore, with the ice solid right up to the shore. So anyway it took several people with chain saws to cut all that ice and haul it out of the water so the tow truck, which was still attached to the Dodge, could finally get it out of the water...So I dont drive on the river now unless there is at least 14" of ice and I have drilled some holes myself to make sure. Any way that is one of my horror stories, I got two more good ones for later Tanks alot tight lines
Scooter [/url][/font]
[signature]
[font "Helvetica, Arial"]
Subject: The edge of the crack
About ten years ago, when the perch fishing was still spectacular on the bay of Green Bay, two friends and I had ventured out about four miles off of the east shore. There was roughly two feet of ice and a well-worn road, so we felt safe. Suddenly I noticed a Jeep on the road in front of us that didn't look right. We stopped our truck and walked up to take a look. A large crack had opened and there was a gap of about two feet of open water. The Jeep had not seen this in time and had dropped his front wheels into the water. There was no one around so we assumed the driver had gone for help.
We were very near where we intended to fish, so we set up about forty yards from the crack. We gathered some old pails, chunks of wood, etc. and lined them across across the road as a warning to other vehicles. As we were preparing to fish, I looked over my sholder to see a truck just rounding the barricade and heading toward the crack. We yelled, but to no avail. The driver pulled right up to the edge of the crack to "see what was going on" as he told us later. He and his two passengers were just getting out of the truck when the ice beneath it began to crack. They jumped clear, a semi-circular crack developed all the way around the truck, the truck began to tilt on the floe, and it got really wierd after that.
The truck began to slide forward on the floe, the front end hit the water, it continued to slide, then suddenly tipped to a straight up-and-down position, and headed straight to the bottom.
This was a brand-new Ford super-cab four wheel drive truck that didn't yet have permanant plates. It belonged to the driver's father. The driver was about nineteen and soon had the dry-heaves as he apparently didn't have dad's permission to have the truck. His buddies were also shaking in their boots and I suspect that there were some damp pants in the group.
Gear continued to float to the surface for several minutes and some of it was recovered.
The tow service charged $4,200 to recover the truck from the forty-plus feet of water, and, I reckon, Sonny had some explaining to do when he got home.
All to get a better look at open water.
Gary Hanson
[/url]
Subject: trusting fisherman
dear shanty
Not sure if this qualifies as a bad ice story but ill tell it anyway. I moved away from Michigan to the south (where there isn't any ice) for about 9 years but finally came to my senses and moved back. The first summer back i built a monster shanty that tim taylor himself would have been proud of. When the ice finally got what i thought was thick enough i loaded up my castle and went to the hard water. When i arrived at the lake there were about a dozen other fisherman out so i approached one of them and got talking to him to see how everything was going and to find out how much ice was there, due to the fact i had to drive my shanty out with my pickup.
The fisherman told me that there was about 10 - 12 inches of ice so i figured that there was plenty of ice. I drove out and placed my shanty right where i wanted it and returned my truck to dry land. When i returned back to the shanty my brother-inlaw had a strange look on his face. After he got his color back i realized that he was pale because there was only about 4 inches of ice that i just drove out onto like bekins house moving. The lessons that i learned that day was to always check the ice yourself and that if a crowd gathers while your driving on the ice there is probably going to be something bad happening.
yours truly
Vin Man
Subject: Bad Ice Story
Just discovered your website, nice to see other people as infected with the bug as I. Here's my story My buddy and I fish the Red River north of Selkirk for big walleye and pike (and ugly old Mariah) and one day early in Dec 1999, we were fishing away when a guy started yelling his truck, a new Dodge 4x4 was sinking thru the ice. The truck had been sitting there for a couple hours and there was lots of ice, so we thought he was loaded or something, turns out he dropped a front wheel thru a hole and the truck was stuck...nothing wrong with that you say?
Well thats what we thought too... this guy, he calls a tow truck which when he arrives sends out his winch cable to the guy's truck and hooks it to the towhooks on the front of the frame... the tow truck starts to winch the truck out, but instead of popping the wheel out of the hole, it breaks the ice even more , enough that the whole truck goes in!!! All you could see was the tip of the tailgate sticking out of the water, and the truck was still @75 feet from shore, with the ice solid right up to the shore. So anyway it took several people with chain saws to cut all that ice and haul it out of the water so the tow truck, which was still attached to the Dodge, could finally get it out of the water...So I dont drive on the river now unless there is at least 14" of ice and I have drilled some holes myself to make sure. Any way that is one of my horror stories, I got two more good ones for later Tanks alot tight lines
Scooter [/url][/font]
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